Emacs: Unicode Tutorial
First see: Unicode Basics: Character Set, Encoding, UTF-8, Codepoint

Set default file encoding
Set a key to insert unicode char
For example, put the following code in your emacs init file.
;; set keys to insert math symbol (define-key key-translation-map (kbd "<f9> p") (kbd "φ")) (define-key key-translation-map (kbd "<f9> x") (kbd "ξ")) (define-key key-translation-map (kbd "<f9> i") (kbd "∞")) (define-key key-translation-map (kbd "<f9> <right>") (kbd "→"))
For detail, see: Emacs: Remapping Keys Using key-translation-map.
For OS-wide, see: How to Create a APL or Math Symbols Keyboard Layout.
For lists of math symbols and Unicode search, see Unicode Search 😄
Use abbrev to insert Unicode char
Put the following in your emacs init file:
(define-abbrev-table 'global-abbrev-table '( ("alpha" "α") ("inf" "∞") ("ar" "→") )) (abbrev-mode 1) ; turn on abbrev mode
Select the code above and Alt+x eval-region
.
[see Evaluate Emacs Lisp Code]
Now, type ar
, it will become →
.
For detail, see: Emacs: Abbrev Mode by Lisp Code.
If you type math symbols often, use Emacs: Xah Math Input Mode, xah-math-input.el.
Insert letter with accent marks é
- é → Ctrl+x 8 ' e
- à → Ctrl+x 8 ` a
- î → Ctrl+x 8 ^ i
- ñ → Ctrl+x 8 ~ n
- ü → Ctrl+x 8 " u
To see all characters you can type this way, press Ctrl+x 8 Ctrl+h. Example: ¿ ¡ ¢ £ ¥ ¤ § ¶ ® © ª «» × ÷ ¬ ° ± µ ÀÁÂÃÄÅÆ Ç ÈÉÊË ÌÍÎÏ ÐÑ ÒÓÔÕÖ ØÙÚÛÜÝÞß àáâãäåæç èéêë ìíîï ðñòóôõö øùúûüýþÿ.
If you need to type these chars often,
Alt+x set-input-method
then type “latin-9-prefix”. That will allow you to type these chars without typing Ctrl+x 8 first.
(Emacs's “latin-9-prefix” corresponds to the char set ISO 8859-9)
Insert a Unicode character by name
Alt+x insert-char
【Ctrl+x 8 Enter】, then the name of the Unicode. For example, try insert →. Its name is “RIGHTWARDS ARROW”.
Note: insert-char
was ucs-insert
in emacs 24.3 or before.
Insert a Unicode character by its hexadecimal value
Alt+x insert-char
【Ctrl+x 8 Enter】, then the hexadecimal of the Unicode.
For example, try insert →. Its hexadecimal value is “2192”.
Insert a Unicode character by its decimal value
Alt+x insert-char
【Ctrl+x 8 Enter】, then type “#10r” followed by the decimal codepoint.
e.g. #10r8594
For example, try insert →. Its coidpoint in decimal is “8594”.
A more convenient way is to install Emacs: Xah Math Input Mode, xah-math-input.el.
Type Chinese
Alt+x set-input-method
, then give value chinese-py
. (“chinese-py” is a basic Chinese pinyin input method.)
To switch back to normal input, Alt+x toggle-input-method
【Ctrl+\】.
For detail, see: Emacs Chinese Input.
Find out current input method
Alt+x describe-variable
then type current-input-method.
Find a character's hexadecimal value or name
Place cursor on the character then call describe-char
.

describe-char
For a mode to make this easier, see xub Unicode Browser mode for Emacs.
Update emacs unicode data database
Unicode has a new version every year. Emacs's unicode info
for
describe-char
may not be up-to-date. (it doesn't know the new character).
You can make emacs use the latest unicode data.
Download the latest UnicodeData.txt at https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/UnicodeData.txt
Put that file in your emacs init dir, then put this in your Emacs Init File:
(when (file-exists-p "~/.emacs.d/UnicodeData.txt") (setq describe-char-unicodedata-file "~/.emacs.d/UnicodeData.txt"))
Get emacs to display missing emoji 😸
See: Emacs: Font Setup.