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We often see people use the "greater than" character (>) in their breadcrumbs' HTML code[1] to indicate the direction within their breadcrumbs. That obviously is incorrect because the "greater than" character is for mathematical use and doesn't actually have any directional meaning.

So is there an unicode character which is dedicated for directional use?

I searched some arrow shaped characters, such as this one: →, but many of them are for mathematical use as well. And some others' definitions are "nonspacing combining mark", which I guess doesn't have directional meaning either.


  1. It's fine if the "greater than" character is added through CSS generated content or background image.
Ian Y.
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    While looking for another character than `>` for directional use is fine; I don't see how one can say it's wrong for others to choose to use it. On the same lines you could say StackOverflow's approach of showing `breadcrumbs` x 326 is wrong since you can't multiply Strings! – Ravi K Thapliyal Apr 28 '13 at 11:52
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    My point is that it serves the purpose and the very fact that `>` is used as `>` (html encoded entity) makes the intention clear that it isn't being used as a mathematical or relational operator. – Ravi K Thapliyal Apr 28 '13 at 11:54
  • @Ravi. I had no offensive meaning. I was just pointing out `>` is for mathematical use so using it in HTML for direction is an incorrect use. And yeah, strictly speaking, "breadcrumbs x 326" is an incorrect use, too. – Ian Y. Apr 28 '13 at 11:57
  • @Ravi. And using `>` for direction may confuse assistive technologies users because they might hear something like: link Home greater than link About Us greater than Our History. – Ian Y. Apr 28 '13 at 12:12
  • Now that's a point worth considering. Perhaps, in this new context I'm willing to accept your point of view. – Ravi K Thapliyal Apr 28 '13 at 12:19

3 Answers3

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I have at times used » » for breadcrumbs but I'm not sure if it's absolutely meant for directional use! Quite frankly I base my decision on which character looks the best given a particular font-family and font-size I'm using on a page. And sometimes > does look better! :)

Anyways, the directionally opposite entity of » is « «. See if these two could serve your purpose.

HTML entity codes & names:

» » &187;   right-pointing double angle quotation mark = right pointing guillemet
« « &171;   left-pointing double angle quotation mark = left pointing guillemet

Ravi K Thapliyal
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  • Thanks. Yet as far as I know, `»` means "right arrow quotation". French people use `«` and `»` as their quotation marks. – Ian Y. Apr 28 '13 at 12:19
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    Yes, it's called `right-pointing double angle quotation mark` or `right pointing guillemet`. Just googled it! – Ravi K Thapliyal Apr 28 '13 at 12:24
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Unicode encodes characters, not meanings. It does not have a character for an abstract concept of direction, for example. The arrow characters are characterized as being for multiple use; the Unicode Standard, chapter 15 says: “Arrows are used for a variety of purposes: to imply directional relation, to show logical derivation or implication, and to represent the cursor control keys.”

Note that breadcrumbs are really not about direction but about hierarchy. This does not change the applicability of characters.

The use of “>” and “­­»”, though somewhat illogical and impractical, has become so common that people are getting used to it. The main practical argument in favor of “→” or some other arrow character is that it is more recognizable than the tiny “»” and that it looks typographically better than “>”. The main practical problem is presentational, too: in some fonts, most notably Calibri, “→” is odd looking, with a huge arrowhead. But this problem can be avoided by using a different font.

Jukka K. Korpela
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  • Thank you for the info. So arrow characters can be used for directions. – Ian Y. Apr 28 '13 at 13:43
  • With regarding to what breadcrumbs are about, direction or hierarchy, that's an interesting subject which worth discussing. Maybe in another thread. According to the word's origin, the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel", I guess they're about direction. – Ian Y. Apr 28 '13 at 13:44
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\203A (>) renders best in IE8, Chrome, FF and Safari for Windows. Since 2003, Jacob Nielsen recommends the > breadcrumb separator. In 2001 he said that "when a single symbol ever gains enough prominence to be used on more than 50% of the sites, then [he] would surely recommend using that." He now recommends it. > has more or less become the standard. But I still like the → (\2192)

ryanjohnsond
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