Compare software

PopChar vs Characters: catalog facts
PopChar	Characters
Best for: Designers and writers who regularly insert special characters and symbols	Best for: Finding and copying special characters and emoji on a GNOME desktop
Paid Paid licence from Ergonis, with a downloadable version to try.	Free Free and open source under the GPL-2.0-or-later and BSD-3-Clause licences.
Windows, macOS	Linux
Search characters by name or by shape Shows Unicode code points and HTML entities All 4 strengths for PopChar Search characters by name or by shape Shows Unicode code points and HTML entities Works system-wide in any application Supports ligatures and complex characters	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
Paid software No Linux version	Linux only Basic feature set aimed at lookup and copy
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Not open source	Open source
License not stated	License: GPL-2.0-or-later AND BSD-3-Clause
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Offline features available	Offline features available
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for PopChar ergonis.com/en/popchar Catalog checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Characters apps.gnome.org/Characters Catalog checked October 1, 2026

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