Regular and Unusual "Space" Characters
Tags: unicode, text, ux, hacking
Published: 2021-08-22 14:26:49

## Regular Space Characters

### [U+0020 SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/0020)

This is the regular space character as produced by pressing the space bar of your keyboard.

### [U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/00A0)

A fixed space that prevents an automatic line break at its position. Abbreviation: NBSP

### [U+2000 EN QUAD](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2000)

A 1 en (= 1/2 em) wide space, where 1 em is the height of the current font.

### [U+2001 EM QUAD](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2001)

A 1 em wide space, where 1 em is the height of the current font.

### [U+2002 EN SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2002)

A 1 en (= 1/2 em) wide space, where 1 em is the height of the current font.

### [U+2003 EM SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2003)

A 1 em wide space, where 1 em is the height of the current font.

### [U+2004 THREE-PER-EM SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2004)

A 1/3 em wide space, where 1 em is the height of the current font. "Thick Space".

### [U+2005 FOUR-PER-EM SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2005)

A 1/4 em wide space, where 1 em is the height of the current font. "Mid Space".

### [U+2006 SIX-PER-EM SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2006)

A 1/6 em wide space, where 1 em is the height of the current font.

### [U+2007 FIGURE SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2007)

A space character that is as wide as fixed-width digits. Usually used when typesetting vertically aligned numbers.

### [U+2008 PUNCTUATION SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2008)

A space character that is as wide as a perido (".").

### [U+2009 THIN SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2009)

A 1/6 em - 1/4 em wide space, where 1 em is the height of the current font.

### [U+200A HAIR SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/200A)

Narrower than the "THIN SPACE", usually the thinnest space character.

### [U+202F NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/202F)

A narrow form of a no-break space, typically the width of a "THIN SPACE". Abbreviation: NNBSP.

### [U+205F MEDIUM MATHEMATICAL SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/205F)

A 4/18 em wide space, where 1 em is the height of the current font. Usually used when typesetting mathematical formulas.

### [U+3000 IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/3000)


## Regular Space Characters with Zero Width

### [U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/200B)

Literally a zero-width space character.

### [‌U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/200C)

When placed between two characters that would otherwise be connected into a ligature, a ZWNJ causes them to be printed in their final and initial forms, respectively.

### [‍U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/200D)

When placed between two characters that would otherwise not be connected, a ZWJ causes them to be printed in their connected forms (ligature). Also used to join emoji with modifier characters.

### [U+2060 WORD JOINER](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2060)

A zero width non-breaking space. Abbreviation: WJ.

### [U+FEFF ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/FEFF)

The zero width no-break space (ZWNBSP) is a deprecated use of the Unicode character at code point U+FEFF. Character U+FEFF is intended for use as a Byte Order Mark (BOM) at the start of a file. However, if encountered elsewhere, it should, according to Unicode, be treated as a "zero width no-break space". The deliberate use of U+FEFF for this purpose is deprecated as of Unicode 3.2, with the word joiner strongly preferred.


## Non-Space Characters that Act Like Spaces

The following characters are probably the most interesting: they act like regular space characters, but are typically not considered as such. Because of this, they can often be used in places where a single (regular) space character is not allowed (e.g. as a Youtube video title, in nick names in popular games, etc.).

### [U+180E MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/180E)

The MVS is a word-internal thin whitespace that may occur only before the word-final vowels U+1820 MONGOLIAN LETTER A and U+1821 MONGOLIAN LETTER E. It determines the specific form of the character preceding it, selects a special variant shape of these vowels, and produces a small gap within the word. It is no longer classified as space character (i.e. in Zs category) in Unicode 6.3.0, even though it was in previous versions of the standard.

### [U+2800 BRAILLE PATTERN BLANK](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2800)

The Braille pattern "dots-0", also called a "blank Braille pattern", is a 6-dot or 8-dot braille cell with no dots raised. It is represented by the Unicode code point U+2800, and in Braille ASCII with a space. In all Braille systems, the Braille pattern dots-0 is used to represent a space or the lack of content. In particular some fonts display the character as a fixed-width blank. However, the Unicode standard explicitly states that it does not act as a space.

### [U+3164 HANGUL FILLER](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/3164)

The Hangul Filler character is used to introduce eight-byte Hangul composition sequences and to stand in for an absent element (usually an empty final) in such a sequence. Unicode includes the Wansung code Hangul Filler in the Hangul Compatibility Jamo block for round-trip compatibility, but uses its own system (with its own, differently used, filler characters) for composing Hangul. 


## Visible Space Characters

### [␠ U+2420 SYMBOL FOR SPACE](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2420)

### [␢ U+2422 BLANK SYMBOL](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2422)

### [␣ U+2423 OPEN BOX](https://unicode-explorer.com/c/2423)