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Emoji

The block contains 637 emoji²³ and has 312 standardized variants defined to specify emoji-style (U+FE0F VS16) or text presentation (U+FE0E VS15) for 156 base characters. ⁴

Emoji modifiers

The Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs contains a set of "Emoji modifiers" which are modifier characters intended to represent skin colour based on the Fitzpatrick scale (but conflating the two lightest skin types into one category):⁵⁶

These emoji modifiers can be used on emojis that represent people or body parts including the 54 human emojis in the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictograph block.⁷

In August 2014, Peter Edberg of Apple Inc. and Mark Davis of Google proposed implementing these "emoji modifiers" to provide better representation of "human diversity" in emoji characters.^{8 9} and, in June 2015, the proposal was adopted in Unicode version 8.0.¹⁰ This was the result of lobbying by Katrina Parrott, whose daughter came up with the idea after being unable to send emojis that looked like her.¹¹

To modify an emoji representing a human or body part, the emoji modifier must be placed immediately after that emoji. ¹² When the emoji modifier is applied to an emoji, the emoji-style variant selectior (U+FE0F) should be omitted because the emoji modifier automatically implies emoji-style presentation.¹³

Table of emojis with modifiers

The following table shows the full combinations of each of the five modifiers with all the "human emoji" characters in the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block. Each character should show in each of the five skin tones provided a suitable font is installed on the system and the rendering software is capable of handling modifier characters. Platforms without emoji modifier support may show as boxes.

Additional human emoji can be found in other Unicode blocks: Dingbats, Emoticons, Miscellaneous Symbols, Supplemental Symbols and Pictographs, Symbols and Pictographs Extended-A and Transport and Map Symbols.

Chart

History

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block:

References

1. "Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs Range 1F300-1F5FF (Unicode 15.0)" (PDF). Unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 31 December 2022. https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf ↩

2. "UTR #51: Unicode Emoji". Unicode Consortium. 2023-09-05. https://unicode.org/reports/tr51/ ↩

3. "UCD: Emoji Data for UTR #51". Unicode Consortium. 2023-02-01. https://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/emoji/emoji-data.txt ↩

4. "UTS #51 Emoji Variation Sequences". The Unicode Consortium. https://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/emoji/emoji-variation-sequences.txt ↩

5. "UCD: Emoji Data for UTR #51". Unicode Consortium. 2023-02-01. https://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/emoji/emoji-data.txt ↩

6. "Full Emoji Modifier Sequences: skin-tone". Unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 31 December 2022. https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-modifiers.html#skin-tone ↩

7. "UCD: Emoji Data for UTR #51". Unicode Consortium. 2023-02-01. https://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/emoji/emoji-data.txt ↩

8. Peter Edberg; Mark Davis (3 August 2014). "L214/172 Proposed enhancements for emoji characters: background" (PDF). Unicode.org. p. 1. This proposal attempts to address several issues related to emoji-like characters in Unicode: • Concerns about the lack of diversity in the representation of the people and body part emoji. • Concerns about apparent bias in the selection of encoded characters, and/or notable gaps in the current set. • Popular requests for emoji additions. /wiki/Mark_Davis_(Unicode) ↩

9. Peter Edberg; Mark Davis (27 August 2014). "L2/14-173r Variation selectors for Emoji skin tone" (PDF). Unicode.org. p. 1. We propose 5 characters [...] The tones are based on the Fitzpatrick scale [...] The default representation of these alone is as a color swatch. However, if one of these characters follows a character for one or more persons (WOMAN, KISS) or a character for a hand position or a body part (VICTORY HAND, NOSE), then the desired representation is to show the sequence as a single glyph corresponding to the image for the person(s) or body part with the specified skin tone [...] /wiki/Mark_Davis_(Unicode) ↩

10. "Unicode® 8.0.0". Unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. 17 June 2015. Notable character additions include [...] Emoji symbols and symbol modifiers for implementing skin tone diversity... https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode8.0.0/ ↩

11. "What Does It Mean To Have An Emoji Acquired By A Museum?". NPR.org. 22 Dec 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/22/949309231/what-does-it-mean-to-have-an-emoji-acquired-by-a-museum ↩

12. "UTR #51-23: Unicode Emoji - 2.4 Diversity". unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. 31 August 2022. https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/tr51-23.html#Diversity ↩

13. "UTR #51-23: Unicode Emoji - 2.4 Diversity". unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. 31 August 2022. https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/tr51-23.html#Diversity ↩

14. Proposed code points and characters names may differ from final code points and names ↩

15. Japanese translation of N3582 is available as N3621 http://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n3621.pdf ↩

16. Japanese translation of N3614 is available as N3620 https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n3620.pdf ↩

17. See also L2/13-207, L2/14-054, L2/14-063, L2/15-051A, L2/15-051B https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13207-emoji.html ↩

18. See also L2/15-198 and L2/15-275 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2015/15198-varseq-text-emoji.pdf ↩

19. See also L2/14-172R, L2/14-174R, L2/14-275, and L2/15-025 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2014/14172r-emoji-enhancements.pdf ↩

20. See also L2/14-172R, L2/14-174R, L2/14-275, and L2/15-025 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2014/14172r-emoji-enhancements.pdf ↩

21. See also L2/14-172R, L2/14-174R, L2/14-275, and L2/15-025 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2014/14172r-emoji-enhancements.pdf ↩