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A looped square with four outward corners, marking the Mac command key.
Also known as: Cmd key, Apple key, Propeller, Cloverleaf, Looped square, Bowen knot
The command symbol marks the modifier key used for menu shortcuts on Apple keyboards. Its shape is a Nordic sign for a place of interest, chosen by Susan Kare when Steve Jobs objected to using the Apple logo on menus.
Marks the command modifier key on Apple keyboards, used with a letter to invoke a menu shortcut.
Contexts: Software
Appears in menus beside a shortcut letter, showing which combination performs the item without using the mouse.
Contexts: Software
Takes its form from a Nordic sign used on maps and road signage for a place of interest or campground; it was chosen for the Macintosh when the Apple logo was ruled out for menu use.
1984 onward on the Macintosh · Contexts: Software
Is a looped square, a figure long used in Nordic cartography and signage to mark a place of interest — it appears on Swedish road signs pointing to a castle or a monument. Apple's Susan Kare took it from a symbol dictionary when the company decided the Apple logo was being over-used in menus, and it has been the Command key ever since.
Apple platforms; the figure itself is older and Nordic · 1984 onward · Contexts: Software
Is read in keyboard shortcuts and menu listings rather than pressed on its own. A menu showing the symbol beside a letter is telling the reader the shortcut; on a keyboard sold outside the United States the same key may also be printed with the word cmd or, on older machines, with an apple.
Contexts: Software
Related forms that are not treated as separate canonical symbols — see our variant rules.
Open Apple key
An outline apple, printed on the Command key of Apple II and early Macintosh keyboards alongside or instead of the looped square.
Unicode PLACE OF INTEREST SIGN
U+2318 — the character's Unicode name records the Nordic signage use rather than the keyboard one, which is the older claim.
A square outline whose four corners continue outward into small loops, drawn as one continuous line.