¼
¼ One Quarter Symbol
The one-quarter symbol (¼) is a single ready-made character for the fraction 1/4, used in recipes, measurements and prose.
Also known as: one quarter symbol, 1/4 symbol, quarter fraction, one fourth symbol.
Codes
| Symbol | ¼ | |
| Unicode | U+00BC | |
| HTML entity (named) | ¼ | |
| HTML entity (decimal) | ¼ | |
| HTML entity (hex) | ¼ | |
| CSS | \00BC | |
| LaTeX | \frac{1}{4} | |
| Windows Alt code | Alt + 0188 |
How to type ¼ (One Quarter Symbol)
WindowsAlt + 0188
Hold Alt and type 0188 on the numeric keypad, then release Alt.
Mac
No default keystroke. Open Character Viewer (Control + Cmd + Space) and search “one quarter”, or copy ¼ above.
Microsoft Word1/4
Type 1/4 followed by a space — AutoFormat converts it to ¼. (Or type 00BC then Alt + X.)
Google Docs
Insert → Special characters, then search “one quarter”.
LaTeX\frac{1}{4}
In math mode use \frac{1}{4}. In text, \nicefrac{1}{4} (units package) gives the slanted inline form.
Usage
- ¼ is the ready-made character for a quarter: ¼ cup of sugar, ¼ inch, ¼ of the total.
- Only a handful of fractions have their own character — ¼ (U+00BC), ½ (U+00BD), ¾ (U+00BE) and ⅓ (U+2153) among them. There is no single character for an arbitrary fraction like 7/13, so for real math write a proper fraction (\frac{7}{13}) rather than reaching for these.
- Because ¼ is one character, you cannot do arithmetic on its parts, and some search and sort routines will not treat it as the number 0.25. It is typography, not a value.
- In Word, typing 1/4 and a space silently autocorrects to ¼ — press Ctrl + Z once if you wanted the three characters.