How to Make the Copyright Symbol on Windows and Mac Computers

Keyboard shortcuts for this special character on each OS

Copyright symbol

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by Liz Masoner
Liz is a professional photo editor, teacher, and photographer, as well as author to three books on photography.
Updated June 23, 2019

The copyright symbol (©) is a special character commonly used by photographers and other content creators. While copyright law doesn't require its use, the symbol is easily recognizable and lends an air of credibility to your intellectual property, so knowing how to type the copyright symbol on Windows and Mac can come in handy.

How to Type the Copyright Symbol in Windows

On computers running Windows, you can add the copyright symbol anywhere text can be entered with a few simple keystrokes.

To create the copyright © symbol on keyboards with a numeric keypad, hold down the Alt key and type 0169.

For most laptops and other compressed keyboards, the process is different. Look for tiny numbers above the 7, 8, 9, U, I, O, J, K, L, and M keys. They act as 0-9 when Num Lock is activated. To create the copyright system without a numerical keypad:

  1. Press Fn + NumLk to turn on Num Lock. You may have a designated NumLK key, or it might be mapped to another key.

  2. Locate the numeric keys. If you don't see the numbers on the keys, try them anyway: M=0, J=1, K=2, L=3, U=4, I=5, O=6, 7=7, 8=8, 9=9.

  3. Hold down the Alt key and type 0169 on the numeric keys (some laptops also require you to hold down Fn as you type).

  4. Release all the keys to see the © symbol in your text.

How to Type the Copyright Symbol on a Mac

For Mac computers, you can add the copyright symbol anywhere text can be entered with just two keystrokes: hold down the Option key and type g to create the © symbol.

Other Options for how to Type the Copyright Symbol

If the keyboard shortcut seems like too much work, you can always copy a copyright symbol from elsewhere and paste it into your text.

The © symbol is also included in the character maps on most machines. Here's how to use the character map to include the symbol in your text:

  1. In Windows 10, in the taskbar, open the search box and type map. From the search results, choose Character Map.

    To open the character map in Windows, type map in the taskbar's search box and then choose Character Map from the search results
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  2. Select the copyright symbol to make it appear in the text field. Then, Copy it. It's now on your clipboard to be pasted into another application.

    Select the copyright symbol from the character map to make it appear in the text field so that you can copy it.
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  3. You can also access the Character Map under Windows Accessories in the Start Menu.

    Access the Character Map under Windows Accessories in the Start Menu.
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  4. On MacOS, on the menu bar, select Edit > Emoji & Symbols. Type Copyright into the search bar to bring up the symbol for you to copy.