Uryū Ishida is a black-haired, bespectacled teenager of average height. He is a good student and is sometimes seen as the slightly awkward nerdy type. He has an unusual interest in sewing, as he is in the crafts club at school, and makes excellent grades, coming in first place on exams. Uryū is generally shy and quiet, but tries harder to act cool when other people are around.

Uryū operates on a moral ethic known as the "Pride of the Quincy" and has a strong sense of justice. He has also shown to be very chivalrous, stating that he enacts justice on men who abuse or treat women badly. Uryū also has a tendency to prefer to simply incapacitate his opponent, not using lethal force in battle unless thoroughly provoked, especially if he can win without doing so.

As a child, Uryū mostly interacted and trained with his grandfather, Sōken Ishida. At a fairly young age, Uryū's grandfather was killed by hollows right in front of him.This is one of the reasons he hates Soul Reapers, who, despite keeping the old man under near-constant survellance, did not come to rescue Sōken in time.He long believed that the Soul Reapers were merely taking advantage of circumstances to be rid of him. It was later revealed that the current captain of the 12th Division, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, was behind the delay so that Sōken's soul could be collected for study.Despite becoming a friend of the Soul Reaper Ichigo Kurosaki, Uryū does not like to be considered a friend as he still claims he hates Soul Reapers, and thus, Ichigo is his enemy.However, Uryū tends to accompany Ichigo in any fight, giving several excuses such as that Ichigo is "an agent acting as a Soul Reaper."

When first introduced, Uryū uses the most common ability from the Quinces: a bow named Lone Sparrow (弧雀, Kōjaku), which has a basic form and a luminescent. Being made of free-flowing spirit particles, its size can be affected the amount of spirit particles and spiritual pressure available to it, as seen in his interaction with Ichigo during his first encounter with a Menos Grande.Additionally, he is able to use many Quincy techniques and items to augment his abilities, including some high-level techniques, which are rare enough that even Mayuri Kurotsuchi, who had studied 2661 Quincy, had never seen them in person.

As preparation for his travel to Soul Society, Uryū later masters the sanrei glove, greatly increasing his abilities via a form of resistance training. In this state, Uryū's bow is solid and covered in an intricate pattern. This new bow allows Uryū to fire several shots simultaneously.By removing the glove, Uryū attains the Quincy Final Form. The Quincy Final Form gives him a vast increase in power, enough to defeat a captain-class Soul Reaper with ease. As a result of removing the glove, however, the Quincy Final Form uses too much power for Uryū's body to handle, causing his body to block his Quincy powers completely after it wears off.

After Uryū regains his powers with the aid of his father, he uses a new Quincy cross, this one resembling a pentancle, and a variant of his original bow called Lone Sparrow on a Silver Cliff (銀嶺弧雀, Ginrei Kōjaku). Unlike his original bow, this bow is shaped like a spiderweb and can fire up to 1,200 shots at once.Uryū also steals a set of Seele Schneiders
(魂を切り裂くもの（ゼーレシュナイダー, Zēre Shunaidā, German and Japanese for "soul cutter"), special arrows which can be used as swords. Seele Schneiders can also be used in a reiatsu-based pentacle with the target at the center. Upon receiving Uryu's spiritual energy, it explodes.