How to type the typeset “space” character

keyboard

I've used the Keyboard Viewer a few times, and disappointingly have never seen the "space" character: ␣

Is it possible to type this character directly via some combination of meta keys (option/shift)?

Best Answer

There doesn't seem to be any way to insert it using the default U.S. input source or other normal keyboard layouts:

$ grep -r '␣' /Volumes/Ukelele\ 2.2.4/System\ Keyboards/
$

Unicode Hex Input is the only keylayout that uses multipliers. If you use Unicode Hex Input, you can insert ␣ by typing 2423 while holding option.

Or create ~/Library/KeyBindings/ and save a property list like this as DefaultKeyBinding.dict:

{
    "~S" = (insertText:, "␣"); // option-shift-s
}

You could also make a new keyboard layout or add characters to the press and hold popovers. I'm currently using an AppleScript (posted in this question) to insert special characters and plain text snippets.

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