Using fancy fonts on X (Twitter)
X has no bold or italic button for regular posts, which is why styled Unicode is common there. The catch: Xโs counting rules (published in its open-source twitter-text library) weigh most fancy characters as 2, so styled text eats your 280 characters twice as fast.
The counter below uses that weighting. Style a hook word, not the whole post โ and never style hashtags, which stop working as links.
Styles on this page
- Bold sans โ The most readable bold. Digits included. Works almost everywhere
- Italic sans โ Mathematical Sans-Serif Italic. Works almost everywhere
- Bold serif โ Mathematical Bold, U+1D400 block. Works almost everywhere
- Italic serif โ Italic h borrows โ (U+210E, Planck constant). Works almost everywhere
- Bold cursive โ Complete alphabet, no borrowed letters. Works almost everywhere
- Monospace โ Typewriter look, every letter the same width. Works almost everywhere
- Small caps โ Phonetic letters; ๊ฐ and ๊ฑ missing on some older phones. Works on most devices
- Strikethrough โ Combining long stroke U+0336 after each letter. Works on most devices
- Underline โ Combining low line U+0332. Works on most devices
Curious why these letters are not a real font? See how Unicode styles work, step by step.
Questions
Why do my bold words count as 2 characters?
X counts code points outside a few common ranges as 2. Mathematical bold letters (U+1D400 and up) fall outside, so each costs 2.
Do styled hashtags work?
No. #๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ต๐๐ฎ๐ด is not the same text as #hashtag, so it will not link or trend. Keep hashtags plain.
Does X support bold natively?
Formatting for long posts is a paid feature. For regular posts and bios, Unicode styles are the only option.