A Unicode Lover’s Manifesto Unicode is a miraculous standard, and while rightfully filled with backwards‐compatibility hacks, they are widely used even where they are not necessary. The Unicode character set is rich, and carries ways to do things that are more Correct, Specific, and Semantic than what is typically used. This document is intended to raise awareness for — and encourage you to use — these ways. Note: When I say “never”, I mean “unless you have a compatibility reason to”. The rhetoric used is intended to impress upon you how unnecessary this should be in modern environments that render everything correctly. ⁂ • U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS and U+0022 QUOTATION MARK are never correct. They are only compatibility characters. (Yes, I know there’s a hyphen‐minus in the name, Unicode ironically names their characters in ASCII.) • U+2010 HYPHEN joins compound words and prefixes, like e‐mail. • U+2011 NON-BREAKING HYPHEN replaces the hyphen when the compound must not wrap. T‑shirt, X‑ray. • U+2012 FIGURE DASH separates groups of digits that are not a range: 867‒5309, 978‒0‒13‒110163‒0. • U+2013 EN DASH marks ranges and relationships. China–Russia relations, pages 413–612. • U+2014 EM DASH marks a break in thought. I prefer to set them with U+2009 THIN SPACE on each side, but this is up to you. • U+2015 HORIZONTAL BAR is the quotation dash for dialogue in the Continental style. • U+2E3A TWO-EM DASH stands in for an omitted word: Mr ⸺ of ⸺. • U+2E3B THREE-EM DASH replaces a repeated author name in a bibliography. • U+00AD SOFT HYPHEN may be inserted at permissible break points in long words. • U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE binds things that must not separate at a line end: Mr. Smith, J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 12, § 3, Chapter 4, Louis XIV. • U+202F NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE goes between a number and its unit: 5 kg, 20 °C, 3 h. • U+205F MEDIUM MATHEMATICAL SPACE flanks binary operators in mathematics: 1 + 2. • U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE permits a break where no visible space belongs, perhaps after a long URL quoted in prose. • U+2028 LINE SEPARATOR is a line break, U+2029 PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR ends a paragraph. LF, CR, AND NEL ARE NEVER CORRECT!! • There are other varieties of spaces with varying usages. • U+2042 ASTERISM marks a section break. • Bullets are U+2022. Hyphen‐minuses and asterisks are not bullets. • U+2212 MINUS SIGN for subtraction and negatives. • U+00D7 MULTIPLICATION SIGN ( × ) for products and dimensions: 3 × 5, 1920 × 1080. x is a letter. Also consider U+22C5 DOT OPERATOR for the multiplication dot. • U+00F7 DIVISION SIGN or U+2215 DIVISION SLASH for division. Do not confuse with U+2044 FRACTION SLASH. Precomposed fractions are acceptable, but don’t mix precomposed and constructed. • U+2236 RATIO for ratios: 4∶3. A colon is punctuation. • U+00B1 ( ± ), U+2213 ( ∓ ), U+2264 ( ≤ ), U+2265 ( ≥ ), U+2260 ( ≠ ), U+2248 ( ≈ ), U+221E ( ∞ ), U+2192 ( → ). Never =, !=, ~=, or ->. • U+22EF MIDLINE HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS for mathematical sequences: 1, 2, 3, ⋯, n. The textual ellipsis, U+2026 HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS, is distinct. • U+2032 PRIME for feet and arcminutes; U+2033 DOUBLE PRIME for inches and arcseconds; U+2034 TRIPLE PRIME for seventeenth‐century watchmakers. 5′11″. 40°26′46″ N. • U+00B0 DEGREE SIGN attaches directly to the number for angles — 90° — but is separated by U+202F for temperatures: 20 °C. U+2103 DEGREE CELSIUS and U+2109 DEGREE FAHRENHEIT are never correct. • U+00B5 MICRO SIGN is never correct; use U+03BC GREEK SMALL LETTER MU ( μ ). • U+2116 NUMERO SIGN, not “No.”. • U+2027 HYPHENATION POINT ( ‧ ) separates syllables when you are showing syllabification: pe‧dan‧tic. U+00B7 MIDDLE DOT ( · ) separates items in a compact inline list: Home · About · Contact. • U+FB00–U+FB04 are never correct. These are compatibility features, and in 2026 ligatures are a font’s job.