Bullet (typography)

Template:Char redirects here. For similar symbols, see Circle symbol (disambiguation).

In typography, a bullet or bullet point, Template:Char, is a typographical mark used to introduce items in a list. For example:

• Milk
• Eggs
• Bread
• Butter

The bullet symbol may take any of a variety of shapes, such as circular, square, diamond or arrow. Typical word processor software offers a wide selection of shapes and colors. Several regular symbols, such as Template:Char (asterisk), Template:Char (hyphen), Template:Char (period), and even Template:Char (lowercase Latin letter O), are conventionally used in ASCII-only text or other environments where bullet characters are not available. Historically, the index symbol Template:Char (representing a hand with a pointing index finger) was popular for similar uses.

Lists made with bullets are called bulleted lists. The HTML element name for a bulleted list is "unordered list", because the list items are not arranged in numerical order (as they would be in a numbered list).

"Bullet points"

Items—known as "bullet points"—may be short phrases, single sentences, or of paragraph length. Bulleted items are not usually terminated with a full stop unless they are complete sentences. However, the style guide for a given publication may call for every item except the last one in each bulleted list to be terminated with a semicolon, and the last item with a full stop. It is correct to terminate any bullet point with a full stop if the text within that item consists of one full sentence or more. Bullet points are usually used to highlight list elements.

History

The 1950 New York News Type Book is credited as the first style guide to define a use for bullets: as a typographic "Accessory" alongside asterisks, checks, and other marks available for advertisements in the News. The book "neither discusses the function of bullets in advertisements nor distinguishes them from any of the other items in the 'accessories' category", but shows them as a form of dinkus in an advertising panel.

Modern use

Example: "Bullets are often used in technical writing, reference works, notes, and presentations". This statement may be presented using bullets or other techniques.

Bullets are often used in:

• Technical writing
• Reference works
• Notes
• Presentations

Alternatives to bulleted lists are numbered lists and outlines (lettered lists, hierarchical lists). They are used either where the order is important or to label the items for later referencing.

Other uses

The bullet glyph is sometimes used to hide passwords or confidential information in a practice known as password masking. For example, the credit card number 1234 5678 9876 4321 might be displayed as •••• •••• •••• 4321.

Bullet operator

A variant, the bullet operator (U+2219 ∙ ), has a Unicode code point but its purpose does not appear to be documented. The glyph was transposed into Unicode from the original IBM PC character set, Code page 437, where it had the code point F9₁₆ (249₁₀).

Computer usage

There have been different ways to encode bullet points in computer systems.

In historical systems

Glyphs such as Template:Char, Template:Char and their reversed variants Template:Char, Template:Char became available in text mode since early IBM PCs with MDA–CGA–EGA graphic adapters, because built-in screen fonts contained such forms at code points 7–10. These were not true characters because such points belong to the C0 control codes range; therefore, these glyphs required a special way to be placed on the screen (see code page 437 for discussion).

Prior to the widespread use of word processors, a bullet was often denoted by an asterisk; several word processors automatically convert asterisks to bullets if used at the start of line. This notation was inherited by Setext and wiki engines.

In Unicode

There are a variety of Unicode bullet characters, including:

• U+2022 • ()
• U+2023 ‣ ()
• U+2043 ⁃ ()
• U+204C ⁌ ()
• U+204D ⁍ ()
• U+2219 ∙ ()
• U+22C5 ⋅
• U+25CB ○ ()
• U+25CF ● ()
• U+25D8 ◘ ()
• U+25E6 ◦ ()
• U+2619 ☙ (); see Fleuron (typography)
• U+2765 ❥ ()
• U+2767 ❧ (); see Fleuron (typography)
• U+29BE ⦾ ()
• U+29BF ⦿ ()
• U+25C9 ◉ () used in Japan as a bullet, and called tainome

In web pages

To create bulleted list items for a web page, the markup language HTML provides the list tag <li>. The browser will display one bulleted list item for each item in an unordered list.

In Windows

When using the US keyboard, a bullet point character can be produced by pressing 7 on the numpad while keeping Alt pressed.

In MacOS

When using the US keyboard, a bullet point character can be produced by pressing 8 while keeping Option(Alt) pressed.

In LaTeX

To create bulleted list items for a document, the markup language LaTeX provides the item tag \item . Each item tag inside an itemized list will generate one bulleted list item.

Wiki markup

A list item on a wiki page is indicated using one or more leading asterisks in wiki markup.

Other uses in computing

The bullet often separates menu items, usually in the footer menu. It is common, for example, in website designs and in many WordPress themes. It is also used by text editors, like Microsoft Word, to create lists.

Further reading

• Clair, Kate (1999). A Typographic Workbook: A Primer to History, Techniques, and Artistry. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780471292371. OCLC 40881446. Retrieved 28 October 2023. Access to most interior pages is via search.

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons