Arrows · U+2192

Arrow symbol

The workhorse arrow — used in notes, menus and “this leads to that”.

Looking for the colour emoji instead? ➡️ Right Arrow — same idea, drawn as a picture by each platform.

How to type it
Unicode
U+2192
Alt code
Alt+8594
HTML
→
Unicode name
Rightwards Arrow
Your font
01 — Origin

Where the Arrow symbol comes from

The arrow as a mathematical sign is surprisingly recent: it spread through logic and set theory in the early twentieth century, where it came to mean “implies” and “maps to”. Before that, direction in text was written out in words.

Outside maths it is the standard way to write a path or a sequence — File → Export, Settings → Keyboard, cause → effect. It reads instantly and takes one character where an em dash and a word would take five.

Worth knowing
The four directions ← ↑ → ↓ are separate characters, and so are the double-bodied ⇐ ⇒, which in formal logic mean something stricter than the single ones.
02 — Codes

Arrow symbol codes

Tap any value to copy it. All of them produce the same character — they just belong to different places.

03 — How to type

How to type → on any keyboard

Keyboard, code, markup or document — the route to U+2192 differs by tool.

Windows
Hold Alt and type 8594 on the numeric keypad, then release. Without a keypad, use the Character Map app (search “charmap”).
Mac
Press Control + Command + Space to open the character viewer, then search “arrow”. Double-click to insert.
Phone
There is no shortcut on a phone keyboard. Tap the symbol at the top of this page, then long-press in any text field and choose Paste.
Web and code
In HTML write → or →. In CSS content: "\2192". Make sure the page is served as UTF-8 and the raw character works too.
04 — Font support

Will → actually show up?

We checked 147 fonts installed on a normal machine and counted how many of them contain this character. A symbol missing from a font is drawn as an empty box — the text is still correct, it just cannot be drawn.

88% 129 of 147 fonts

Safe in most places. Common fonts have it. Older or decorative fonts sometimes do not, so a fallback font will kick in.

05 — Similar

Symbols people confuse with →

These look alike but are different characters — different codes, different fonts, sometimes different meaning.

07 — Same block

Arrows

Every arrow in Unicode — up, down, curved, doubled, crossed.

All arrows →
08 — FAQ

Arrow symbol — questions

How do I type the Arrow symbol?
On Windows hold Alt and type 8594 on the numeric keypad. On Mac open the character viewer with Control + Command + Space and search “Arrow”. Or just tap the symbol on this page — it goes straight to your clipboard.
What is the HTML code for →?
Write it as → or → in HTML, \2192 in CSS content, and \u2192 in JavaScript. All four produce the same character.
Is → an emoji?
No. → is a text character — it takes the colour of the text around it and works in usernames, filenames and documents. An emoji is replaced by a colour picture and is sometimes stripped by forms and systems.
Why does → show as a box on some devices?
Because that font has no drawing for this character. We checked 147 fonts on a normal machine and 129 of them include it. The character itself is always correct; only the drawing is missing.