Why Fancy Text Shows Up as Boxes or Question Marks
Updated
Fancy text is made of real Unicode characters. To draw a character, a device needs a font that contains it. If none of its fonts do, it shows a placeholder: an empty box (□, often called “tofu”), a box with a code inside, or a question mark (�).
Why it happens
- Older devices have fewer fonts. Newer Unicode characters may be missing.
- Rare scripts like Vai, Bamum or cuneiform aren’t installed on many phones. Those styles are marked “may show boxes” on this site.
- Some apps use their own fonts with limited coverage, or strip unusual characters altogether.
How to avoid it
- Stick to well-supported styles for anything important: bold, italic, bold italic, cursive, small caps, bubble and fullwidth work almost everywhere.
- Preview before posting. Paste into a draft and look at it on another device if you can.
- Remember your readers. Even if you can see it, someone with an older phone may not.
Accessibility
Even when the letters display fine, screen readers may read them out character by character or skip them. If something must be understood by everyone, write it in plain text. The Unstyle tool converts fancy text back.
The symbol library sticks to symbols that most phones can show; anything that tends to be drawn as a colour emoji is marked to show as plain text.