About the letter B in fancy fonts
The letter B has two bowls stacked on one stem, and fancy fonts treat those bowls very differently. Script โฌ loops them together. Gothic ๐ opens them into angular hooks. Double-struck ๐น keeps them round but adds a second stem.
Pick a style below to copy it, or type a full name in the box to see the same style applied to every letter.
Where the letter B comes from
B descends from the Phoenician letter beth, meaning "house", originally drawn as a simple floor plan. The Greeks adapted it into beta, and the Latin alphabet took the shape over almost unchanged. The lowercase b developed as scribes wrote the top bowl smaller and smaller until only the ascender was left above the lower bowl.
How B behaves in different styles
Script capital B is special. Its "real" character is โฌ (Script Capital B, U+212C) in the Letterlike Symbols block, not in the Mathematical Alphanumeric block where the other script capitals live. Mathematicians used โฌ (for things like the Bernoulli function) before Unicode added a full script alphabet, so Unicode kept the older character and left a gap where the new one would have gone.
In practice this means โฌ can look slightly larger or thinner than its neighbours on some devices, because a different part of the font draws it. If you're writing a whole word in script and the B looks out of place, bold script ๐ comes from the main block and matches the rest of the letters more closely.
Unicode characters for B and b
Each style is a separate Unicode character. Names and code points below come from the Unicode Character Database. Characters marked Letterlike come from the older Letterlike Symbols block, not the main math alphabet. A dash means Unicode has no character for that combination.
| Style | Capital B | Lowercase b |
|---|---|---|
| Script | โฌ U+212C ยท Script Capital B ยท Letterlike | ๐ท U+1D4B7 ยท Mathematical Script Small B |
| Bold script | ๐ U+1D4D1 ยท Mathematical Bold Script Capital B | ๐ซ U+1D4EB ยท Mathematical Bold Script Small B |
| Fraktur (gothic) | ๐ U+1D505 ยท Mathematical Fraktur Capital B | ๐ U+1D51F ยท Mathematical Fraktur Small B |
| Bold fraktur | ๐ญ U+1D56D ยท Mathematical Bold Fraktur Capital B | ๐ U+1D587 ยท Mathematical Bold Fraktur Small B |
| Double-struck | ๐น U+1D539 ยท Mathematical Double-Struck Capital B | ๐ U+1D553 ยท Mathematical Double-Struck Small B |
| Bold serif | ๐ U+1D401 ยท Mathematical Bold Capital B | ๐ U+1D41B ยท Mathematical Bold Small B |
| Italic serif | ๐ต U+1D435 ยท Mathematical Italic Capital B | ๐ U+1D44F ยท Mathematical Italic Small B |
| Bold sans | ๐ U+1D5D5 ยท Mathematical Sans-Serif Bold Capital B | ๐ฏ U+1D5EF ยท Mathematical Sans-Serif Bold Small B |
| Monospace | ๐ฑ U+1D671 ยท Mathematical Monospace Capital B | ๐ U+1D68B ยท Mathematical Monospace Small B |
| Circled | โท U+24B7 ยท Circled Latin Capital Letter B | โ U+24D1 ยท Circled Latin Small Letter B |
| Negative circled | ๐ U+1F151 ยท Negative Circled Latin Capital Letter B | — |
| Squared | ๐ฑ U+1F131 ยท Squared Latin Capital Letter B | — |
| Negative squared | ๐ ฑ U+1F171 ยท Negative Squared Latin Capital Letter B | — |
| Fullwidth | ๏ผข U+FF22 ยท Fullwidth Latin Capital Letter B | ๏ฝ U+FF42 ยท Fullwidth Latin Small Letter B |
| Small capital | ส U+0299 ยท Latin Letter Small Capital B | — |
Where people use a fancy B
- The ๐ ฑ meme. Negative Squared Latin Capital Letter B (๐ ฑ) doubles as the red "blood type B" emoji ๐ ฑ๏ธ, which became an internet joke format where hard B sounds are swapped for ๐ ฑ๏ธ. It's the easiest fancy B to recognise.
- Brand names and initials. Bold serif ๐ and bold sans ๐ are the most readable choices for business pages.
- Music and gaming tags. Bold fraktur ๐ญ is popular for metal, drill and gaming usernames that need a heavier look.
FAQs about the letter B in different fonts
Why is the script B a different size from other script letters?
โฌ is an older Unicode character (U+212C, Letterlike Symbols) that some fonts design separately from the Mathematical Script alphabet. Bold script ๐ matches the other script letters more consistently.
Is ๐ ฑ a letter or an emoji?
Both. It's encoded as Negative Squared Latin Capital Letter B, and it's also the blood type B emoji. Phones usually show the colourful emoji version, especially when it appears on its own.
Is there a small-caps b?
Yes: ส (Latin Letter Small Capital B, U+0299). It comes from the phonetic alphabet, where it represents a lip trill, and most phones display it well.