Named mode encodes HTML-sensitive characters and common symbols. Decimal and hex modes also encode non-ASCII characters.
| Character | Entity | Numeric | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| & | & | & | Ampersand |
| < | < | < | Less than |
| > | > | > | Greater than |
| " | " | " | Double quote |
| ' | ' | ' | Single quote |
| |   | Non-breaking space | |
| © | © | © | Copyright |
| ® | ® | ® | Registered |
| ™ | ™ | ™ | Trademark |
| € | € | € | Euro sign |
| £ | £ | £ | Pound sign |
| — | — | — | Em dash |
What Are HTML Entities?
HTML entities are special codes that represent characters which have meaning in HTML syntax or which cannot be easily typed on a keyboard. For example, the < character opens an HTML tag, so to display it as text you must write <. This prevents the browser from interpreting it as markup.
When to Use HTML Entities
- Displaying code: Show HTML/XML code snippets in web pages
- Special characters: Use symbols like © ™ € in your content
- Displaying pasted text: Encode characters so browsers show them as text instead of markup
- Email templates: Some email clients require entity-encoded characters
For reference, see MDN's HTML entity glossary and the HTML Living Standard named character references.
See also: URL Encoder/Decoder and Base64 Encoder.
The HTML Entity Encoder and Decoder converts special characters to their HTML entity equivalents and back again. This is useful for displaying code snippets in web pages and handling characters that have special meaning in HTML like angle brackets, ampersands, and quotation marks. Paste your text and the tool instantly encodes or decodes common characters. Web developers, content editors, and template builders can use it to prepare text for display and check how encoded content will render across browsers.