Left arrow (←): copy and paste
The leftwards arrow (←) is a text character meaning “back”, “previous” or “from”. It is the standard way to show a back direction in plain text, such as a commit message or a chat.
← is thin and matches text; ⬅ is the emoji form; ↩ (return arrow) is the symbol printed on the Return key on many keyboards; ⇐ is a double arrow used in logic for “is implied by”.
Left arrow variants to copy
Click any character to copy it.
How to type ← on Mac, Windows and phone
There is no keystroke for ← on the US Mac layout. Press ⌃ Control + ⌘ Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search “leftwards arrow” and double-click it. No keystroke on the US layout.
On Windows, hold Alt and type 27 on the numeric keypad (Num Lock on), then release Alt.
Not on the default keyboards. Search “arrow” in the emoji keyboard for ⬅, or paste ← from here.
| Platform | How to type ← |
|---|---|
| Mac (US layout) | Character Viewer → search “leftwards arrow” |
| Windows | Alt + 27 |
| Any Mac app | Emojibar: click the menubar icon, search “left arrow”, click to copy |
Left arrow codes for HTML, CSS and LaTeX
| Unicode | U+2190 |
| HTML | ← · ← |
| CSS content | "\2190" |
| LaTeX | \leftarrow |