About the letter O in fancy fonts
O is a simple circle, so styles change it mostly through stroke weight and decoration. Double-struck ๐ adds an inner line, gothic ๐ breaks the circle into angular strokes, and bubble โ puts a circle around a circle.
Copy any style below. O is also the letter most often mistaken for a number, so there's a tip on that too.
Where the letter O comes from
O comes from the Phoenician ayin, meaning "eye", drawn as a circle. The Phoenician letter was a consonant, and the Greeks reused it as a vowel, omicron ("little O"), alongside omega ("big O"). The Romans took the round shape unchanged. O is one of the few letters that has barely changed shape in about 3,000 years.
How O behaves in different styles
Script small o is an exception: โด (Script Small O, U+2134) is an older Letterlike Symbols character, used in maths as an "order of" symbol. In a script word like ๐โด๐โฏ, both the o and the e come from this older block, which is why they can look slightly smaller. Bold script ๐ธ doesn't have this problem.
O and zero are easy to confuse. In monospace, ๐พ and ๐ถ look very similar. If your handle mixes letters and numbers, bold serif ๐ next to ๐ is easier to tell apart.
Unicode characters for O and o
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 O | Lowercase o |
|---|---|---|
| Script | ๐ช U+1D4AA ยท Mathematical Script Capital O | โด U+2134 ยท Script Small O ยท Letterlike |
| Bold script | ๐ U+1D4DE ยท Mathematical Bold Script Capital O | ๐ธ U+1D4F8 ยท Mathematical Bold Script Small O |
| Fraktur (gothic) | ๐ U+1D512 ยท Mathematical Fraktur Capital O | ๐ฌ U+1D52C ยท Mathematical Fraktur Small O |
| Bold fraktur | ๐บ U+1D57A ยท Mathematical Bold Fraktur Capital O | ๐ U+1D594 ยท Mathematical Bold Fraktur Small O |
| Double-struck | ๐ U+1D546 ยท Mathematical Double-Struck Capital O | ๐ U+1D560 ยท Mathematical Double-Struck Small O |
| Bold serif | ๐ U+1D40E ยท Mathematical Bold Capital O | ๐จ U+1D428 ยท Mathematical Bold Small O |
| Italic serif | ๐ U+1D442 ยท Mathematical Italic Capital O | ๐ U+1D45C ยท Mathematical Italic Small O |
| Bold sans | ๐ข U+1D5E2 ยท Mathematical Sans-Serif Bold Capital O | ๐ผ U+1D5FC ยท Mathematical Sans-Serif Bold Small O |
| Monospace | ๐พ U+1D67E ยท Mathematical Monospace Capital O | ๐ U+1D698 ยท Mathematical Monospace Small O |
| Circled | โ U+24C4 ยท Circled Latin Capital Letter O | โ U+24DE ยท Circled Latin Small Letter O |
| Negative circled | ๐ U+1F15E ยท Negative Circled Latin Capital Letter O | — |
| Squared | ๐พ U+1F13E ยท Squared Latin Capital Letter O | — |
| Negative squared | ๐ พ U+1F17E ยท Negative Squared Latin Capital Letter O | — |
| Fullwidth | ๏ผฏ U+FF2F ยท Fullwidth Latin Capital Letter O | ๏ฝ U+FF4F ยท Fullwidth Latin Small Letter O |
| Small capital | แด U+1D0F ยท Latin Letter Small Capital O | — |
Where people use a fancy O
- Blood type O and ๐ พ๏ธ. Negative Squared Latin Capital Letter O (๐ พ) doubles as the "blood type O" emoji, shown as a red button on most phones.
- "Oh" reactions and "OMG" captions. Bold ๐๐๐ or bubble โโโผ are common in reaction posts.
- Circular logos. Circled โ and double-struck ๐ work as round badges in profile names.
FAQs about the letter O in different fonts
Why does ๐ พ turn red on my phone?
Negative Squared Latin Capital Letter O (U+1F17E) is also the blood type O emoji, and many phones display the colourful emoji version. Squared O (๐พ) stays an outline.
Why is the script o smaller than the other script letters?
Script small o is โด (U+2134), a Letterlike Symbols character. Unicode used it instead of a new code point, and fonts sometimes size it differently. Bold script ๐ธ matches more closely.
How do I stop people confusing O with 0?
Use a style with clear serifs or weight, like bold serif ๐ against ๐. Avoid monospace for handles that mix O and zero.