StatusThis proposal has been approved, and Emoji symbols were added in Unicode 6.0. They have been growing and flourishing since then. The rest of this page (and much of this site) is only of historic/archival interest.
Background
The proposal for encoding of Emoji symbols as Unicode characters covers the Emoji symbols that are in widespread use by
DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank for their mobile phone networks. These symbols are encoded in
carrier-specific versions of Shift-JIS (as User-Defined Characters),
and, in the case of KDDI, in a carrier-specific version of ISO-2022-JP.
There are mapping tables in use in the industry between these character
sets, with both roundtrip and fallback mappings. These symbols are also
supported in web mail services by Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail. (Yahoo!
Mail currently supports a subset.) (The original proposal also included nine symbols defined by Google, but they were withdrawn from later versions.) |
KDDI |
|
Unicode |
|
Softbank |
x |
↔ |
X |
→ |
y |
x |
← |
Y |
↔ |
y |
x |
↔ |
y |
Character Names
Proposed character names are typically based on the glosses of the carrier symbols or the visual appearance. Based on the consensus from discussions in the UTC, we used the following guidelines:- Follow the analogies of existing Unicode character names where possible
- In particular, use "BLACK" for "filled" and "WHITE" for "hollow".
- Exclude color and animation details from proposed character names except where necessary for distinction.
- For
cases where color is the only source distinction, the convention is to
map to BLACK and WHITE where there are two choices, and to BLACK,
WHITE, and CHECKERED where there are three, and to BLACK, WHITE,
CHECKERED. and STRIPED where there are four.
- Chart annotations will be added to indicate the preferred representations on color devices.
Documents
See the latest charts:- Chart with FPDAM8 data and glyphs (PDF)
- Chart of symbols that are unified or proposed for new encoding
- Chart with all symbols and all data
- Chart legend
2010-04-27: L2/10-138 Emoji Ad-Hoc Meeting Report (WG2 N3829)
2010-04-27: L2/10-132 Emoji Symbols: Background Data
2010-04-24: L2/10-150 Emoji Sources (=N3835)
2010-04-23: Resolutions of WG 2 meeting 56 (=N3804)
2010-04-22: Summary of repertoire for FDAM8 content of ISO/IEC 10646:2003 (=N3838)
2010-04-22: Disposition of comments on SC2 N 4123 (FPDAM8) (=N3828)
2010-04-22: Emoticons for FDAM8 (=N3826) [consensus of the Emoji Ad-Hoc Committee at WG2 56 San José]
2010-04-21: Emoji Ad-Hoc Meeting Report (=N3829)
2010-04-21: Emoji Ad-Hoc Meeting Report (=N3829)
2010-04-02: Draft disposition of comments on SC2 N 4123 (FPDAM8) (=N3792)
2010-03-28: [Untitled Japanese ballot comments on FPDAM8] (=N3790-JISC)
2010-03-27: L2/10-102 Summary of Voting on SC 2 N 4123, ISO/IEC 10646: 2003/FPDAM8 (=N3790)
2010-03-23: Irish comments on FPDAM8 for ISO/IEC 10646:2003 (=N3790-NSAI)
2010-03-22: [Untitled German ballot comments on FPDAM8] (=N3790-DIN)
2010-03-08: L2/10-090 Willcom Input on Emoji (=N3783)
2010-03-23: Irish comments on FPDAM8 for ISO/IEC 10646:2003 (=N3790-NSAI)
2010-03-22: [Untitled German ballot comments on FPDAM8] (=N3790-DIN)
2010-03-08: L2/10-090 Willcom Input on Emoji (=N3783)
2010-03-08: L2/10-089 KDDI Input on Emoji (=N3777)
2010-03-03: Proposal on use of ZERO WIDTH JOINER (ZWJ) between two Regional Indicator Symbols (=N3779)
2010-03-03: Proposal on use of ZERO WIDTH JOINER (ZWJ) between two Regional Indicator Symbols (=N3779)
2010-03-03: Updated Proposal to Change Some Glyphs and Names of Emoticons (=N3778) [update of N3711]
2010-02-05: L2/10-066 Comments accompanying the U.S. negative vote on FPDAM 8 to ISO/IEC 10646:2003 (=N3790-ANSI)
2010-01-26: L2/10-036 Proposal to encode an emoticon "Neutral Face" in the UCS
2010-01-13: L2/10-009 Emoji symbols: background data
2009-11-24: AMENDMENT 8: Additional symbols, Bamum supplement, CJK Unified Ideographs Extension D, and other characters [FPDAM8] (=N3738)
2009-11-05: Emoji Sources (=N3728R) [updated version of N3712 and L2/09-078=N3585] [original N3728 from before Tokyo meeting, 2009-10-28]
2009-10-28: Proposal to encode Regional Indicator Symbols in the UCS (=N3727)
2009-10-27: Emoji Ad-Hoc Meeting Report [ad-hoc during Tokyo WG2 meeting] (=N3726)
2009-10-22: Comments on proposal to revise a part of emoticons in PDAM8-N3711 [Karl Pentzlin] (=N3713)
2009-10-22: A proposal to Revise a Part of Emoticons in PDAM 8 [Katsuhiro Ogata et al.] (=N3711)
2009-10-21: Emoji Sources (=N3712) [updated version of L2/09-078=N3585]
2009-10-01: Draft disposition of comments on SC2 N 4078 (PDAM text for Amendment 8 to ISO/IEC 10646:2003) (=N3690)
2009-09-25: L2/09-323 Proposal to encode two additional Mailbox Symbols complementing the Emoji set (=N3687)
2009-09-22: Summary of Voting on SC 2 N 4078,ISO/IEC 10646: 2003/PDAM 8 (=N3684) (also German, Greek, Irish, Japanese, UK and US comments)
2009-09-22: L2/09-304 US Position on PDAM 8
2009-09-17: Emoji Symbols: Background Data (=N3681) [updated version of L2/09-027]
2009-08-06: L2/09-272 Emoji: Review of PDAM 8
2009-05-21: L2/09-287 AMENDMENT 8: Additional symbols, Bamum supplement, CJK Unified Ideographs Extension D, and other characters [PDAM8] (=N3658)
2009-04-27: L2/09-153 Emoji Ad-Hoc Meeting Report (=N3636)
2009-04-10: L2/09-139 Response to Concerns Raised in N3607 About Encoding Emoji Characters (=N3614)
2009-04-06: L2/09-114 Towards an encoding of symbol characters used as emoji (=N3607) (Everson & Stötzner, Irish and German NB response to the Emoji proposal)
2009-04-06: L2/09-114 Towards an encoding of symbol characters used as emoji (=N3607) (Everson & Stötzner, Irish and German NB response to the Emoji proposal)
2009-03-05: L2/09-025R2 Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols (=N3582)
2009-02-06: L2/09-026R Emoji Symbols Proposed for New Encoding (=N3583)
2009-02-06: L2/09-078 Emoji Sources (=N3585)
2009-01-30: L2/09-025 Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols
2009-01-30: L2/09-026 Emoji Symbols Proposed for New Encoding
2009-01-30: L2/09-027 Emoji Symbols: Background Data
2008-08-13: L2/08-323 Scripts Subcommittee Draft Notes and Recommendations to UTC #116
2008-08-12: L2/08-314 Emoticon Core Set - working proposal
2008-08-12: (HTML) Table for Working Draft Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols
2008-08-12: L2/08-315 Emoji Symbols: Open Issues
2008-08-12: L2/08-309 Emoji Encoding Proposal: Progress Report
2009-02-06: L2/09-026R Emoji Symbols Proposed for New Encoding (=N3583)
2009-02-06: L2/09-078 Emoji Sources (=N3585)
2009-01-30: L2/09-025 Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols
2009-01-30: L2/09-026 Emoji Symbols Proposed for New Encoding
2009-01-30: L2/09-027 Emoji Symbols: Background Data
2008-08-13: L2/08-323 Scripts Subcommittee Draft Notes and Recommendations to UTC #116
2008-08-12: L2/08-314 Emoticon Core Set - working proposal
2008-08-12: (HTML) Table for Working Draft Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols
2008-08-12: L2/08-315 Emoji Symbols: Open Issues
2008-08-12: L2/08-309 Emoji Encoding Proposal: Progress Report
2008-08-11: L2/08-305 Some suggestions about the encoding of national flags as requested by the Emoji proposal (L2/08-081)
2008-07-17: (Doc) Feedback on the Updated Emoji Encoding Proposal (=L2/08-081) [L2/08-106 plus additional feedback from UTC #114]
2008-02-05: L2/08-106 Feedback on the Updated Emoji Encoding Proposal (=L2/08-081) [email feedback before UTC #114]
2008-01-30: L2/08-081 Working Draft Proposal (2) for Encoding Emoji Symbols
2008-01-30: L2/08-080 Emoji Proposal Data (PDF snapshot); Zip file of HTML + images HERE; Temporarily hosted live HERE
2007-08-03: L2/07-257 Working Draft Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols (Associated tables in ZIP file)
This page and its subpages contain the project documentation. Generated HTML charts are available at http://www.unicode.org/~scherer/emoji4unicode/
See the project announcements (blog posts) in English and Japanese.
2008-07-17: (Doc) Feedback on the Updated Emoji Encoding Proposal (=L2/08-081) [L2/08-106 plus additional feedback from UTC #114]
2008-02-05: L2/08-106 Feedback on the Updated Emoji Encoding Proposal (=L2/08-081) [email feedback before UTC #114]
2008-01-30: L2/08-081 Working Draft Proposal (2) for Encoding Emoji Symbols
2008-01-30: L2/08-080 Emoji Proposal Data (PDF snapshot); Zip file of HTML + images HERE; Temporarily hosted live HERE
2007-08-03: L2/07-257 Working Draft Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols (Associated tables in ZIP file)
Resources
Google Data and Tools
Google uses Private Use mappings to represent Emoji ("picture character") symbols in Unicode text. The emoji4unicode project makes these mappings available. This project also provides data and tools that can be used in the development of the encoding proposal. The tools are Python scripts that provide for consistency checks, reports on the data, and chart generation.This page and its subpages contain the project documentation. Generated HTML charts are available at http://www.unicode.org/~scherer/emoji4unicode/
See the project announcements (blog posts) in English and Japanese.
DoCoMo
- English:
- http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/service/imode/make/content/pictograph/basic/index.html
- http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/service/imode/make/content/pictograph/extention/index.html
- Japanese:
KDDI
SoftBank
- http://creation.mb.softbank.jp/web/web_pic_about.html
- http://www2.developers.softbankmobile.co.jp/dp/tool_dl/download.php?docid=120&companyid=
Conversion Tables
- http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/binary/pdf/service/imode/mail/imode_mail/emoji_convert/pictogram.pdf (DoCoMo -> KDDI and Softbank)
- http://broadband.mb.softbank.jp/service/3G/mail/pictogram/convert.pdf (Softbank --> DoCoMo and KDDI)
- http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/service/3G/mail/pictogram/list.html (SoftBank --> Disney, KDDI, DoCoMo, and emobile)
-
http://www.au.kddi.com/email/emoji/taiohyo/index.html (KDDI ---> DoCoMo and Softbank)
Additional non-carrier references
- http://trialgoods.com/emoji/?career=i&page=all (DoCoMo)
- http://trialgoods.com/emoji/?career=au&page=all (KDDI)
- http://cgi.wap2.jp/emoji/ezweb/?act=list (KDDI)
- http://trialgoods.com/emoji/?career=sb&page=all (Softbank)
Related
See also:- Japanese TV Symbols
- WAP Pictogram Specification approved Version 1.1 -- part of OMA Browsing V2.3 Enabler Specification
- RIS 506 "Music CD Shift-JIS" [need link]
- WingDings fonts [need link]
Arle Lommel sent the following to the emoji4unicode group on 2008-12-27: (Highlighting by Markus Scherer; link to the complete email)
You may have seen this on Unicore, but if not, I have done a comparison of the emoji repertoire with the emoticons used in chat or bulletin board systems from seven major vendors in this area (Skype, Microsoft, Yahoo, America Online, Google, vBulletin, and phpBB). You can download the results from here:
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/223919/emoticons.pdf
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