At a glance. 36 styles, each one keeping é è ê ë à â î ï ô ù û ü ç, with œ and æ handled openly, plus « and ». Everything runs in your browser, so your text is never uploaded. Styled text is for names, bios and captions. It is not a way to make a username that search can find.
How to use the French font generator
Most fancy text generators only style the letters A to Z, so French words come out half styled: the é in été or the ç in français stays plain, and œ in cœur is silently dropped or broken. This one styles the base letter, attaches the accent, tells you what it did with œ and æ, and shows on every result what happened to the accents.
Type or paste
Write your text, or tap é, è, ç, œ and « » in the toolbar above the box.
Pick the accent mode
Styled, plain or removed. Plain is the safest if an accent looks off on your device.
Copy a style
Press Copy on the row you like. Star the ones you will use again.
Paste and check
Paste into your app and look at it once before you publish. Need French words? Press Translate first.
How accents, œ and æ work in each style
Unicode has bold, italic, script and gothic letters only for the plain Latin alphabet. It has no styled é or ç. To keep the accent, the generator styles the base letter and adds the accent as a combining mark. Some alphabets cannot carry that mark, so the accent stays plain there and the row says so.
| Style family | Accented letters |
|---|---|
| Bold, italic, script, gothic, monospace and similar | Base letter styled, accent attached as a combining mark |
| Bubble, squared, parenthesized and fullwidth | Accented letters stay plain, because these alphabets cannot carry the mark |
| Any style with Plain accents | Normal accented letters, the safest choice if an accent looks shifted |
| Any style with Remove accents | Accents dropped, so é becomes e, ç becomes c and œ becomes oe |
| œ and æ in any style | No styled alphabet has them. Keep them plain between styled letters, or spell them oe and ae so the whole word is styled |
Do not drop the accents from capital letters. The Académie française (opens in a new tab) asks for capitals to keep their accents, including À, because in French the accent has full spelling value. Without it a word can be misread. In its Dire, Ne pas dire (opens in a new tab) column the Académie gives RETRAITÉS (retirees) against RETRAITES (pensions).
Test on your phone first. Accent marks are drawn by each device and app. The quick check above the styles shows you how your device draws them, and switches to Plain accents if they look off. We have tested this in Chrome on Windows only, so paste a short sample into Instagram, WhatsApp or Discord before you publish.
What works where
Rules differ by app and change over time, so each row says how sure we are. Where an app publishes no rule, we say so instead of guessing.
| Where | What to expect | How sure |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram @username | Letters, numbers, periods and underscores only, up to 30 characters, so styled letters and accents are refused. | Reported by The Verge (opens in a new tab). Not verified on Instagram's own help page. |
| Display names, bios, captions | Usually fine to paste. Length counters can treat styled letters differently, so use the length check and test. | Not verified in each app. Test before you publish. |
| Search | Styled letters are different Unicode characters from plain ones, so a search for the plain word may not find them. | Not verified in each app. Keep key words in plain text. |
| Screen readers | May read styled letters one by one, for example “mathematical bold small e”. | Widely reported, not tested by us. Keep important text plain. |
| Flag and fleur-de-lis frames | The French flag is an emoji and the fleur-de-lis a symbol. Some systems draw a flag emoji as the two letters FR, and symbols can look different from device to device. | Marked “Test first” in the tool. Not tested by us on every device. |
The length check offers Instagram bio 150, TikTok bio 80, X bio 160 and Discord display name 32, or your own number. Platforms change limits, so treat these as a guide. You can count visible characters or UTF-16 units. Styled letters take two UTF-16 units each, and an attached accent adds one more.
Real French fonts
If you want graphics instead of copy-and-paste text, the Real fonts tab renders your words in 13 open-licence fonts and exports a PNG in square, story or banner size. Real fonts always draw é, ç, œ and « » correctly: each font file was checked for every French letter before it was added, and a font without œ was dropped. All use the SIL Open Font License. Each link opens its Google Fonts page, where you can get the font file.
- Playwrite FR TradFrench school cursive (opens in a new tab)
- Playwrite FR ModerneModern school cursive (opens in a new tab)
- Playwrite FR Trad GuidesCursive with Séyès lines (opens in a new tab)
- Playfair DisplayEditorial serif (opens in a new tab)
- Cormorant GaramondRefined serif (opens in a new tab)
- EB GaramondClassic book serif (opens in a new tab)
- Bodoni ModaFashion high contrast (opens in a new tab)
- Poiret OneBelle Époque deco (opens in a new tab)
- Great VibesElegant script (opens in a new tab)
- ParisienneParisian script (opens in a new tab)
- Pinyon ScriptFormal engraved script (opens in a new tab)
- Dancing ScriptCasual cursive (opens in a new tab)
- Abril FatfaceHeavy poster (opens in a new tab)
The quick looks (bistro menu, wedding card, Parisian chic, story quote and school ruled) set the font, colours and size in one tap. The Playwrite France (opens in a new tab) fonts are cursive designs by TypeTogether, and the Guides version draws ruled lines under the letters. The school ruled look draws a simple ruled-paper background behind the text. It is an approximation, not an exact copy of French school paper, and we did not check whether the letter shapes match what French schools teach.
Translate English and French on your device
Press Translate above the text box to turn English into French or French into English. It works in two layers, and neither sends your text to a server:
- Your browser's translator, when it has one. Chrome on desktop lists French among the languages it supports and downloads a small language model once. Chrome documents this (opens in a new tab). We have not checked Edge, Safari, Firefox or phones.
- A built-in list of 355 words and phrases. It covers greetings, love and family, days, months, numbers, colours, food and short messages. Words it does not know stay as you typed them, and the panel says how many it found.
French asks two questions English does not. Pick tu (friendly) or vous (formal), and masculine or feminine for words that change, such as heureux and heureuse. These apply to the built-in list. After translating, French spacing is applied (a no-break space before ? and !), you can Undo, and one tap sends the French text to Styles or Real fonts.
Check anything important. This is a quick helper. The phrase list has not been reviewed by a native French speaker. For a tattoo, a sign, a name, or a legal or medical text, ask a French speaker or a professional translator.
Tidy French punctuation and spacing
French spaces its punctuation differently from English. The Typing and typography tab fixes the common slips and shows the no-break spaces as shaded marks so you can check them by eye.
| Mark | Rule the tool applies |
|---|---|
| ; ! ? | A no-break space before (a narrow one if you choose it), and a space after |
| : | A no-break space before, and a space after |
| « » | A no-break space after « and before »; straight quote pairs become « » |
| ’ and … | Curly apostrophe between letters; exactly three dots become one ellipsis |
A non-breaking space keeps the mark on the same line as the word before it. The rules follow the Imprimerie nationale table as summarised here (opens in a new tab), and the OECD style guide (opens in a new tab). They ask for a narrow no-break space before ; ! ? and a regular-width one before a colon and inside guillemets; many writers use a regular no-break space everywhere, so that is the default. Canadian French spaces some marks differently, so check the style guide you write for. The tool leaves web addresses, times such as 12:30 and HTML entities alone.
Typing é, è, ç and œ without the tool
- Windows: hold Alt and type 0233 on the number pad for é, 0232 for è, 0231 for ç and 0156 for œ.
- Mac: Option + e, then e for é. Option + c for ç and Option + q for œ.
- Phone: press and hold the letter, or add a French keyboard in your settings.
The Typing and typography tab lists every accented letter, the guillemets and the curly apostrophe. The Windows codes match the table on Microsoft Support (opens in a new tab). The Mac shortcuts are the standard Option combinations on a US keyboard; we have not checked them against an Apple page.
How to say “font” in French
The usual word is police, in full police de caractères (with caractères in the plural). The Office québécois de la langue française (opens in a new tab) lists police de caractères, police and fonte, and notes that in France the first two are officially recommended. Fonte is the older printing word, used less now because electronic characters are not cast in metal.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| police (de caractères) | font, typeface (the usual word in computing) |
| fonte | font, mostly in printing; less used for screens |
| typographie | typography, and also the way text is set |
| gras | bold |
| italique | italic |
| souligné | underline |
| taille de police | font size |
| majuscules / minuscules | capital letters / lowercase letters |
Private by design
Styling, translation, spacing fixes and image export all run in your browser. Your text is not uploaded or stored on a server. Favorites, recently copied styles and your option choices stay in your own browser storage, and Clear removes your text. A share link contains your text only when you press Share link.
Frequently asked questions
What is a French font generator?
A French font generator turns your text into stylish Unicode text (bold, italic, script, gothic and more) that you can copy and paste into Instagram, WhatsApp, Discord, TikTok and games. This one is built for French, so it handles accented letters (é è ê ë à â î ï ô ù û ü ç ÿ), the ligatures œ and æ, and the guillemets « and ».
How do I say "font" in French?
In computing the usual word is police, or police de caractères. The Office québécois de la langue française lists police de caractères, police and fonte as accepted terms, and notes that in France the first two are officially recommended. Fonte is used less now, because electronic characters are not cast in metal.
Does it keep é, è, ç and œ?
Yes. You choose how accents are handled: styled (the accent mark is attached to the styled letter), plain (accented letters stay as normal text, the safest option) or removed (é becomes e, ç becomes c). The letters œ and æ have no styled form in Unicode, so you choose to keep them plain or spell them oe and ae. Each result shows a badge so you can see what happened.
Why can some styles not style accented letters?
Unicode defines bold, italic, script and similar letters only for the basic A to Z alphabet. There are no precomposed accented versions, so the generator styles the base letter and adds the accent as a separate combining mark. Alphabets such as bubble (circled) and fullwidth cannot carry that mark, so accented letters stay plain in those styles.
Will the accents look right on my phone or in Instagram?
Combining accent marks are drawn by each device and app, so placement can differ slightly between them. If an accent looks misplaced in your app, switch to Plain accents, which keeps normal accented letters. Paste a sample into your app first to check.
Should capital letters keep their accents in French?
Yes, in good typography. The Académie française asks for capitals to keep their accents, including À, and says the accent has full spelling value in French. The same goes for the diaeresis and the cedilla. The tool never removes an accent from a capital unless you choose Remove accents.
Can this tool translate English to French?
Yes, in a limited way. Press Translate to turn English into French or French into English. Translation runs on your device: it uses your browser's built-in translator where available (Chrome on desktop supports French, and downloads a small language model once) and a built-in list of common words and phrases otherwise. The list covers greetings, family words, days, months, colours and short messages, and can miss grammar. It has not been reviewed by a native French speaker, so check anything important.
What is the difference between tu and vous?
Tu is the friendly form of "you", for friends, family and children. Vous is the formal form, and it is also the plural. The translate panel lets you pick one, and it changes phrases such as "please" (s'il te plaît or s'il vous plaît). The browser translator chooses its own form, so check the result.
Is my text sent to a server?
No. Styling, translation, spacing fixes and image export all run in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded.
What does Tidy my French do?
It puts a no-break space before ; : ! and ? and inside « guillemets », turns straight quotes into « », straight apostrophes into ’ and three dots into …, and removes extra spaces. It leaves web addresses, times such as 12:30 and HTML entities alone. You can pick a regular or a narrow no-break space. It follows European French practice, and Canadian French spaces some marks differently.
How do I type é, è, ç and œ on a keyboard?
Tap the character in the toolbar above the text box, or use the Typing and typography tab for Windows Alt codes (for example Alt + 0233 for é and Alt + 0156 for œ) and Mac shortcuts (Option + e, then e). On phones, press and hold the letter, or add a French keyboard.
What is the Real fonts (image) tab for?
It renders your text in real open-licence fonts so é, ç, œ and « » look exactly right, then lets you download a PNG for menus, cards, stories and logos. An image cannot be pasted into a bio or chat as text, so use the Styles tab for that.
Can screen readers read this styled text?
Screen readers may read styled Unicode letters one by one (for example "mathematical bold small e"). Use styled text for short names, bios and headings, and keep important information in normal text. The Copy plain text button copies exactly what you typed.
Can I use styled French text in my Instagram username?
Usually not. Instagram usernames are reported to accept only letters, numbers, periods and underscores, up to 30 characters, so styled letters and accents are refused. We could not confirm this on Instagram's own help page, so check the app. Display names, bios and captions are the better place for styled text.
Will people find me if I use styled text?
Possibly not. Styled letters are different Unicode characters from plain ones, so a search for the plain word may not match them. We have not tested this on every app. If being found matters, keep the key words in plain text.
Comment écrire un texte en police fantaisie avec les accents ?
Écrivez ou collez votre texte, choisissez un style, puis appuyez sur Copier. Les accents (é, è, à, ç) et la ligature œ sont gérés ; si un accent paraît décalé sur votre téléphone, passez à l’option « Plain accents » (accents simples).
Mon texte est-il envoyé à un serveur ?
Non. Le style, la traduction et l’export d’image se font dans votre navigateur. Rien de ce que vous écrivez n’est envoyé.
Faut-il garder les accents sur les majuscules ?
Oui. L’Académie française recommande d’utiliser systématiquement les capitales accentuées, y compris la préposition À. Cet outil ne retire jamais un accent, sauf si vous choisissez « Remove accents » (retirer les accents).
Sources
- Académie française, accentuation des majuscules (opens in a new tab)
- Académie française, Dire, Ne pas dire: E accentué, perpendiculaire, cédillé ou crochu (opens in a new tab)
- Typographie, espaces avant et après les signes de ponctuation (Imprimerie nationale table) (opens in a new tab)
- OECD style guide, ponctuation (French) (opens in a new tab)
- Office québécois de la langue française, police de caractères (opens in a new tab)
- Chrome for Developers, Translator API (opens in a new tab)
- Microsoft Support, insert ASCII or Unicode Latin-based symbols and characters (opens in a new tab)
- Unicode chart, Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols (U+1D400 to U+1D7FF) (opens in a new tab)
- The Verge, how to change your Instagram username (opens in a new tab)
- SIL Open Font License 1.1 (opens in a new tab)
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