I'm aware of the ability to use accented characters by holding down a key until they appear (ie. á ü etc.); however, I'm curious as to how, if possible, one might enter a code point in hexadecimal format or otherwise to output the corresponding character?
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1Dori, I see that you closed this as an exact duplicate, when in fact the question is more specific than simply entering symbols, rather my question has to do with the ability to input Unicode characters without the assistance of some other app. For example, the Mac OS allows a user to type ALT + 4-digit-hex if the keyboard is set to "Unicode Hex Input". Would you please reopen it since an answer might address multilingual concerns not limited copy/paste symbols? Thank you!– mkelley33Commented Jan 11, 2011 at 19:12
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@Kyle Cronin: Just out of curiosity, and hopefully to learn something new, what does "ID number" refer to in the title edit, and how is it related to the terminology "code point"? Thanks for reopening!– mkelley33Commented Jan 12, 2011 at 17:48
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@mkelly33 I wasn't sure what it was called - if you think code point is better I can change it– Kyle CroninCommented Jan 12, 2011 at 17:59
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A "code point" aka "code position" are just the technical terms used by unicode.org unicode.org/glossary Basically its the same thing as a unique ID, but specifically integer. The most common encoding I've worked with represents code points in hexidecimal.– mkelley33Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 16:46
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1@Kyle Cronin: Technical terms here might yield a better answer. So would you mind changing the words "by ID" in the question to "using a code point"? You'll see much written about Unicode being misunderstood in the computing world, and I'd like to be careful not to spread any misinformation or introduce ambiguous terminology in an already complex subject! Thank you :)– mkelley33Commented Mar 3, 2011 at 1:30
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5 Answers
UniK - Unicode & navigation Keyboard extension seems to be the closest to a character map and it also functions as a keyboard extension. You actually have to type hexadecimal code points in this app.
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This answer should be the accepted answer! This is exactly what the question was looking for. Would give this answer 10 upvotes if I could Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 15:27
There are applications in the App Store that display all of the characters allowed in the Unicode set that you can copy and paste into other applications like Mail and the like. Searching "unicode" in the App Store brings up a whole slew of them, both free and paid.
There is also Glyphboard (visit with your iOS device) that you can save as a bookmark on your iOS device for an easy interface to some of the more popular ones. This is very lightweight and changes every so often.
answered Jan 10, 2011 at 19:34
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Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm hoping there's a different, perhaps more technical way to natively enter via some keyboard combination a hexadecimal or some such format to output characters in the basic multilingual plane, and perhaps in the Unicode code space beyond. Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 16:50
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Natively—meaning direct iOS support—for the full Unicode set in the keyboard doesn't exist. All solutions will be third party, and given there are so many of them, there is bound to be one that does what you want it to do. Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 19:34
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1Thanks for the comment Phillip. Where is it documented that "full Unicode set in the keyboard doesn't exist"? How did you arrive at this conclusion? Much appreciated! Commented Jan 29, 2011 at 19:38
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1I don't of any publicly available, but in the documentation available to developers there are lists of keyboards available. There are a lot of language-specific keyboards that include characters in the Unicode set, but there is not a keyboard that is simply the Unicode set. Commented Jan 29, 2011 at 22:47
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1I swear I saw this at one point, but I didn't link to it and finding it again is appearing to be a difficult task. Sorry. Commented Jan 30, 2011 at 0:13
I wonder if you ever found a way to enter Unicode characters directly on the ipad?
It's 2017.09 and the closest I've found is the app Unichar. Can't enter (uni)codes directly, but it has 18 unicode pages avaible (in the paid version, 8 in the free version.) Interesting is that it installs as an app that you can open, but also has a keyboard with the same level of features as the app and similar interface
This is as close of an answer as I've found to the same question. It's odd apple resists users' interest for so long.
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1I think it would be hard to convince Apple that any significant number of users needs hex code character entry. Emoji, for example, require entry of 8 characters, which is totally impractical compared to any sort of palette system. Commented Jan 7, 2018 at 14:56
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1@TomGewecke Perhaps, but royroye actually found an app that does what the original question intended. Why did it take until 2015 to create an app that does this needed function? Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 15:30
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1It's 2021: I found this link to a few different apps for ipados, and some or all also work on ios. I bought UniChar a while ago, and use it as an optional keyboard for some special characters and for ⫸decorative text⫷. It offers limited character panels for free use. It does not offer every single character, but has a good selection and two interfaces (stand-alone app, and keyboard). apple.com/us/search/unicode?src=globalnav Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 14:35
I have been looking for similar and the best third party app I've found for arbitrary unicode input is called UnicodeLab.
It allows you to input any unicode in decimal or hex, view it in multiple fonts, and copy it to the clipboard. You can also cycle through neighboring character codes easily.
It is free.
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A very cool app indeed, but I'm seeking a way to input Unicode character using the ALT + 4-digit-hex if the keyboard is set to "Unicode Hex Input". Thank you for the suggestion! Commented Apr 4, 2011 at 1:55
I think IOS don't provide unicode Hex Input because it could impact the performance. East-Asia input consumes CPU/memory 100 times more than Latin input from my experiences.
