What it does
Each style swaps ordinary letters for characters from a different part of Unicode: the Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols block for bold, italic, script, gothic, double-struck, sans and monospace; Enclosed Alphanumerics for bubble and squared letters; and phonetic letters for small caps. Because the result is text rather than formatting, it keeps its look wherever it's pasted, including X display names and bios. Most of these characters count as two on X.
Which styles are available?
Eighteen character sets and two decorations.
| Style | Example | Counts on X as |
|---|---|---|
| Bold serif | 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐩 | 2 per letter |
| Italic serif | 𝐹𝑙𝑖𝑝 | 2 per letter |
| Bold italic | 𝑭𝒍𝒊𝒑 | 2 per letter |
| Sans, sans bold, sans italic | 𝖥𝗅𝗂𝗉 𝗙𝗹𝗶𝗽 𝘍𝘭𝘪𝘱 | 2 per letter |
| Script, bold script | 𝒮𝒸𝓇𝒾𝓅𝓉 𝓢𝓬𝓻𝓲𝓹𝓽 | 2 per letter |
| Gothic, bold gothic | 𝔉𝔩𝔦𝔭 𝕱𝖑𝖎𝖕 | 2 per letter |
| Double-struck | 𝔽𝕝𝕚𝕡 | 2 per letter |
| Monospace | 𝙵𝚕𝚒𝚙 | 2 per letter |
| Bubble, black bubble | Ⓕⓛⓘⓟ 🅕🅛🅘🅟 | 2 per letter |
| Squared, black squared | 🄵🄻🄸🄿 🅵🅻🅸🅿 | 2 per letter |
| Small caps | ꜰʟɪᴘ | 1 or 2, depending on the letter |
| Full width | Ｆｌｉｐ | 2 per letter |
| Strikethrough, underline | F̶l̶i̶p̶ | 2 per letter (letter plus mark) |
What should I know before using them on X?
They cost more characters, they hide words from search and they can confuse screen readers.
A display name on X can be up to 50 characters, and a bio up to 160. A bold name uses up twice the room of a plain one. Search is the bigger catch: X matches the characters you type, so nobody searching for "designer" will find 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿 in your bio. And screen reader software often reads these characters one by one as "mathematical bold small d", or not at all. The guide to fancy fonts in names and bios goes through the trade-offs.
Why does a style look broken on someone else's screen?
Their device doesn't have a font that includes that character, so it shows a box or a question mark instead.
The mathematical alphabets are well supported on current phones and computers. The black squared and black bubble letters come from a block shared with emoji-style symbols and occasionally render as coloured emoji or as boxes on older systems. If it matters, check on a second device.
Questions people ask
Why do some styles skip a few letters?
They don't skip; they borrow. When Unicode added the mathematical alphabets, some letters already existed as symbols, such as ℎ (Planck's constant) and the script ℬ, ℰ, ℱ, ℋ, ℐ, ℒ, ℳ and ℛ. Unicode left gaps in the new block and the tool fills them from the older one, which is why those letters can look slightly different in some fonts.
Why are some styles capitals only?
Black bubble, squared and black squared letters only exist as capitals in Unicode, so lowercase input is shown in capitals for those three.
Can I use these in my X username?
No. Usernames (your @handle) only accept A to Z, 0 to 9 and underscores. Your display name and bio accept them, and so do posts.
How do I turn fancy text back into normal text?
Paste it into the decoder. It maps every style back to plain letters and strips strikethrough, underline and glitch marks.