Electric Light Bulb 💡
💡 (U+1F4A1) is a standard Unicode character that you can copy and paste anywhere text is accepted. This page provides a concise reference with safe tips, internal links, and practical guidance so you can use it reliably across apps and platforms.
What it is and where it’s used: Electric Light Bulb is part of the Symbols family (block: Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs). If you need styled or decorative alternatives, try our Fancy Text tool to generate compatible text that works in most modern interfaces.
History & usage: The ELECTRIC LIGHT BULB depicts a light bulb emoji. Use it to show a new idea, a suggestion, or creative thinking in messages and notes. It can mark bright thinking in slides, checklists, or onboarding content, guiding readers toward helpful insights. In apps and interfaces, place it next to tips, clues, or feature ideas to signal value and imagination. It may accompany brainstorming prompts or problem‑solving updates to emphasize forward thinking. For plain text, it helps readers quickly grasp intent when words alone might be unclear. Across platforms, colors and styles differ, so appearance varies. For accessibility, provide surrounding text that conveys the intended meaning and avoid relying on color alone to communicate the idea.
Copy and input: the quickest method is to copy the character here. You can also insert it by its codepoint U+1F4A1 in many development tools or editors. Some operating systems provide a character viewer or input palette that lets you search by name or code and insert the glyph into documents.
Display and fallback: if you see an empty box (tofu) or a placeholder rectangle, the active font might not include this codepoint. Switching to a font with broader Unicode coverage or using a fallback font usually fixes the issue. On the web, ensure the page’s font stack includes a general‑purpose fallback.
Related references: browse the Categories for similar characters. When choosing a symbol, prefer the official codepoint for semantic clarity and better compatibility with search, copy, and accessibility tooling.
See our category page for related symbols.
Technical details
- Codepoint:
U+1F4A1 - General Category:
So - Age:
6.0 - Bidi Class:
ON - Block:
Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs - Script:
Common - UTF-8:
F0 9F 92 A1 - UTF-16:
D83D DCA1 - UTF-32:
0001F4A1 - HTML dec:
💡 - HTML hex:
💡 - JS escape:
\u{1F4A1} - Python \N{}:
\N{ELECTRIC LIGHT BULB} - Python \U:
\U0001F4A1 - URL-encoded:
%F0%9F%92%A1 - CSS escape:
\1F4A1
How to type / insert
Fast copy: click the Copy button near the top of this page.
By codepoint: in many editors and IDEs, you can insert via the Unicode code U+1F4A1 or a built‑in character picker.
HTML: use the numeric entity 💡 (hex) or 💡 (decimal) when an HTML entity is needed.
Compatibility & troubleshooting
Font support: if the symbol does not render, the current font likely lacks this codepoint. Choose a font with broad Unicode coverage or allow a fallback font.
Web pages: ensure your CSS font stack includes a general fallback; avoid relying on images for common symbols to preserve accessibility and copyability.