Sun Symbols

Three kinds of sun

The sun is represented in Unicode in several ways, and the differences matter if you want it to look the same on every device. The Miscellaneous Symbols block has ☀ (BLACK SUN WITH RAYS, U+2600), ☼ (WHITE SUN WITH RAYS, U+263C) and ☉ (SUN, U+2609). The emoji set adds 🌞 (SUN WITH FACE), sunrise scenes and several weather combinations. And a handful of pointed-star characters, ✷ through ✺, work as sunbursts when you want something graphic.

☀ and ☼ are a matched pair. The black sun is a filled disc and the white sun is an outline, both with rays, and the exact look depends on the font. ☉ is different. It is not a picture of a sun but the astronomical sign for it, a circle with a point in the centre, which also appears in astrology and alchemy. Choose ☉ for something scientific or occult in tone and ☀ for a warm, summery one.

The emoji problem

☀ is one of the characters that exist in both text and emoji styles. Phones usually default to the yellow emoji, and desktop programs often draw a flat black sun. That is why a sun you paste from a desktop can look different when it arrives on someone’s phone. An invisible variation selector, U+FE0E for text and U+FE0F for emoji, can request a particular style, but apps may ignore it.

If you need a sun that is guaranteed flat, use ☼ or one of the sunburst stars. If you want colour, use 🌞 or ☀ with the emoji selector. And if you need to match the sun to the surrounding text colour, such as on a bio on a dark background, stay with text characters.

Sun with clouds and weather

The second group is weather emoji. ⛅ (SUN BEHIND CLOUD) and 🌤 (WHITE SUN WITH SMALL CLOUD) are the commonest two, and 🌥 and 🌦 add more cloud or rain. These always draw in colour, and the exact illustration is different on every platform, so the sun may be yellow, orange or have a face depending on the device. They suit weather updates, greetings and travel posts. For wider moods, see the sibling moon symbols and snowflake symbols pages.

Sunbursts from star characters

A “sun” in a design is often just a many-pointed star. Unicode’s Dingbats block has a series of them: ✷ (EIGHT POINTED RECTILINEAR BLACK STAR), ✸ (HEAVY EIGHT POINTED RECTILINEAR BLACK STAR), ✹ (TWELVE POINTED BLACK STAR) and ✺ (SIXTEEN POINTED ASTERISK). More points make a rounder, more sun-like shape, so ✺ looks the most like a sunburst. ❂ (CIRCLED OPEN CENTRE EIGHT POINTED STAR) is a ringed version, and ✳ and ✴ are asterisk-style marks.

These are plain text characters with no emoji forms, so they follow the text colour, resize with the font and look consistent between devices, except that the exact number and thickness of points varies by font. The star symbols and sparkle symbols pages hold the rest of the family.

Choosing a sun

How to type a sun

1. Windows Alt code. Hold Alt and type 15 on the numeric keypad for ☼.
2. Word. Type 2600 and press Alt then X for ☀, 263C for ☼, 2609 for ☉.
3. Windows emoji panel. Press the Windows key and the period key and search sun.
4. Mac. Look up sun in the Character Viewer, opened with Control, Command and Space.
5. Phones. Search the emoji keyboard for sun, which finds ☀ and the related emoji. ☼ and ☉ need a symbol keyboard or copy and paste.

Accessibility

☀ is announced as “black sun with rays”, ☼ as “white sun with rays”, and ☉ as “sun”. A string of sun symbols is announced one by one, so keep decoration short. Emoji versions use their standard names, which are clearer: “sun” or “sun with face”. Do not use a sun symbol alone to mean “daytime” or “weather” in text that has to be read aloud, because the sound of the name may not make sense. See the fancy text accessibility guide for more.

Missing glyph boxes

The text suns are in nearly every font, but sunburst stars such as ✺ and ❂ occasionally show as empty boxes in minimal fonts. If that happens, see why fancy text shows boxes. For floral decoration that goes with a sun, try the flower symbols page.