U+266D · Other symbol
HTML entity
♭
LaTeX
\flat
Music Flat Sign Symbol ♭
♭ is music flat sign, U+266D — \flat in LaTeX. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other symbol.
Also known as
Unicode 1.0 called this character flat. The standard renamed it later, but documents, fonts and font-editing tools from that era still use the old name.
Codes & technical data
| Unicode | U+266D | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ♭ | |
| HTML decimal | ♭ | |
| CSS | \266D | |
| JavaScript | \u{266D} | |
| Python | \U0000266D | |
| Java / C# | \u266D | |
| Rust | \u{266d} | |
| Swift | \u{266D} | |
| PHP | \u{266D} | |
| URL encoded | %E2%99%AD | |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 99 AD | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 266D | |
| Base64 | 4pmt | |
| Decimal | 9837 | |
| HTML entity | ♭ | |
| LaTeX | \flat | |
| Category | Other symbol (So) | |
| Introduced | Unicode 1.1 | |
Will ♭ survive being pasted?
- Normalisation. Yes. ♭ is unchanged by NFKC, so it survives normalising systems intact.
- Legacy encodings. ♭ is Unicode-only — it has no Latin-1 equivalent, so a system stuck on an 8-bit encoding cannot represent it.
- Size. 3 bytes in UTF-8. Character-limited fields — SMS, bios, some form validators — usually count bytes, not characters.
Nearby in Miscellaneous Symbols
A broad block covering weather, astrology, chess, music, religion and warning signs. Many members also have an emoji presentation, which is why the same character can look monochrome in one app and full-colour in another.
How to type ♭
| Windows | Type 266D then press Alt+X |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “music flat sign” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 266d, press Enter |
| HTML | ♭ |
About Unicode’s Other symbol category
Unicode files this under "other symbol" — the catch-all for pictographs, signs and marks that are neither maths, currency, nor letter-like. It is the largest symbol category in the standard.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I type the ♭ music flat sign symbol?
- On Windows, type 266D and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 266d. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ♭?
- Music Flat Sign is U+266D, written in HTML as ♭ and in LaTeX as \flat. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- What kind of character is ♭?
- Music Flat Sign is filed under Other symbol in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. Unicode files this under "other symbol" — the catch-all for pictographs, signs and marks that are neither maths, currency, nor letter-like. It is the largest symbol category in the standard.