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I've been looking to use unicode for more iconography, and I haven't been able to find any appropriate unicode for a "view" icon. None of the "eye"-related unicode that I've found works on the web.

Does anyone know of any unicode icons that would be appropriate for a "view" icon?

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  • Unicode is about encoding characters used in texts, though some characters of iconic nature have been encoded, too, as sufficient evidence has been found about their use in texts. Unicode does not encode abstract ideas, though. So you would need to specify which type of graphic character you are looking for.
    – Jukka K. Korpela
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 18:04

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You might struggle to find a unicode character to represent "view", but you'll find plenty of web font based icon sets with an eye or view concept.

For example, Font Awesome – the icon web font used in Twitter Bootstrap – has an icon called 'icon-eye-open' that might do the trick. Font Awesome is licensed under CC-BY-3 (you can use it for free as long as you credit them with a link to their site in your CSS or HTML source code), and it supports IE7 or higher.

icon-eye-open from Font Awesome

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  • Yes, these days I always use font-awesome if I can.
    – Kzqai
    Commented Feb 13, 2017 at 20:56
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⚲ (Neuter) looks a bit as a magnifier glas, that is what i setteled for as a view symbol.

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  • You should use Unicode symbol based on their semantic meaning, not their apparence.
    – bfontaine
    Commented Aug 27 at 11:05
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This question was asked in 2012. Browsers in 2020 now support a much wider range of Unicode characters. These three Unicode characters all render in my browser (Ubuntu 19.10, latest FF and Chrome):

  • Right-Pointing Magnifying Glass (🔎): 🔎
  • Left-Pointing Magnifying Glass: (🔍): 🔍
  • Eye (👁): 👁

I ran a browser compatibility test with popular browsers (and a 2nd) to render this answer:

  • Windows 10, Firefox 77: Works
  • Windows 10, Edge 18: Works
  • Windows 8.1, Firefox 71: Works
  • Windows 8.1, Internet Explorer 8.1: Magnifying glasses work, eye does not
  • Windows 7, Internet Explorer 10: Magnifying glasses work, eye does not
  • Windows 7, Chrome 81: Magnifying glasses work, eye does not
  • Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9: Nothing works
  • Windows 7, Chrome 70: Magnifying glasses work, eye does not
  • Mac 10.14, Safari 12: Works
  • Ipad Pro 11, Safari 11: Works
  • Iphone X 11, Safari 11: Works
  • Windows 10, Opera 63: Works
  • Mac 10.14, Opera 64: Works
  • Android 10.0, Chrome 79: Works
  • Android 5.0, Chrome 61: Magnifying glasses work, eye does not

The maginfying glasses work fine everywhere except very old Windows and IE.

The eye works on all modern browsers but not pre-Windows-10 or older Android phones.

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