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Use Plain Text

Because I advocate for accessibility, I generally ignore social media posts that include Unicode characters (i.e., fake, copy-paste fonts like 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 or 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴).


Screen readers will either skip text written with Unicode characters entirely or read something irrelevant to the user.


Where you see a “t” that looks almost like plain text, a screen reader may read out something like “mathematical sans-serif script t.”


Check this link to see an example!


Fortunately, this blog allows the use of real bold or italicized fonts, but not all digital channels do.


If you want your social media content to be easily readable and searchable, ditch this font and stick to plain text.

Until that becomes an option, I recommend you stick to plain text on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.


You have alternatives to highlight parts of your content that are more accessible:


  • Hashtags (preferably #CamelCase-style)

  • Emojis (but do not replace words with them)

  • Alternate longer and shorter paragraphs (single-sentence paragraphs work best for key ideas)

  • Plenty of space (but do not abuse single-sentence paragraphs)

  • Headings (which you could capitalize)

  • Bulleted or numbered lists (to break text monotony)


These tips also work to make your content more visually attractive. Those fake bold and italicized fonts are ugly, and you know it!


If you rely on Unicode characters for their aesthetics, I advise you to rethink your strategy — make sure your content is easily readable and searchable because you could be sabotaging yourself.

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2016–2023: Antoni Maroto

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