InsaneJournal

Like the HTML character post I made but BETTER
Matt Corks is a neurotic badass and has categorized all the symbols and lists their Unicode designations, their hex designations, their HTML entity designations, the symbol itself, and its description.

Click Me!

If you jump to the bottom of the page, you can search for a character by using its code.

TMI: this makes my nethers tingle. NEGL.

If you see a box or a diamond with a question mark showing up for a symbol (and the description is not 'substitute character', 'replacement character', or 'unused') that means your computer doesn't support it. Boo. I'm still working on figuring out what needs to be downloaded and installed for your computer to show the different sets, but for now... OMGOSH THE GEEKERY IS GOLD.

ETA: Adding symbols that aren't showing up...

First of all, you need to install the LastResort font, which will tell you what category the symbols that aren't showing up are from.

http://unicode.org/policies/lastresortfont_eula.html

Next, copy the symbol, make a new private post, paste the symbol in the post, tack something like <span style="font-size: 600%;"></span> around the symbol, post, and you'll see what Unicode character grouping it's from. Then, search for free fonts that include that character grouping, install the font, and the symbol should automatically show up.

For most cases, I suggest getting the Quivira font, which can be found here.

You can also go to this site and find out what standard fonts support the character/character category you're looking for.

ETAx2: FREAKING A! THERE IS AN EVEN BIGGER LIST OF SYMBOLS INCLUDING EMOTICONS! SERIOUSLY? SERIOUSLY... Click Me!

Check out the PDFs to find the hex code and either use &x####; or go to this site to find the HTML decimal code.

All I can say is: symbols, so hot right now.