A character is the abstract unit of a text: a letter, a figure, a punctuation mark or a symbol, defined by its meaning rather than its design. The character “a” stays the same whatever font displays it, which sets it apart from the glyph, its visible form.
Where to see it
Characters reveal themselves when text is copied from one document and pasted into another: the shape of the letters changes with the font, but the characters carried over stay identical. They are also what is counted in a “character count”, regardless of the font used.
Why this detail matters
Understanding the notion of character avoids many misunderstandings in typography:
- Separating meaning from form makes it possible to change fonts without rewriting the text: only the glyphs change, the characters remain;
- It is the character, not its appearance, that search engines, screen readers and translation tools read;
- In everyday French, the word caractère also refers to a typeface or a type family, as in “un caractère à empattements” (a serif typeface): context makes the difference.
Related term
A glyph is the drawn shape that represents a character in a given font; the same character can have several glyphs.