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Characters vs KCharSelect: catalog facts
Characters	KCharSelect
Best for: Finding and copying special characters and emoji on a GNOME desktop	Best for: Linux users who need to insert symbols and look up Unicode characters
Free Free and open source under the GPL-2.0-or-later and BSD-3-Clause licences.	Free Free and open source under the GPL-2.0-or-later licence.
Linux	Linux
Keyword search across Unicode characters Browse by category including emoji and math symbols All 3 strengths for Characters Keyword search across Unicode characters Browse by category including emoji and math symbols Actively maintained GNOME app	Search characters by Unicode name Shows aliases, notes and technical representations All 4 strengths for KCharSelect Search characters by Unicode name Shows aliases, notes and technical representations Unihan definitions and pronunciations for East Asian characters Regular releases through KDE Gear
Linux only Basic feature set aimed at lookup and copy	Linux only Fits best in a KDE Plasma desktop
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-2.0-or-later AND BSD-3-Clause	License: GPL-2.0-or-later
No account needed	No account needed
Offline features available	Offline features available
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Characters apps.gnome.org/Characters Catalog checked October 1, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for KCharSelect apps.kde.org/kcharselect Catalog checked October 1, 2026

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