What is the proper HTML entity for the "x" in a dimension?

html character html-entities semantic-markup typography
Nick picture Nick · Aug 17, 2012 · Viewed 64.7k times · Source

Is the proper HTML entity for giving dimensions ×? I want to be semantically correct, but that begs the question, is listing a dimension as 2" x 3" even semantic? If the x represents "by", would I use the letter x or ×?

In my code I've been using 2″ × 3″, or 2″ × 3″. The non-breaking spaces are to prevent the dimension from being wrapped, as per the suggestions found in The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web.

Answer

unor picture unor · Aug 18, 2012

×

  • Unicode: U+00D7 MULTIPLICATION SIGN
  • HTML: ×, ×
  • CSS: \00d7

See the Wikipedia article about the multiplication sign:

In mathematics, the symbol × (read as times or multiplied by) is primarily used to denote the […]

  • Geometric dimension of an object, such as noting that a room is 10×12 feet in area.

Depending on the context, the math element (for MathML) element could be of use.

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