Stars & Dingbats
Playing card suits, stars, check marks and warning glyphs live in Unicode’s dingbat and miscellaneous symbol blocks, added well after the Alt code table was standardised. None of these have a genuine Windows Alt code; every one on this page needs its HTML entity or Unicode value instead.
They show up constantly outside their obvious use: a heavy check mark to confirm a task, a black star to mark a rating, a spade or heart glyph used in place of an icon file.
Questions
What is the Alt code for a check mark?
There is no Windows Alt code for it. Use the HTML entity ✓ or copy the character directly.
Is there a difference between a light and heavy check mark?
Yes. U+2713 is a plain check mark and U+2714 is the bolder heavy check mark, a separate Unicode character.
What is the Alt code for a heart symbol?
None exists in the standard Windows table. Copy the black heart suit directly, or use the Unicode value U+2665.
What is a dingbat, historically?
Originally, any decorative printer’s ornament used to fill blank space on a typeset page. The term carried into digital type through the Zapf Dingbats font, which is where many of these characters first got standard code points.
Why do hand gestures and scissors sit in the same category as stars?
Dingbats has always been a catch-all for decorative and pictorial characters that don’t belong to a tidier category like letters or punctuation, so stars, hands, scissors and crosses all ended up grouped together.