System Symbols ⌘
Command, option and shift key glyphs.
Tip · press and hold to pick several at once
How to use system symbols
These are the glyphs Apple prints on Mac keys, and they exist as ordinary text characters: ⌘ command, ⌥ option, ⌃ control, ⇧ shift, ⎋ escape, ⇥ tab, ⇪ caps lock, ⌫ delete, ⏎ return. Because they are text and not images, a shortcut written as ⌘⇧4 survives being pasted into Slack, Notion, a GitHub issue, a support ticket or a README — and stays readable when the theme flips to dark.
The reason to use them instead of spelling out the words is length and scanning. «Command-Shift-4» is nineteen characters and reads as a sentence; ⌘⇧4 is three and reads as a key combination. Apple's own documentation style puts the modifiers in this order — control, option, shift, command — and writes them without spaces or plus signs.
Four of these are not keyboard keys at all: ⏻ ⏼ ⏽ ⭘ are the international power symbols — power, toggle, on and off — the ones printed on switches and cases. ⏏ is eject and still appears in media players. They are handy in interface text and in hardware instructions, where a word would need translating and the symbol does not.
Questions
Will ⌘ show up correctly for someone on Windows?
Usually yes — the character is in most system fonts on both platforms, and this page hides anything your own device cannot draw. But a Windows reader has no ⌘ key to press, so if the instruction is for both platforms, write both: ⌘C on Mac, Ctrl+C on Windows.
In what order should modifiers be written?
Apple's convention is control, option, shift, command, then the key — ⌃⌥⇧⌘K — with no spaces and no plus signs between them. Following it makes shortcuts skimmable, because every combination lines up the same way.
What is the difference between ⌫ and ⌦?
⌫ is backspace, which deletes to the left of the cursor; ⌦ is forward delete, which removes the character to the right. On a Mac without a full-size keyboard, forward delete is fn plus the delete key, which is exactly the kind of thing worth spelling out in a manual.
Are these emoji?
No, and that is the point. They are plain text symbols, so they take the colour, weight and size of the text around them instead of being drawn as coloured pictures. That is what lets a shortcut sit inside a sentence without breaking the line.
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