Unicode font
compatibility data

What we measured

We measured every text style and every symbol, combo and divider that this site offers: 62 styles and 889 entries in 12 symbol groups. For each one we looked up every character in the system fonts of Windows 10 and of Android 8, 10, 12 and the latest Android source. The styles were also read against Android 14, with the same result as the latest source.

This describes the characters on this site, not all of Unicode. Some symbols were added to our lists only when Android 8 and Windows 10 already had them, so the share of problems here is lower than it would be for a random pick of Unicode characters. The invisible and blank characters are left out, because their job is to show nothing.

How we tested

• Windows 10: the stock font files of one Windows 10 PC (version 22H2): 139 files from the Windows font folder, picked from a fixed list, with Office and third-party fonts left out. A character counts as found if any of these fonts has it, which assumes an app that falls back to other fonts the way a browser does.
• Android: every font file named in Android's own font list (fonts.xml) at the releases android-8.0.0_r1, android-10.0.0_r1, android-12.0.0_r1 and android-14.0.0_r1, and at the main branch on the test date. We downloaded the files from android.googlesource.com (162, 236, 190, 189 and 190 files). This reads the fonts that Android ships. We did not run the test on phones.
• Glyph lookup: we read the character table (cmap) of every file with fontTools. For TrueType fonts an empty outline does not count as found, except for spaces.
• Emoji: the colour emoji font could not be downloaded for Android 12, 14 and the main branch, so emoji coverage there follows Android's documented support for Unicode emoji up to version 13.0, 15.0 and 16.0. On Android 8 and 10 the emoji were read from the font files.
• Cross-check: on the same day Chrome on Windows 10 drew 2,110 of these characters on a canvas and compared each with the empty-box glyph. It showed 11 boxes, and they were exactly the 11 that the font files predicted for Windows 10.

Test date: 2026-10-24. We read the characters of each style for the letters a to z, A to Z and the digits, plus its decorations.

What the labels mean

• Safe. Styles: every glyph found on Windows 10 and Android 8 or later, no combining marks and no emoji. Symbols: every character has a glyph on Android 8 or later and on Windows 10, and none switches to emoji.
• Mostly safe. Styles: some glyphs are missing on older systems, or the style uses combining marks, or a few letters can turn into colour emoji. Symbols: missing on Android 8 only, or may switch to emoji, or has combining marks.
• May show boxes. Styles: less than 95% of glyphs on Android 10 or Windows 10, a missing glyph on current Android, characters that are colour emoji by default, or letters that form flags. Symbols: no glyph on Android 10, on current Android or on Windows 10.
• All glyphs, a percentage or None in the style table is the share of the style's characters that the system's fonts contain. The label also looks at emoji and combining marks, so a style can have all glyphs everywhere and still not be Safe.

Limits

• iPhone, iPad and Mac were not measured. Apple does not publish which characters its fonts cover, and we have not tested an Apple device. Read the Not measured cells as unknown, not as safe or unsafe.
• Phone makers' own fonts, such as those of Samsung or Xiaomi, apps that draw text by themselves, and Windows versions other than 10 were not measured.
• Some Android font files could not be downloaded: Latin text fonts such as Dancing Script and Source Sans Pro, a serif font for Chinese, Japanese and Korean, and for Android 12 onwards the colour emoji font. They are not general symbol fonts, but we cannot rule out small gaps.
• A glyph that exists says nothing about its shape, its weight or whether neighbouring letters line up.
• One test date and one Windows PC. Systems change when they update, so the date matters.

Notes by family

• Cute: letters with hearts, stars and sparkles between or around them. The one that may show boxes is Ribbon script, and only because its ribbon is a colour emoji.
• Cursive: script, old English and italic letters from Unicode's mathematical alphabets. All Safe in our test.
• Bubble: letters in circles and squares. Bubble and Filled squares are Mostly safe because a few of their letters can turn into emoji. Letter tiles uses regional indicator letters, which many systems draw as country flags, so it may look very different or show boxes.
• Small: small capitals, tiny raised and lowered letters. All Safe.
• Bold and wide: bold, sans, typewriter, double-struck, wide and spaced letters. All Safe.
• Flip and glitch: the nine styles that use combining marks (underline, strikethrough, glitch and others) are Mostly safe. The glyphs exist everywhere, but the marks stack in different ways in different apps and each mark counts as a character.
• Numbers: numbers in circles. All Safe.
• Look-alikes: letters borrowed from other alphabets. Their glyphs were found everywhere, but they are decoration only, because a screen reader announces the real characters and not your word.
• Symbols: most groups have no missing glyphs at all. The gaps are newer emoji from Unicode 11 to 15, letters from small scripts such as Balinese, Batak, Cham, Lepcha and Tai Le that Windows 10 lacks, and two characters, Power Sleep Symbol (U+23FE) and Heart With Tip On The Left (U+1F394), that none of the Android releases we measured include. The table above lists every entry with a gap.

Accessibility: use fancy text sparingly

Fancy Unicode text is not styled text. It is a set of other characters that look like letters. A screen reader may read each one by its Unicode name, such as mathematical bold script small c, or skip it, so a name or a bio can become a string of strange words. The user guide of the NVDA screen reader (version 2025.3) says that its Unicode normalization, which is on by default, reads bold and italic look-alike letters as plain letters. That helps only for characters that have a plain equivalent in Unicode: 31 of our 62 styles do. Other screen readers, older versions and other settings behave differently. We did not test any screen reader ourselves: this paragraph rests on the NVDA documentation and on how Unicode names its characters.

Combining marks, such as underline, strikethrough and glitch, are the hardest to read, for screen readers and for people with dyslexia. Search boxes and filters may also fail to find a name written in fancy letters.

Our advice is the same as on the style pages: use fancy text for decoration, in a display name or a flourish, and not for anything a person must be able to read. Put important information in plain text: names, dates, addresses, links and instructions. If you use a fancy style, put the plain version somewhere nearby. Safe in the tables means that glyphs were found. It does not mean that everyone can read the text.