U+FF1C "＜" Fullwidth Less-than Sign Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
＜
U+FF1C "＜" Fullwidth Less-than Sign is a typographic variant of the standard ASCII less-than sign, designed to occupy the full width of a CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) character cell, making it visually consistent with other fullwidth characters in East Asian text. It is primarily used in mixed-language contexts, such as in programming or typesetting, where monospaced or proportional fonts require alignment with other fullwidth symbols like brackets or punctuation. This character is distinct from the regular less-than sign (U+003C) in its width and is part of the Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms Unicode block, ensuring proper spacing and readability in scripts that utilize a fullwidth character grid.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+FF1C |
| Version Added | 1.1 |
| Name | Fullwidth Less-than Sign |
| Block | Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms |
| General Category | Math Symbol |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Other Neutral |
| Mirrored | Yes |
| Mirrored Character | "＞" U+FF1E Fullwidth Greater-than Sign |
| Decomposition Type | Wide |
| Decomposition Mapping | "<" U+003C Less-than Sign |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ＜ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ＜ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xEF 0xBC 0x9C |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0xFF1C |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x0000FF1C |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \uff1c |
Unicode Properties
| NFC Quick Check | Yes |
| NFD Quick Check | Yes |
| Numeric Type | None |
| Numeric Value | NaN |
| Line Break | Ideographic |
| East Asian Width | Fullwidth |
| Changes When NFKC Casefolded | Yes |
| NFKC Casefold | "<" U+003C Less-than Sign |
| NFKC Simple Casefold | "<" U+003C Less-than Sign |
| Script | Common |
| Script Extensions | Common |
| Indic Syllabic Category | Other |
| Math | Yes |
| Vertical Orientation | Rotated |
| Grapheme Base | Yes |
| Grapheme Cluster Break | Other |
| Word Break | Other |
| Sentence Break | Other |