You paste some fancy text, and instead of letters your friend sees a row of empty rectangles (often called "tofu"), question marks or diamond shapes. Nothing is broken with the text itself. The device showing it simply doesn't have a picture of those characters.
What's actually happening
Styled fonts from Letterpop are not real fonts. They're Unicode characters: letters from special blocks of the Unicode standard, such as the Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols block, which was created for writing math formulas. Every character has a code number, and every phone or computer draws characters using the fonts it has installed.
When a device's fonts don't include a drawing (a glyph) for a character, it shows a placeholder instead. That's the box. The character is still there, which is why it may display perfectly on another phone.
Which styles are safest
| Style | Example | Support |
|---|
| Bold sans | ๐๐ฒ๐น๐น๐ผ | Excellent |
| Bold serif | ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ | Excellent |
| Italic | ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ | Excellent |
| Cursive | ๐๐ฎ๐ต๐ต๐ธ | Very good |
| Old English | โ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฌ | Very good |
| Bubble letters | โฝโโโโ | Very good |
| Small caps | สแดสสแด | Good, a few letters vary |
| Squares and rare decorations | ๐ท๐ด๐ป๐ป๐พ | Patchy on older Android phones |
Modern iPhones, recent Android phones and current versions of Windows and macOS show almost every style. Problems are most common on old Android versions, some smart TVs and game consoles, and older PCs.
How to fix it
- Switch to a simpler style. Bold, italic and cursive work almost everywhere.
- Update the device. System updates often add new fonts that cover more characters.
- Try another app or browser. Some apps bring their own fonts and display more characters than others.
- Check where you pasted it. Some websites and games filter unusual characters and replace them with question marks. That's a rule of the site, not a display problem.
Boxes vs. question marks
An empty box usually means the device received the character but has no glyph to draw it. A question mark, or a diamond with a question mark inside, more often means the text was damaged on the way, for example by an older app or website that doesn't handle these characters. If you see question marks, try pasting into a different field or app.
Questions
Why can I see the font but my friend can't?
Each device draws characters with its own installed fonts. If your friend's phone has no glyph for a character, it shows a box instead. Bold and italic styles are the safest choice for text other people will read.
Will the boxes turn back into letters later?
Often, yes. The characters are still in the text, so they display correctly once the device gets a font update or the text is viewed somewhere else.
Do emoji have the same problem?
Yes. New emoji can show as boxes on devices that haven't been updated yet, for exactly the same reason.