What ✒️ means
It means writing first; paperwork turns it toward signing.
The nib is the pointed metal tip of a fountain pen that puts ink on paper. Next to a draft, poem, or byline, it says author at work. Next to a contract, petition, or approval, it says put your signature on it.
Formal and a little showy: the ink-and-nib version of a plain pen.
It suggests signing; it never proves anything was signed.
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsBeside a draft or byline
Writing, editing, or showing off author flair.
Beside paperwork or a petition
Signing, approving, or making it official.
Worth knowing
- The characters behind ✒️ existed in Unicode 8 years before anyone was allowed to draw them in colour: Unicode 3.2 in 2002, emoji presentation in 2010.
- ✒️ is not one character. It is 2 of them glued together, which is why deleting it sometimes takes two presses of backspace and why it breaks character counters.
Questions people ask
1Why does ✒️ look different across apps?
It varies. As of 2026, some platforms draw only the metal nib while others show a full fountain-pen body.
How to type ✒️
Windows
Win+.Open the emoji picker and search “black nib”.
macOS
Control+Command+Spaceopens the character viewer.
iOS / Android
Emoji keyboard → search “black nib”.
Chat apps
:black_nib:the common shortcode; support varies by platform.HTML
✒️Codes and encoding2 code points
HTML decimal
✒️
HTML hex
✒️
CSS content
content: "\2712\FE0F";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%9C%92%EF%B8%8F
1
On screen
2
Code points
2
JS .length
6
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.