LinkedIn feed posts do not have a bold button: the post editor does not support formatting, so text always remains plain. If you still want to write in bold or italics, you replace the letters with special characters from the Unicode character set – they look like bold text, but are technically mathematical symbols.
LinkedIn only offers real formatting where an editor with a toolbar is built in: in articles. LinkedIn Help explicitly states for the article editor that you can “change the style, format text as bold or italic” and “add ordered or unordered lists” (LinkedIn Help: Publish articles on LinkedIn, accessed on 19 September 2026). The help centre does not list any formatting options for regular posts.
Why there is no bold button for posts
For LinkedIn, a feed post is plain text. There is no markup you can add and no toolbar that creates it. Anything that looks like bold text in the feed is therefore not formatted text, but a different character: instead of the Latin “F”, it uses the character “𝗙” from the Unicode block “Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols”.
This explains both why it works and why it has side effects. For display, your device only needs a font that includes these characters. For everything else – search, screen readers and copying – they are not letters.
How to write in bold on LinkedIn – step by step
- Write your post completely in plain text first. Formatting is the final step, not the first.
- Highlight the word or short line that should stand out – ideally the first line or a subheading.
- Convert only that section into the Unicode version. There are converters online, but you can also copy the characters directly from the examples below.
- Paste the converted text into your post and review it in the preview – ideally once on mobile and once on desktop.
Copyable examples
You can highlight the following lines and copy them directly into your LinkedIn text field.
Bold (Sans-Serif Bold):
𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗱
𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲
𝟯 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟭𝟮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀
Italic (Sans-Serif Italic):
𝘐𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤
𝘢 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦
Bold italic:
𝘽𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙘 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚
Bullet points:
• Point one
▪ Point two
→ Result
✅ Done
Bullet points are the least problematic part: “•” and “▪” are standard punctuation marks, not converted letters. To create a list in a post, simply place them at the beginning of each line and end every line with a line break.
Where LinkedIn offers real formatting
If you write longer texts, you do not need the Unicode workaround. According to LinkedIn Help, the article editor offers bold, italics, ordered and unordered lists, as well as block quotes and horizontal rules – via the toolbar at the top of the editor. You use the same interface when writing a newsletter edition rather than a single article; the help centre describes both in the same publishing module.
The practical consequence: key messages that need to remain searchable and readable by screen readers belong in an article. The feed post delivers the introduction.
The downsides you should know
Unicode formatting is a workaround, not a feature – and the Unicode standard itself advises against it. The chapter on Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols states verbatim: “The characters in this block are intended for use only in mathematical or technical notation, and not in nontechnical text” and “Characters from the Mathematical Alphanumeric symbols block should not be used to represent styling of nonmathematical text” (The Unicode Standard 17.0, Chapter 22, accessed on 19 September 2026). This results in three specific problems.
Accessibility
Screen readers do not process these characters as letters, because they are not letters. Depending on the software and language table, a word may be read out character by character as symbol names, pronounced incorrectly or skipped entirely. Anyone who relies on a screen reader therefore misses the very part you wanted to emphasise – often the heading.
Search and discoverability
Search compares characters. “𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀” and “Sales” consist of different characters, so a search for “Sales” will not find the bold version. This applies to LinkedIn search as well as browser search. So never bold the terms you want to be found for.
Display on other devices
Whether these characters are visible depends on the font used by the device. If the required character set is missing, empty rectangles appear instead of letters. You will not see this on your device – only your readers will. If someone copies and shares your text, the special characters also carry over into emails, CRM fields and presentations.
When formatting is still worth it
One or two bold words per post, placed where you want to slow down the reading flow – that is the level at which the drawbacks remain manageable. Anything beyond that quickly has the opposite effect: a fully bold post no longer has emphasis, just a different font.
In most cases, structure is more effective than formatting: short paragraphs, a strong first line and one clear idea per section. You can see how much impact the introduction has in the numbers – our article on LinkedIn impressions explains what is measured there. The same principle applies to the effect of symbols in text as to Emojis in posts and messages: use them sparingly and intentionally. And when it comes to reach, a conversation under the post does more than any text styling – see our article on Reach through comments field.
Frequently asked questions about formatting on LinkedIn
Can you write in bold on LinkedIn?
Only in posts, using Unicode special characters that look like bold letters—there is no bold button there. In articles, you can do it directly via the editor toolbar, which LinkedIn Help describes as supporting bold, italics and lists.
Does Unicode bold text harm my reach?
LinkedIn provides no information on this, and we do not claim anything we cannot substantiate. The only proven downside is in search: bold words consist of different characters and are not recognised by search as the original word.
How do I add bullet points to a LinkedIn post?
Copy “•”, “▪”, “→” or “✅” to the beginning of a line and add a line break after each point. These characters are unproblematic because they are not converted letters.
Why do some readers only see boxes?
Because the font on their device does not include the relevant Unicode characters. The device then displays a replacement character. The more important a line is, the more you should use regular text for it.
Does bold text also work in LinkedIn messages?
You can paste the copied Unicode characters anywhere you can enter text. That is exactly why the same limitations apply there—in a message, reliable readability is usually more important than appearance.
