Compare software

Characters vs Unicodia: catalog facts
Characters	Unicodia
Best for: Finding and copying special characters and emoji on a GNOME desktop	Best for: Anyone looking up Unicode characters, symbols and emoji on Windows
Free Free and open source under the GPL-2.0-or-later and BSD-3-Clause licences.	Free Free and open source, apart from the licence of one bundled font.
Linux	Windows
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	Covers all Unicode 17 characters Shows which installed font renders each character All 4 strengths for Unicodia Covers all Unicode 17 characters Shows which installed font renders each character Copies codes as HTML, UTF-8 or UTF-16 Notes on each writing system
Linux only Basic feature set aimed at lookup and copy	Windows only, with only basic support on Windows 7 Named multi-character sequences are not shown yet All 3 limitations for Unicodia Windows only, with only basic support on Windows 7 Named multi-character sequences are not shown yet Search is simple
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-2.0-or-later AND BSD-3-Clause	License: GPL-3.0-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 Unicodia mercury13.github.io/unicodia Catalog checked October 2, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.