Re: Emoji Unicode

On Sunday, October 2, 2011, 2:49:49 AM, David wrote:

DD> Does anyone know how to get the Unicode version of Emoji
DD> characters (see for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji or
DD> http://www.edibleapple.com/2008/10/06/iphone-22-update-has-emoji-icons-japanese-rejoice/
DD> ) to actually display? Is there a font I’d have to install to see them?

As with all newly standardized characters, you need a font that supports them, at the correct code positions, to see them. Otherwise you will see the 'missing glyph'.

This faq on emoji and dingbats may be helpful:
http://unicode.org/faq/emoji_dingbats.html

specifically "there is no way based on character code alone to tell whether a character should be presented using an “emoji” style; that decision depends on context". ie styling.

DD> Are these characters available anywhere as an SVG font? TTF?

Apple has a (static, bitmapped) color emoji font in OS X Lion,
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/02/27/inside_mac_os_x_10_7_lion_font_book_3_emoji_support.html
and this is gradually being supported by tools,eg
http://pupul.org/blog/use-lions-apple-color-emoji-font-with-popchar-and-typinator/

Microsoft has emoji font support in Windows Phone Mango (the new mobile OS).
http://www.winrumors.com/microsoft-details-its-language-support-plans-for-windows-phone-mango/
 
See also this typophile thread
http://typophile.com/node/83760

DD> Are the colors and gradients a part of the Unicode definition, or
DD> does Unicode merely encode path geometry (like WOFF)?

(")(-_-)(") 

Unicode does not describe the glyph at all (for any character). They standardise the code position and the character properties (like whether it is upper case,whether it is a numeral, whether it is rtl or ltr or neutral directionality, etc).

The code charts do illustrate these with sample glyphs, but these are not normative. As an example, there is a sample glyph for the latin lowercase "a" but the actual glyph can be the curly one with a handle or the round one without a handle (or indeed whatever other formis appropriate).

See
http://www.unicode.org/charts/
in particular
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F600.pdf
and for the character properties, see
http://www.unicode.org/ucd/

in UnicodeData.txt for example you will see

1F606;SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH AND TIGHTLY-CLOSED EYES;So;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;;

and the meaning of that is documented here
http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/

specifically, Someans it is "a symbol of other type",the "0" means that its combining class is "Not_Reordered: Spacing and enclosing marks; also many vowel and consonant signs, even if nonspacing",and so on. (the ;is a field separator,and the absence of a value means that the character has the default value).

DD> The Emoji character sets distributed through mobile phones appear
DD> to come with gradient definitions, implying perhaps another use case for SVG fonts over WOFF?

Or indeed SVG glyphs inside Opentype, served as WOFF. See Adam Twardoch's proposal at
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-font/2011AprJun/0144.html

DD> the canonical set of
DD> semantic primitives might not consist of monochromatic path
DD> geometry alone, but rather of richer colored, textured and even
DD> animated objects.

The semantic primitives are characters.

In a visual representation, characters are represented by glyphs.

DD>  That that animation should be borne
DD> declaratively and proximal to the object rather than as a style or
DD> script seems self-evident,  if so. 

Yes, I would expect that good glyphs for emoji would use a font technology that provides multicolour (preferably, parameterisable colour rather than hard-coded) and animating glyphs.

I would be interested to see SVG glyphs for an emoji font. Anyone working on that?


-- 
 Chris Lilley   Technical Director, Interaction Domain                 
 W3C Graphics Activity Lead, Fonts Activity Lead
 Co-Chair, W3C Hypertext CG
 Member, CSS, WebFonts, SVG Working Groups

Received on Monday, 3 October 2011 19:04:20 UTC