X (Twitter) Font Generator

Why styled text counts as 2 characters on X

A standard X post allows 280 characters, but X counts them by weight, not one by one. Its published counting rules (docs.x.com and the twitter-text reference config) give a weight of 1 only to a short list of code-point ranges covering ordinary Latin text and common punctuation. Everything outside those ranges counts as 2, and that includes the entire Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols block (U+1D400 to U+1D7FF) that every font generator, this one included, draws its bold, italic and cursive letters from.

The practical consequence: a post written entirely in a fancy font maxes out at about 140 visible characters, half the normal limit. Styling a single word costs you one extra character per letter; styling a whole paragraph costs you half your post. Two related rules from the same spec are worth knowing: every URL counts as 23 characters regardless of its real length, and every emoji counts as 2, even multi-part ones.

This is why the counter on this page shows the weighted count rather than the number of letters you can see. These limits were checked against X’s own developer documentation in August 2026.

Where X fonts work: posts, bio, display name and DMs

Styled Unicode text pastes into any X field that accepts free text, but each field has its own limit. Posts allow 280 weighted characters. Display names allow 50 characters and bios allow 160. Both take fancy fonts, and both are where most people use them, since a name or bio is short enough that the styling stays readable. Direct messages allow 10,000 characters, and image alt text allows 1,000.

The one field where fonts do not work is your @username. Handles are capped at 15 characters and restricted to plain letters, numbers and underscores, so styled characters are rejected there. Style the display name next to the handle instead.

One nuance X does not document: the weighted 2-per-character counting is only specified for posts. For the 50-character name and 160-character bio, plan around the visible length but leave headroom if you style heavily. The safest test is pasting into the field and watching X’s own counter.

Bold text on X without a font generator

As of 2026, X Premium subscribers (from the Basic tier up) get native bold and italic formatting on posts, plus a post limit of 25,000 characters instead of 280. If you publish long-form posts and already pay for Premium, native formatting is the better tool: it is real formatting rather than substituted characters, so screen readers and search treat the text normally and nothing costs double.

A Unicode generator remains the only way to get bold or italic text on a free account, and the only way to style the fields Premium formatting does not reach: your display name and bio. It also travels. The same characters paste into Instagram bios, Threads, Bluesky, Discord and any other plain-text field.

Accessibility, search and boxes: use fancy fonts carefully

Screen readers do not see 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝 as bold. They announce each substituted letter by its Unicode name (“mathematical bold capital B”) or skip the word entirely, so a fully styled bio or post reaches blind and low-vision followers as noise. Style one hook or a few key words, keep the body plain, and never style your entire bio.

Search on X matches literal characters. A styled word will not match anyone searching the plain spelling, and a styled hashtag can fail to link at all. Keep hashtags and any keyword you want to be found by in normal text.

If a follower sees empty boxes or squares instead of your font, their device lacks the glyphs. That rendering gap is called tofu, and it is most common on older Android builds and older desktop systems. Bold and italic render the most widely; ornate scripts and rare symbol styles fail first. Relatedly, some devices draw certain styles heavier or lighter than others, which is why the same “bold” can look less bold on one phone than another: the shapes come from the reader’s fonts, not from your post.