Copy ♥, ♡, ❤, or ❣ from the panel above. Each is a separate Unicode character, not one shape restyled by a font, so the heart you copy is the value your document stores.
Microsoft's tables list no Alt number for any of them, so the documented Windows routes are Word's Alt-X conversion and Character Map. On a Mac, Character Viewer inserts all four by name.
Identify the heart character you need
♥ and ♡ sit in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, as BLACK HEART SUIT at U+2665 and WHITE HEART SUIT at U+2661, the filled and outlined card suits.
❤ and ❣ come from the Dingbats block, as HEAVY BLACK HEART at U+2764 and HEAVY HEART EXCLAMATION MARK ORNAMENT at U+2763. The code points are unrelated, so ♥ and ❤ never compare as equal even when a font draws them alike.
The same copy-first approach works for other decorative characters, including the star symbols and the multi-character faces in the kaomoji guide.
Text presentation versus emoji presentation
Unicode Technical Standard #51 defines two forms of one character. Text presentation is the black and white form, emoji presentation is the colorful form, U+FE0F selects emoji presentation, and U+FE0E selects text presentation.
Unicode leaves U+2665, U+2763, and U+2764 out of the Emoji_Presentation set, so their default is the text style, and lists both styles as variation sequences. U+2764 U+FE0F is therefore two code points rather than a different heart, and a field holding it will not match a single U+2764.
Type a heart symbol in Microsoft Word
Microsoft documents a hexadecimal conversion in Word. Type the character code, press Alt, then press X. Use 2665 for ♥, 2661 for ♡, 2764 for ❤, and 2763 for ❣.
If Alt-X converts the wrong code, Microsoft says to select the correct code first or precede it with U+. Some Office programs, including PowerPoint, cannot convert Unicode codes at all.
Copy a heart symbol with Windows Character Map
Character Map ships with Windows and shows the characters in a selected font. In Windows 10, type character in the taskbar search box to open it, choose a font, click the heart, click Select, then paste it.
Microsoft's character-code tables list no heart among their currency, legal, mathematical, and punctuation entries, so treat any Alt number quoted for ♥ as unverified.
Insert a heart symbol on a Mac
In Word for Mac, select Advanced Symbol on the Insert menu, choose the Symbols tab, and select the symbol you need.
Apple documents opening Character Viewer with Fn-E or the Globe key and E, or through Edit and then Emoji & Symbols. Search by name, then click a character to add it. Check the code points afterward, because an emoji picker can insert a presentation sequence.
Insert a heart symbol in Google Docs or Slides
Click Insert, then Symbols, then Special characters. Find the heart by category, by its Unicode value, or by drawing it, then click it to insert it. Google's instructions cover Docs and Slides; Sheets has no equivalent command.
Use a heart symbol in HTML
A UTF-8 document can contain ♥, ♡, ❤, and ❣ directly. WHATWG defines two named references for U+2665, ♥ and ♥, plus decimal ♥ and hexadecimal ♥.
The other three have no named reference, so use numeric ones. U+2661 is ♡, U+2763 is ❣, and U+2764 is ❤. A plain-text editor shows these references literally.
Fix a heart that does not appear correctly
- 1.Check the stored code point first, because U+2665 and U+2764 look alike but never match.
- 2.Remove a trailing U+FE0F when the field must hold one character.
- 3.Select only the character code, or precede it with
U+, when Alt-X converts the wrong text. - 4.Use Character Map where Office cannot convert Unicode codes.
- 5.Choose a font that contains the character when the heart renders as an empty box.
Common questions
Are ♥ and ❤ the same character?
No. ♥ is BLACK HEART SUIT at U+2665 in Miscellaneous Symbols, and ❤ is HEAVY BLACK HEART at U+2764 in Dingbats.
Why does a heart turn red after I paste it?
That is emoji presentation. U+FE0F requests the colorful style, and a platform may draw the bare character with a color font.
