Bubble Text Generator

Circles from Japanese typography

Enclosed alphanumerics came into Unicode from Japanese standards, where circled characters are used for list markers and annotations — the way a Western document might use (a), (b), (c). Latin letters were included so mixed text would work.

The outlined set is complete for both cases. Filled circles and squares only ever got uppercase, so lowercase input comes out unchanged there.

Choosing between them

Outlined bubbles are the most readable and the most widely supported. Filled circles read as a strong emphasis and can look heavy in a run of text. Squares have a boxy, tactical look that has become a convention of its own. Parenthesised letters are the quietest and the closest to how the characters were originally meant to be used.