Does epub format support emoji?

[Artie]

Hi all,

I kindly ask this question: Does the .epub format support emojis?

Many, many thanks!

[Turtle91]

Not directly. It supports Unicode and any special characters that would be in an embedded font (like Wingdings).

You could, however, make the emoji into an image (eg .png or .svg) and insert the image.

[Artie]

Sorry, I mean with Amazon Kindle e-reader device support emojis. Not Fire.

Many thanks!

[Turtle91]

I’m pretty sure it’s the same answer.

[Artie]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Not directly. It supports Unicode and any special characters that would be in an embedded font (like Wingdings).

You could, however, make the emoji into an image (eg .png or .svg) and insert the image.

Thank you very much for your answer.

In fact, I have exported an EPUB with emojis and can view them in the Kindle MacOs app and in the Kindle iOS app, so I assume that is the e-reader device that doesn't support emojis.

My 2016 Kindle Voyage of course doesn't support them.

Does anybody know of any e-reader device that supports them? There is no need to be from Amazon.

Many thanks.

[Turtle91]

I found this trick, but I think it is limited to browsers and isn’t universally supported.

<link rel="icon" href="data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22 viewBox=%220 0 100 100%22><text y=%22.9em%22 font-size=%2290%22>��</text></svg>">

[Turtle91]

Also, here is a list of emojis that are part of Unicode (UTF-8). If you want some other emoji you would either need to include it in an embedded font, or convert it to an image and use that.

Reminder to consider copyright laws if/when using someone else’s material.

[KevinH]

To get them to work, just like any other character, the font has to support them. For older epub readers you may have to embed a font that supports the emojis you want.

[Artie]

Thank you all for your answers. Emojis are showing fine out of the box in Kindle apps for macOS and iOS, so I assume that EPUB supports emojis without the need of adding additional code or transforming images into another format.

I kindly ask for a device that supports them. I can't buy all modern models and test an epub with emojis.

If somebody can please let me know a device that supports them, I will be very grateful. Thank you very much.

[phillipgessert]

I imagine you’d be primarily looking at communication devices, since that’s the primary use for emoji. I would think out-of-the box support would be spotty for e-ink devices, where the greyscale display would also make em look pretty bad even if they did work. Depending on the symbols used, legibility might also suffer in different color modes. Honestly it’s probably easier to just embed an emoji font than it would be to compile a list of devices that don’t need you to.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by phillipgessert

I imagine you’d be primarily looking at communication devices, since that’s the primary use for emoji. I would think out-of-the box support would be spotty for e-ink devices, where the greyscale display would also make em look pretty bad even if they did work. Depending on the symbols used, legibility might also suffer in different color modes. Honestly it’s probably easier to just embed an emoji font than it would be to compile a list of devices that don’t need you to.

Also, emojis display differently on different Operating systems, don't they? I would think it is very possible for them to display differently on different devices as well.


It would seem the only way to get a consistent result would be to either have them on an embedded font (which isn't universally supported) or to actually make an image instead of relying on the font character.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by Artie

Thank you all for your answers. Emojis are showing fine out of the box in Kindle apps for macOS and iOS, so I assume that EPUB supports emojis without the need of adding additional code or transforming images into another format.

I think continuing with that assumption is a path fraught with peril!!

You may have had success with a couple emojis that happened to be included in the unicode font you were using...or had already installed on your computer...or on your macOS/iOS device. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the kindle app have access to all fonts installed on the host system??

Do you happen to have a test epub which uses the emojis you are interested in?? It might be easier for us to test on some of the devices we have instead of just randomly trying to guess.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Artie

If somebody can please let me know a device that supports them, I will be very grateful. Thank you very much.

"Emojis" are characters. Just like the letters 'A' or 'B' or 'C'.

• ✈ = U+2708 = AIRPLANE
• 😢 = U+1F622 = CRYING FACE
• 😭 = U+1F62D = LOUDLY CRYING FACE

It would be like saying, "Does the device support Turkish?"

- - -

Emoji/Unicode + Fonts

Now, every year, Unicode does add more and more characters/symbols... and older devices do tend to have much older fonts.

If you are using very old/common characters, like

• ✈ = AIRPLANE was introduced in June 1993! (Unicode 1.1)
• ✏ = PENCIL (Unicode 1.1)

it will most likely appear fine.

If you're using newer ones, like:

• ⚽ = SOCCER BALL = August 2009 (Unicode 5.2)

it will maybe show up.

If it's extremely new, like:

• 🧛 = VAMPIRE = June 2017. (Unicode 10.0)
• 🥷 = NINJA = March 2020. (Unicode 13.0)
• 🪈 = FLUTE = September 2022. (Unicode 15.0)

there's an extremely slim chance it'll work in anything, even many of the newest browsers/phones/OSes.

It usually takes years for these fonts to trickle out... and many older devices, especially ereaders, will never see those updates.

So:

• the older your character is, the most likely it'll be there.
• the newer the character is, you'll probably want to embed a specific font for that symbol.

Originally Posted by phillipgessert

[...] I would think out-of-the box support would be spotty for e-ink devices, where the greyscale display would also make em look pretty bad even if they did work.

There are black-and-white fallback characters for all Unicode symbols.

There has to be, because you can have these symbols in filenames and all sorts of crazy stuff.

- - -

Side Note: If you want extreme technical details on all that color/emoji/font stuff, I wrote a detailed post back in:

• 2021: ""Creation" of fonts ex nihilo (or how Calibre displays Bold having only Regular)"

where I discussed all 4 different implementations of OpenType "Color Fonts".

I believe Google just recently released a 5th one too! See:

• Google Developers Blog: "Updates to Emoji: New Characters, New Animation, New Color Customization, and More!" (September 13, 2022)

Originally Posted by phillipgessert

Depending on the symbols used, legibility might also suffer in different color modes.

Yep. Especially at small sizes, some of these are not understandable. And with Apple's push for "more realistic" emojis, it's absolutely disastrous for small font-size readability.

This is where Microsoft's implementations were much better.

(They guaranteed a black-and-white version... that could then be colored just like any other letter.)

Originally Posted by phillipgessert

Honestly it’s probably easier to just embed an emoji font than it would be to compile a list of devices that don’t need you to.

Agreed. If it's very important to the text, you'll most likely want to embed a very specific font just for those symbols.

Treat it just like you would if you were inserting very rare characters from a specific language, like I discussed in:

• 2021: "Japanese characters not showing up on some devices"
• 2020: "Should Chinese Fonts be Embedded in Ebooks?"

Or the gibbous moons (🌔🌖) and vinegar (🜊) symbols in:

• 2021: "Will Sigil support the entire Unicode System?"

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Do you happen to have a test epub which uses the emojis you are interested in?? It might be easier for us to test on some of the devices we have instead of just randomly trying to guess.

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea too.

[jhowell]

I have done some tests with using emoji Unicode characters on Kindle and results are very mixed. I find they don’t work properly in E-ink Kindles, Kindle for PC, or Kindle for Android.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I have done some tests with using emoji Unicode characters on Kindle and results are very mixed. I find they don’t work properly in E-ink Kindles, Kindle for PC, or Kindle for Android.

Well, as of today (Unicode 15.0), there's 1874 "emoji" characters:

• Unicode.org: "Full Emoji List, v15.0"

Were you testing the more basic ones, or the much newer characters?

And I suspect stuff like flags, skin tones, or multi-character combinations would be disastrous too...

- - -

Don't Kindles use the Code2000 font as fallback?

According to Wikipedia:

As the font ceased updating in 2008, it does not include the emoji, added to Unicode in version 6.0, that make up the best-known and most commonly used characters in the set. This font covers a few characters in the Unicode Plane Two Supplementary Ideographic Plane. It also covers a few tags in Unicode Plane Fourteen Supplementary Special-purpose Plane.

Woof...

As always, I just embed the trusty font: Symbola. It's just a giant font of all the public domain black-and-white characters submitted into the Unicode specs. If there's a rare character I need, it probably exists in there.

- - -

If you want a site to test all the basic Symbol/Wingding/Webdings characters, Toxaris had this page on his website for many years:

• Toxaris.nl: "Mapping Symbol fonts to Unicode"
  
  • (Archive.org backup, since his site shut down last year.)

That page was done at my request way back in 2016 when I was pushing for that proper character substitution in EPUBTools + Calibre... so stuff like 🚲 BICYCLE would properly be inserted into ebooks!

(Back then, even Firefox/Chrome were pretty horrible with many of those "emoji".)