Special Characters and Symbols
On this page, you’ll learn:
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How to add special characters (<, >, &) with AsciiDoc.
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How to add symbols, such as © and ⇒, with AsciiDoc.
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How to use HTML and XML entities with AsciiDoc.
Special character and symbol replacement is built into Asciidoctor.
During conversion, the characters in the table below are replaced with the appropriate character or Unicode entity.
Replacement of special characters and symbols occurs in all inline and block elements except for comments and certain passthroughs.
The three special characters, <, >, and &, are always replaced first.
HTML and XML character entities as well as decimal and hexadecimal Unicode code point references are also recognized and replaced.
For example, to produce the § symbol you can use § (HTML output only), §, or §.
When the document is processed, the replacements substitution will replace the section symbol reference, regardless of whether it is a character entity reference or a numeric character reference, with §.
In turn, § will display as §.
| Name | Syntax | Replacement | Rendered | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Ampersand |
& |
& |
& |
|
Apostrophe, curved |
Sam's |
Sam’s |
Sam’s |
The vertical form apostrophe is replaced with the curved form apostrophe. |
Copyright |
(C) |
© |
© |
|
Ellipses |
... |
… |
… |
|
Em dash |
-- |
— |
— |
Only replaced if between two word characters, between a word character and a line boundary, or flanked by spaces. When flanked by space characters (e.g., |
Greater than |
> |
> |
> |
|
Left double arrow |
<= |
⇐ |
⇐ |
|
Left single arrow |
<- |
← |
← |
|
Less than |
< |
< |
< |
|
Registered |
(R) |
® |
® |
|
Right double arrow |
=> |
⇒ |
⇒ |
|
Right single arrow |
-> |
→ |
→ |
|
Trademark |
(TM) |
™ |
™ |