The multiplication (or times) sign differs from the lowercase x in both form and function. The lowercase x often has different stroke weights for its two cross members and has serifs on the ends of the lines. Also, the angle at which the strokes join can vary depending on the typeface, and the intersection's height may vary.

The multiplication sign, however, has the same stroke weight for both lines and they meet at a 90-degree angle. There are no serifs on the ends of the strokes, and its center sits at the same height (and is as wide) as the plus, minus, and division sign. The multiplication sign can be used in HTML using the sequence × (×). Its Unicode character is #00d7.

Compare the x (left) with the multiplication sign (right).

This character should be used in mathematical equations to denote (obviously) multiplication (e.g. 3 × 4 = 12), or in dimensions (e.g. 8×10 photo).