searching for a reply utf character arrow that works accross browsers

Question

I am currently using the utf code "\293B" for an arrow to put before the reply link in posts. the html is declared utf 8. The arrow works in firefox and explorer but not chrome. i saw that wordpress uses content: "" ("\f412";) (for example here:http://cinematicamsterdam.wordpress.com/2014/05/26/cinematic-city-a-retrospect/) that works accross all browsers but I can't paste it in my document. How can I do it? i'm a newbie here, sorry if the question is simple..

Answer 1

This does not primarily depend on browsers but on fonts installed in the system; secondarily it depends on your CSS settings and on some shortcomings in browsers. For a general description of such issues, see my Guide to using special characters in HTML.

In particular, U+293B BOTTOM ARC ANTICLOCKWISE ARROW “⤻” has rather limited font support. A large number of systems have no font containing it. It could be used rather (though not 100%) reliably using a downloadable font, but it sounds like you are generating HTML-format e-mail messages, so downloadable fonts are hardly a feasible option.

The best short appears to be to an image instead.

What your describe as WordPress usage is a Private Use codepoint. In practice it works only with a particular special font. You can copy and paste it, but outside the private use context such as use on a web page with a specific font, it has absolutely no meaning and should not be expected to have any particular rendering, or any rendering at all.