Heavy Black Heart
The heavy black heart is U+2764. It is the character behind the red heart emoji you see in messaging apps: on its own it is a plain black dingbat, and it turns red when a platform applies the emoji presentation, usually triggered by the invisible variation selector U+FE0F.
| Symbol | ❤ | |
|---|---|---|
| Unicode | U+2764 | |
| Name | Heavy Black Heart | |
| HTML (decimal) | ❤ | |
| HTML (hex) | ❤ | |
| CSS content | \2764 | |
| JavaScript / JSON | \u2764 | |
| UTF-8 bytes | 0xE2 0x9D 0xA4 | |
| UTF-16 units | 0x2764 |
How do you type the heavy black heart on each platform?
| Where | How to type it |
|---|---|
| Any device | Click the ❤ at the top of this page. It goes straight to your clipboard, and you paste it with Ctrl+V on Windows or Cmd+V on a Mac. This is the only method that behaves identically everywhere. |
| Windows | There is no short alt code for this character. Press Win and the full stop key to open the emoji and symbol panel, then use the symbols tab and search for heavy black heart. |
| macOS | Add Unicode Hex Input under Keyboard settings, switch to it, then hold Option and type 2764. Without that input source, open the Character Viewer with Control+Command+Space and search for heavy black heart. |
| Linux and ChromeOS | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 2764, then press Enter or the space bar. This works in GTK applications and with IBus. |
| Microsoft Word | Type 2764 in the document, then press Alt and X together with the cursor immediately after the last digit. Word replaces the digits with ❤. |
| Google Docs | Insert, then Special characters, then paste U+2764 or type heavy black heart in the search box. You can also draw the shape in the sketch pad on the right. |
| Excel and Google Sheets | Use the formula UNICHAR(10084) in a cell. Copy the cell and paste it as a value if you want the character rather than the formula. |
| HTML | Write ❤ or ❤. There is no standard named entity for this character. On a page served as UTF-8 the character itself also works. |
| CSS | Use content: "\2764" inside a ::before or ::after rule. Terminate the escape with a space if the next character is also a hexadecimal digit. |
| JavaScript | The escape \u2764 produces this character inside a string literal, and the same escape is valid in JSON. |
More detail per platform: Windows alt codes, special characters on a Mac, special characters in Word and HTML entities.
Which characters look like the heavy black heart?
Several characters render almost identically to this one, and picking the wrong one breaks search, sorting and screen readers even when it looks right on screen. The heavy black heart ❤ is U+2764. These are the ones it is confused with.
| Character | Code point | Name | What it is really for |
|---|---|---|---|
| ♥ | U+2665 | Black Heart Suit | The card-suit heart. It stays the colour of the surrounding text on almost every platform, which is what you usually want in a document. |
| ♡ | U+2661 | White Heart Suit | The outlined card-suit heart. |
| 🖤 | U+1F5A4 | Black Heart | An emoji that is deliberately black. Different character, not a monochrome fallback of this one. |
Frequently asked questions
How do I keep this heart black instead of red?
Append the text variation selector U+FE0E, or use the card-suit heart U+2665 instead. Without an explicit selector, each platform decides for itself.
How do I copy the heavy black heart symbol?
Click the ❤ above or the copy button and it is placed on your clipboard. Paste it anywhere with Ctrl+V or Cmd+V. It is a real text character, so it works in documents, chats and code.
What is the Unicode code point for heavy black heart?
The heavy black heart has the Unicode code point U+2764. In HTML you can write it as ❤ or ❤.
Does the heavy black heart symbol work everywhere?
In almost every modern app and font, yes. If a font does not include this glyph you may see a placeholder box, but the underlying character U+2764 is still correct and will render in a font that supports it.
How does it differ from the lookalikes?
Related symbols
Browse the full heart symbols hub, or return to the searchable symbol grid.