Unicode formatting — the technique that makes text look bold or italic on LinkedIn — is genuinely useful. It’s also genuinely harmful when overused, misunderstood, or applied in the wrong places. This post explains both sides clearly so you can make informed choices, not just copy what you see in the feed.
What Unicode formatting actually is
LinkedIn has no native bold or italic button for posts and comments. The “bold” text you see in posts consists of Unicode Mathematical Alphanumeric characters (code block U+1D400 to U+1D7FF) — a set of symbols designed for mathematical notation that happen to look like styled letters.
When you type “hello” and bold it, you’re not making the letters bold. You’re replacing them with different characters that look bold. The character ”𝗵” (bold sans-serif h) is not the same as “h”. They look similar. They are not the same.
This distinction is why Unicode formatting has the tradeoffs it does.
The search problem
LinkedIn’s search index treats styled Unicode characters as different from plain letters. A recruiter searching for “product manager” will find profiles with those plain words. A profile that writes product manager in bold Unicode may not appear in that search.
Where this matters most:
- Headline. The headline is heavily weighted by LinkedIn’s search algorithm. Any keyword you bold is a keyword that becomes partially or fully invisible to search. Keep your headline entirely in plain text.
- Skills section. Same principle. Searchable keywords should always be in plain text.
- Job titles in experience. These are indexed. Don’t style them.
Where it matters less:
- Post body text. LinkedIn feed posts are not indexed for LinkedIn search in the same way profiles are.
- The About section’s non-essential text — your signature phrases, calls to action, structural headings.
The accessibility problem
Unicode styled characters behave differently from real text in assistive technology. Depending on the screen reader and its settings:
- Characters may be read aloud one by one: “mathematical bold small h, mathematical bold small e, mathematical bold small l…”
- Characters may be described literally: “italic a”
- Text may be skipped entirely if the reader doesn’t recognise the character range
For a post using bold on 2–3 key words, the impact is manageable — the screen reader user gets most of the content. For a post written entirely in styled Unicode, it can be completely inaccessible.
Practical rule: if a word or phrase is essential to understanding the post, write it in plain text. Only style words that are also present in plain language in the surrounding context.
Combining marks (underline and strikethrough)
Underline and strikethrough work differently — they apply combining diacritical marks on top of regular characters rather than replacing them. T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶. T̲h̲i̲s̲ ̲i̲s̲ ̲u̲n̲d̲e̲r̲l̲i̲n̲e̲.
These are searchable (the underlying letters are plain characters), but they render inconsistently across devices and are often unreadable on mobile. Use very sparingly, if at all.
How to use Unicode formatting responsibly
Do:
- Bold 1–3 key words per post for emphasis
- Use bold on a line in a bulleted list to make the label stand out
- Use italic for a title, quotation, or aside
- Use bullet points and arrow symbols for structure — these are the safest, most readable Unicode use case
Don’t:
- Bold entire paragraphs
- Style your headline, job titles, or skills
- Use script or monospace for anything essential
- Mix multiple styles in the same post
The Text Formatter shows a live preview as you apply styles, which makes it easier to see when you’ve gone too far. The Font Generator shows every style side by side so you can compare before committing.
The honest bottom line
Unicode formatting is a tool with a specific and limited use case: visual emphasis on a word or phrase in a context where plain text looks uniform. Used for that purpose — sparingly, on non-essential words, away from searchable profile fields — it’s fine. Used as a substitute for actual writing structure, it breaks things.
The best-performing LinkedIn posts I’ve seen written with AccentKit use bold on exactly one or two words in the opening line. That’s it. The rest is plain text.
Related tools: Text Formatter · Font Generator · Bold Text Generator