Fonts for YouTube comments

YouTube reads three pairs of marks in comments and replies. Put each mark directly against the words, with no space between them, and close every mark you open. The marks stay visible while you type and disappear when the comment is posted.

Because this is real formatting, the letters underneath are still the ordinary ones. Search can match them, screen readers read them as words, and anyone who copies the comment gets normal text. None of that holds for the pasted styles further down, which is why the marks are the better choice whenever they can do the job.

Tip: If a style doesn't take, look for a space between a mark and the word, as in * best part *, or a mark that never got its partner.

The built-in set stops at three styles and only works in comments. Pasted Unicode fills the gaps:

• Other looks: there's no mark for cursive, small caps or Old English, so paste 𝓈𝓉𝓎𝓁ℯ𝒹 characters for those.
• Underline: YouTube has no underline mark. The Underline style puts a line under each character, b̲e̲s̲t̲, with a break at every space.
• Titles and descriptions: neither has formatting, so pasted bold is the only way to make a line stand out there.

YouTube turns times written in plain digits into links, which is what makes a comment like “the solo at 2:05” useful: tap the time and the video jumps there. Chapters work the same way, built from a list of timestamps in the description that starts at 0:00. Bold Unicode has digits of its own, 𝟬 to 𝟵, and they break both.

So style the label, never the time. Italic and cursive leave digits plain anyway, because Unicode has no italic or cursive numbers, which makes them the safer styles for a line with a time in it:

• 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁: 3:42, a bold label with a plain time that still links.
• 𝘉𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘵 3:42, where italic Unicode leaves the digits alone.
• *Best part* 3:42, using YouTube's own bold, the simplest of the three.

YouTube matches searches against titles, among other things, and viewers type plain words. A title like 𝓜𝓸𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓡𝓸𝓾𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓮 is built from maths characters rather than the letters m, o and r, so it may never match a search for morning routine. If you want a styled touch, put it on a word nobody searches for, such as a series label, and leave the subject plain.

Descriptions are a better home for styled text, since nothing in them has formatting. A bold heading such as 𝗚𝗘𝗔𝗥 above a list of links helps people scan. Keep everything that does a job in plain characters: the links themselves, the chapter list and any hashtags.

Comment sections move quickly and most replies are plain, so one styled word stands out more than a styled paragraph. Some habits that suit YouTube:

• Strikethrough for a joke correction: “I've watched this -once- six times this week.”
• Italics for a line quoted from the video, so it's clear which words aren't yours.
• Bold for the one detail you're asking about, such as the name of a recipe or a piece of kit.
• Cursive for a short note on a milestone video, like 𝒸ℴ𝓃ℊ𝓇𝒶𝓉𝓈 on a channel's anniversary.

Avoid styling a whole comment. Long runs of unusual characters are tiring on a small screen, and a screen reader may spell them out or skip them, so someone listening misses what you said.