fsymbols
🔍
Loading symbols…
››
✏️

pencil

Pencil

Text and emoji forms

Same symbol, two display styles.

Text symbol
Emoji

✏️ is the pencil emoji: writing, drawing, editing or homework. Because pencil can be erased, putting it beside a date makes the plan feel pencilled in rather than fixed. With 📓 or 📝 it points to notes and study.

EmojiSince 2010
Search it as
pencil emoji · write · draw · edit · homework · sketch
Type it as
:pencil2:
Around since
2010 · Emoji 0.6
Shows up on
Every phone · iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux

What ✏️ means

Writing or drafting work that can still change.

Put it after a task, caption, draft or study plan and it works like a margin label: write, revise, sketch. Picking a pencil over a pen quietly hints that the result isn't final.

What it means when someone sends it to you

3 readings
Beside a task or idea
Writing, drawing or editing to do
After a proposed date or time
Pencilled in — the plan can still move
Next to 📓 or 📚
Studying, notes or homework

Don't confuse it with

3
🖊️
Pen
The pen: same writing idea, but ink reads as settled; the pencil reads as erasable.
🖍️
Crayon
The crayon: blunt and waxy, reads as children's drawing rather than notes.
📝
Memo
Memo: a pencil already on paper — the note itself, not the act of writing.

Combination ideas

3
Notes or studying
Pencilling a date in — nothing confirmed yet
Homework time

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

2

Why does the pencil emoji look different on my phone?

Artwork. As of 2026, vendors draw the body yellow, orange or green and point the tip different ways. The character sent is the same.

Pencil or pen emoji — which should I use?

Pencil if it can still change, pen if it's decided: pencil for drafts and tentative dates, pen for final answers.

How to type ✏️

Windows
Win+.Open the emoji picker and search “pencil”.
macOS
Control+Command+Spaceopens the character viewer.
iOS / Android
Emoji keyboard → search “pencil”.
Chat apps
:pencil2:the common shortcode; support varies by platform.
HTML
✏️
Windows
Press Windows key + period (.), type pencil in the search box and pick the pencil; the pen and crayon sit nearby.
iPhone and Android
Open the emoji keyboard and search pencil.
Codes and encoding2 code points
HTML decimal
✏️
HTML hex
✏️
CSS content
content: "\270F\FE0F";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%9C%8F%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.

Families this belongs to

1

Work & study109 symbols

💰💎💸📌📍📚💵🫰🧑‍💼👷🕴️🧧