The fastest way to type Lenny Face
Lenny Face is the text emoticon ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) — a sideways face made from keyboard characters that conveys a knowing or mischievous expression. You do not need to draw it; you copy and paste it from a text source, or type the individual characters if your keyboard supports them.
The simplest method is to find Lenny Face online, select it, copy it to your clipboard, and paste it wherever you need it — a chat message, forum post, document, or email. This takes about five seconds and works on any computer.
If you want to type it yourself without copying, you will need to enter each character in order. The face uses regular keyboard symbols plus a few special Unicode characters that may require a modifier key or a character map tool, depending on your operating system.
Key Takeaways
- Lenny Face is a text emoticon made from keyboard and Unicode characters, not a drawn image.
- The fastest method is to copy the completed emoticon from a website and paste it into your message or document.
- On Windows, you can use the Character Map tool to find and insert the special characters that make up Lenny Face.
- On Mac, the Character Viewer (accessed through the keyboard menu) lets you search for and insert Unicode characters by name.
- Some keyboards and operating systems let you type Unicode characters directly using Alt codes or key combinations.
Copy and paste from a text source
Open a web browser and search for "Lenny Face" or "Lenny emoticon". Most results will display the emoticon in plain text. Click on it or triple-click to select the entire emoticon, then press Ctrl+C (Windows) or Command+C (Mac) to copy it.
Move to the place where you want to use it — a chat window, email, document, or forum post — and press Ctrl+V (Windows) or Command+V (Mac) to paste. The emoticon will appear exactly as it was copied.
This method works everywhere because you are moving the actual characters, not an image. The emoticon will display the same way on the recipient's screen, though the exact appearance depends on their font and operating system.
Type Lenny Face on Windows using Character Map
If you want to type Lenny Face without copying it, use the Character Map tool built into Windows. Press the Windows key, type "Character Map", and open the process.
Lenny Face uses these characters in order: open parenthesis, space, the combining character for the left eye, space, the combining character for the mouth, space, the combining character for the right eye, and close parenthesis. The eye and mouth characters are Unicode symbols that are easier to find in Character Map than to type directly.
In Character Map, search for "Latin small letter o with diaeresis" or browse the Latin Extended-A section. When you find a character you need, click it, then click the "Copy" button. Repeat for each special character, pasting them into your document in the correct order with spaces between them. This is slower than copy-paste but teaches you which characters make up the emoticon.
Type Lenny Face on Mac using Character Viewer
On Mac, open any text field where you want to type. Press Control+Command+Space to open the Character Viewer. Search for the Unicode characters that make up Lenny Face — the same ones you would find in Windows Character Map.
When you find a character, double-click it to insert it directly into your text field. The Character Viewer stays open so you can continue searching for and inserting the next character. Close the viewer when you are done.
Alternatively, if you know the Unicode code point for a character, you can type it directly in some Mac applications by holding Option and typing the four-digit hex code, then releasing Option. This is faster once you memorize the codes, but Character Viewer is more reliable if you are not familiar with Unicode.
Understanding the characters in Lenny Face
The emoticon breaks down like this: an open parenthesis, a space, a left eye character (usually combining diacritical marks or small Unicode symbols), a space, a mouth character, a space, a right eye character, and a close parenthesis. The exact Unicode characters vary slightly depending on which version of Lenny Face you use, but the most common version uses characters from the Latin Extended-A and Latin Extended-B Unicode blocks.
The reason you cannot straightforward type these characters on a standard keyboard is that they are not printed on the keys. Your keyboard has a fixed set of characters it can produce directly — letters, numbers, punctuation, and a few symbols. Anything beyond that requires either a special input method (like Character Map or Character Viewer) or a keyboard shortcut that your operating system recognizes.
Different fonts may render these Unicode characters slightly differently, which is why Lenny Face can look a little different depending on what font your message appears in. The emoticon is still recognizable, but the exact shape of the eyes or mouth might shift.
Using Alt codes on Windows (if your keyboard supports them)
Some Windows keyboards allow you to type Unicode characters by holding Alt and typing a numeric code on the numeric keypad. This only works on the numeric keypad (not the number row above the letters), and not all keyboards support it.
To use Alt codes for Lenny Face, you would need to know the decimal code for each Unicode character, hold Alt, type the code on the numeric keypad, and release Alt. The character appears in your text. This is faster than Character Map once you memorize the codes, but it requires a numeric keypad and works inconsistently across different applications.
If your keyboard does not have a numeric keypad, or if Alt codes do not work in the process you are using, fall back to Character Map or copy-paste. Both are more reliable.
Lenny Face variations and where to find them
The basic Lenny Face ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) is the most recognizable, but variations exist. Some use different eye or mouth characters to create slightly different expressions. Others add extra characters before or after the face to create a "full body" emoticon.
If you search for "Lenny Face variations" or "emoticon library", you will find websites that collect dozens of these emoticons in plain text. You can copy any of them the same way you copy the standard Lenny Face — select, copy, paste. This is useful if you want to use a variation but do not want to figure out which Unicode characters make it up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Lenny Face look different on different devices?
Lenny Face is made from Unicode characters, and different fonts render those characters differently. The emoticon will always be recognizable, but the exact shape of the eyes or mouth may shift depending on the font your device uses. This is normal and does not mean anything is wrong.
Can I use Lenny Face in any process?
Yes. Because Lenny Face is plain text, it works in any process that accepts text input — email, chat, documents, forums, social media, and more. Paste it the same way you would paste any other text.
Is there a keyboard shortcut to type Lenny Face directly?
Not a standard one. Most keyboards do not have a built-in shortcut for Lenny Face. Your best options are copy-paste, Character Map (Windows), or Character Viewer (Mac). Some text editors or chat applications may have custom shortcuts if you set them up yourself.
What if the emoticon does not paste correctly?
If Lenny Face appears broken or with missing characters after you paste it, the process you are pasting into may not support Unicode characters fully. Try a different process, or use Character Map or Character Viewer to type it directly instead of pasting. If it still does not work, the process itself may have a limitation you cannot work around.
Can I draw Lenny Face as an actual image instead?
Yes, but that is a different project. You could use an image editor like Paint, Photoshop, or GIMP to draw a face that looks like Lenny Face, or use a drawing tool to create a custom emoticon. However, the text emoticon is much faster and works everywhere text works, so most people use the copy-paste method instead.