Bullet (typography)

"Bullet points" redirects here. For the Marvel Comics series, see Bullet Points (comics).

Not to be confused with interpunct ·  .

In typography, a bullet ( • ) is a typographical symbol or glyph used to introduce items in a list. For example:

• Item 1
• Item 2
• Item 3

It is likely that the name originated from the resemblance of the traditional circular bullet symbol (•) to a projectile bullet, which were spherical until the second half of the 19th century.

The bullet symbol may take any of a variety of shapes, such as circular, square, diamond, arrow, etc., and typical word processor software offer a wide selection of shapes and colours. Several regular symbols are conventionally used in ASCII-only text or other environments where bullet characters are not available, such as * (asterisk), - (hyphen), . (period), and even o (lowercase O). When writing by hand, bullets may be drawn in any style. Historically, the index symbol 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).

Usage

Bullets are most often used in technical writing, reference works, notes, and presentations.

Example:

Where are bullets most often used?

• Technical writing
• Reference works
• Notes
• Presentations

An alternative method is to use a numbered list:

Where are bullets most often used?

1. Technical writing
2. Reference works
3. Notes
4. Presentations

Bullet points

Bulleted 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. In some cases, 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.

Computer encoding and keyboard entry

• U+2022 • BULLET (HTML •<dot-separator> •)
• U+2023 ‣ TRIANGULAR BULLET (HTML ‣)
• U+25E6 ◦ WHITE BULLET (HTML ◦)
• U+2043 ⁃ HYPHEN BULLET (HTML ⁃)
• U+204C ⁌ BLACK LEFTWARDS BULLET (HTML ⁌)
• U+204D ⁍ BLACK RIGHTWARDS BULLET (HTML ⁍)
• U+2219 ∙ BULLET OPERATOR (HTML ∙) for use in mathematical notation primarily as a dot product instead of interpunct.

However, semantics normally requires that bulleted items be achieved with the appropriate use of the <li> tag inside an unordered list (<ul>). Such lists may be denoted with leading asterisks in Wikipedia markup as well as in many other wikis.

In the Windows-1252 and several other Windows code pages, the standard circular bullet character is at 149 (decimal). To input this Alt code in Windows, press and hold Alt+0149 on the numeric keypad). The bullet symbol is also generated by Alt+7 in GUI applications, but Alt+7 in a Windows text interface (such as a Win32 console application) it generates ␇ (the bell character). Also, it can be confused with bullet symbol in code page 437 and other OEM code pages (see #In historical systems section).

On Mac OS X, pressing ⌥ Opt+8 inserts a bullet, while pressing ⇧ Shift+⌥ Opt+9 inserts the similar interpunct (·).

GTK+ applications on Linux support the ISO 14755-conformant hex Unicode input system; hold Ctrl+⇧ Shift while tapping U, then type 2022 and press ↵ Enter to insert a • or hold Ctrl+⇧ Shift while tapping U, then type B7 and press ↵ Enter to insert a midpoint.

In historical systems

Glyphs "•", "◦" and their reversed variants "◘", "◙" 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, bullets were often denoted either by a lower-case o filled in with ink or by asterisks (*); several word processors automatically convert asterisks to bullets if used at the start of line. This notation was inherited by Setext and wiki engines.

Others forms of use

The bullet is often used for separating menu items, usually in the footer menu. It is common, for example, to see it in latest website designs and in many WordPress themes. It is also used by text editors, like Microsoft Word, to create lists. In HTML, a bullet appears before the text in a "<li>" tag when placed in a "<ul>" tag, or when configured by CSS.

It can be used as a math symbol. Specifically, in logic, "x • y" means logical conjunction. It is the same as saying "x and y" (see also List of logic symbols).

Further reading

• Digitized 2007-12-20 by University of Michigan Libraries.