◆󠆑󠄆︃︃︂󠄀󠄀󠄑︀󠄀︀󠄓󠄀󠄀︀︅󠄶󠅕󠅢󠅢󠅟󠅸 Ferro: the first batch of chairs is out
An open standard · v0.1 draft
Your own character, in any text.
Design a mark and use it like a letter. It travels inside ordinary text, through chats, titles and posts, like this ◆󠆑󠄉︃︃︂󠄓󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄀󠄑︀︈󠄿󠅠󠅕󠅞󠅂󠅥󠅞󠅕︂
Free. No account. Nothing to upload.
01What it is
Emoji are chosen for you. Runes are made by you.
A rune is a small mark you design yourself, then use in text like any other character. Make one for a project, a company, a community or just for you.
Live rune
Made from simple shapes
You build it on a grid from squares, triangles, semicircles, quarter circles and circles, so it stays crisp even at the size of a letter.
Carried by the text
Everything needed to draw your rune is inside the text itself. There's no image to upload, no account and nothing stored online.
Works where you already write
Paste it into a chat, a title or a post. Anyone with OpenRune sees your mark. Everyone else sees a simple ◆.
02Examples
Runes in use.
Every mark on this page is a real rune. Copy any line, paste it somewhere else, and the rune comes with it.
Chat titlesClaude, ChatGPT
◆󠆑󠄌︅︂︂︀󠄀󠄐󠄀󠄐󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄀︀︊󠄽󠅑󠅔󠅕󠄐󠅅󠅞󠅙󠅟󠅞󠇬 Made Union — Development
◆󠆑󠄉︄︃︂󠄓󠄀󠄐󠄀󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄒󠄀󠄑︀︀︅󠄿󠅢󠅒󠅙󠅤󠇢 Orbit launch plan
Weekly notes
◆󠆑󠄉︃︂︂󠄓󠄀󠄐󠄀︀󠄀︀︋󠄻󠅙󠅜󠅞󠄐󠅃󠅤󠅥󠅔󠅙󠅟󠇞 Kiln Studio pricing
◆󠆑󠄉︃︃︂󠄓󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄀󠄑︀︈󠄿󠅠󠅕󠅞󠅂󠅥󠅞󠅕︂ OpenRune website copy
MessagesWhatsApp, iMessage
Just shipped the ◆󠆑󠄌︅︂︂︀󠄀󠄐󠄀󠄐󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄀︀︊󠄽󠅑󠅔󠅕󠄐󠅅󠅞󠅙󠅟󠅞󠇬 website
Love it. Is that your logo, in the middle of a message?
Yep, it's a rune. It's part of the text, so I can use it anywhere I type.
Forum postsPublic Voice
◆󠆑󠄉︃︂︂󠄓󠄀󠄐󠄀︀󠄀︀︋󠄻󠅙󠅜󠅞󠄐󠅃󠅤󠅥󠅔󠅙󠅟󠇞 Kiln Studio is taking commissions again
What would you put in your rune?
Project listsMade Union
◆󠆑󠄂︂︂︂󠄓󠄀󠄀󠄑︀︆󠅀󠅕󠅒󠅒󠅜󠅕󠄚 PebbleCeramics
◆󠆑󠄉︄︃︂󠄓󠄀󠄐󠄀󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄒󠄀󠄑︀︀︅󠄿󠅢󠅒󠅙󠅤󠇢 OrbitSoftware
◆󠆑󠄆︃︃︂󠄀󠄀󠄑︀󠄀︀󠄓󠄀󠄀︀︅󠄶󠅕󠅢󠅢󠅟󠅸 FerroFurniture
◆󠆑󠄌︅︂︂︀󠄀󠄐󠄀󠄐󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄀︀︊󠄽󠅑󠅔󠅕󠄐󠅅󠅞󠅙󠅟󠅞󠇬 Made UnionPlatform
03How it works
Make it, copy it, paste it where you like.
Step 1
Make it
Design your mark in Rune Maker using squares, triangles, semicircles, quarter circles and circles on a grid. Keep it to one shape, or make it as wide as a wordmark.
◆a11c05020200102010201000100010000a4d61646520556e696f6efc
Step 2
Copy it
Rune Maker turns your mark into text: one visible character, followed by hidden ones that describe its shape. Made Union needs 28 hidden characters, including its name.
With OpenRune
◆󠆑󠄌︅︂︂︀󠄀󠄐󠄀󠄐󠄀︀󠄀︀󠄀︀︊󠄽󠅑󠅔󠅕󠄐󠅅󠅞󠅙󠅟󠅞󠇬 Made Union
Without OpenRune
◆ Made Union
Step 3
Paste it
People with OpenRune see your mark. Everyone else sees a plain ◆. Nothing is lost, so the mark reappears as soon as it reaches someone with OpenRune.
04Try it
Paste a rune. It behaves like a letter.
Copy one of these runes and paste it into the box, or into a chat or document. It acts like a single letter: the arrow keys skip over it, and one press of Backspace deletes it.
This box shows runes the way an app with built-in OpenRune support would. You don't need the extension for this part.
05Gallery
A first set of runes.
Twelve marks made in Rune Maker. Click any of them to copy it.
06Where it works
Tested in the apps you use every day.
Claude chat titlesKeeps the rune
ChatGPT chat titlesKeeps the rune
WhatsApp, Android and iPhoneKeeps the rune
Apple NotesKeeps the rune
Public VoiceKeeps the rune
GmailShows a plain ◆
Tested on 19 October 2026. "Keeps the rune" means the rune came back out of the app complete and unchanged. To see the marks themselves in these apps today, install the Chrome extension.
07The standard
An open standard, free to use.
OpenRune is a published format, not a product you sign up to. Any app, website or operating system can support runes for free, without asking anyone's permission.
Always the same
A rune looks identical in every app that supports it. No app redraws it in its own style.
Nothing to fetch
Everything needed to draw a rune travels with it, so it never depends on a server.
Safe by design
Apps only ever draw simple shapes. A rune can't contain images or code.
Readable everywhere
Where OpenRune isn't supported yet, people see a tidy ◆, never a broken box or a string of symbols.
The specification is free to use under CC BY 4.0, and the code under Apache 2.0.
Make your first rune.
Design it in Rune Maker, then add the Chrome extension to see runes wherever you read online.