How to Make the Copyright Symbol on Windows and Mac Computers

The copyright symbol © is the special character probably most used by photographers. While copyright law does not require you use the exact copyright symbol—you can spell out "copyright" or use "(c)" for example—it is easily recognizable and lends an air of credibility to your copyright notice.

On Windows-based computers, you can add the copyright symbol anywhere text can be added with a few simple keystrokes. Press the Alt key and hold it down while typing 0169 on the 10-key keypad to create the © symbol.

On some laptops and netbooks with compressed keyboards and no numeric keypad, the process is different.

• Locate the numeric keys. They display as tiny small numbers on the 7, 8, 9, U, I, O, J, K, L and M keys. They act as the zero through 9 keys when NumLock is turned on. If you don't see the tiny 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.
• Press the NumLk key. On some laptops, you press Function + ScrLk, which is the keyboard combination for NumLock.
• Press and hold the Alt key. (Some laptops require you hold down both the Alt and FN keys.
• Enter 0169 on the NumLk keys.
• Release all the keys to see the symbol.

For Mac computers, you add the copyright symbol anywhere text can be added with two keystrokes. Press the Option key and hold it down while typing g on the keyboard to create the © symbol.

If the keyboard shortcut seems like too much work to you, you can always copy a copyright symbol from elsewhere and paste it into the text on both Windows and Mac computers.

The © symbol is also included in the character maps on most machines.

• In Windows 10, type map in the taskbar's search box and then choose Character Map from the search results. You can also access the Character Map as follows: Start Menu > All apps > Windows Accessories > Character Map.
• On MacOS, click Edit on the menu bar and select Emoji & Symbols. Type Copyright into the search bar.