How To Type Copyright Symbol

There are different methods for making a copyright symbol on different PCs, operating systems or applications.

Choose from the table of contents to go to the exact section that you are interested in.

How to Add Copyright Symbol on Windows

If you have a numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard, it is easy to type the copyright symbol using the following keyboard shortcut combinations.

The standard way to make © is to use the keyboard shortcut “ALT+0169”. Second and third options may also work, but it won’t work for everyone as it depends on the extended ASCII set used on their system.

  1. While holding down the “ALT” key, type 0169 on the numeric keypad
  2. ALT + 8888 –> Hold down the ALT and type “8888” on the numeric keypad
  3. ALT + 184 –> Hold down the ALT key and type “184”

How to Add Copyright Symbol on a Mac

The shortcut to make © on a mac is to use “Option” and “g” keys.

  1. Press and hold the “Option” Key
  2. Press “g” letter on the keyboard

What If You don’t Have a Numeric Pad on Your Keyboard

This is tricky since there isn’t a simple method that works for every case. I outlined some options below, if this doesn’t work for you, check out the other methods section below.

If you have a “Num Lk-Scr Lk” key on your keyboard, you can use the letter and number combinations as a numeric keypad.

Below is a map of keys for numbers.

“M-J-K-L-U-I-O-7-8-9”
“0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9”

To insert the copyright symbol, you need to press, “MJO9” keys for the copyright alt key “0169”.

  1. Enable Numlock, either pressing the NumLk or “Fn+Scr Lk” for some laptops
  2. Press and hold the ALT (or ALT+fn) key and type “MJ09”

The © symbol should be visible when you release the keys.

Other Methods to Create ©

  1. Copy-Paste Method – Copy the copyright symbol and paste it into any application like Notepad, WordPad or Microsoft Word.
  2. Use Character Map – You can open the character map application, which comes with Windows, to get any special character that you want to type.
  1. Launch Character Map – Type “Character Map” in the Windows search box, and click on the app. (or open “Run” using “Windows+R” keys, and just enter “charmap”, and click the OK button)
  2. Find the copyright symbol from the list, click on it.
  3. Press “Select” and then “Copy” button
  4. Paste it onto your application.Add Copyright Symbol Using Character Map App

How to Insert Copyright Symbol in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word has built-in special character support. There are 3 methods to insert copyright symbol other than the standard keyboard shortcuts that we discussed before.

  1. Use the keyboard shortcut – the copyright symbol is associated with “CTRL+ALT+C” shortcut key.Microsoft Word Copyright Keyboard Shortcut
  2. Use the Auto-Correct feature – Type “(c)” and Microsoft Word automatically turn this into copyright symbol. You must type the chars in order, first “(“, then “c” and finally “)”, to make this work. If you want to change this behavior, select “Symbol”, “More Symbols” and “AutoCorrect” window.Microsoft Word AutoCorrect For Copyright Symbol
  3. Select the “Insert” tab and click on the “Symbol” button. If the symbol that you want to use is not listed in the quick list, click on the “More Symbol” and use character map to choose your symbol. It is possible to change the shortcuts for symbols by clicking the “Shortcut key” button.Microsoft Word Insert Symbols

How to Put Copyright Symbol in Google Docs

Similar to Microsoft Word, the copyright symbol can be inserted in a Google doc using the alt code of the character. We highlight the other 2 methods below to add the © to any Google doc.

  1. Type “(c)” or (C) and press space key.
  2. Select “Insert->Special Characters” from the menu. Select “Symbol” and “Miscellaneous” from the lists. Press the symbol button. (or just type “copy” in the search box to list the copyright character)Put Copyright Symbol on a Google Doc

How to Make a Copyright Symbol in HTML or HTML5

You can use HTML character entities to display reserved characters like “<, &, ¢, ©”. You have 2 options here: either to use “Entity Name” or “Entity Number”.

Let’s summarise the 4 simple methods to add © to your HTML web page. The first two methods are the official way of adding special characters to HTML. The last two options will do the job as most editors, and web servers support this usage but still not the recommended way.

  1. Use entity number format: “&#169;”.
  2. Use entity name format: “&copy;”.
  3. Type copyright symbol alt code : “ALT + 0169”.
  4. Just copy and paste the © to your editor.

How to Use Copyright Symbol in CSS

You can’t use HTML entities in CSS. Instead, you need to provide the Unicode escape sequences or type the special character in CSS code.

Here is an example code that uses both methods. First one adds “\00a9” for copyright escape sequence and second one insert the © to the code.

<html>

<style>

div:after { 
    content: " \00a9";
}

span:after {
	content: " ©"
}
</style>

<body>
<div>Two copyright symbols has been <span>added</span> to this page</div>
</body>

</html>