Enclosed Alphanumerics is a
Unicode block
A Unicode block is one of several contiguous ranges of numeric character codes (code points) of the Unicode character set that are defined by the Unicode Consortium for administrative and documentation purposes. Typically, proposals such as the ad ...
of
typographical symbols
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and ...
of an
alphanumeric
Alphanumericals or alphanumeric characters are a combination of alphabetical and numerical characters. More specifically, they are the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits. An alphanumeric code is an identifier made of alphanumeric ...
within a circle, a bracket or other not-closed enclosure, or ending in a full stop.
It is currently fully allocated. Within the
Basic Multilingual Plane
In the Unicode standard, a plane is a continuous group of 65,536 (216) code points. There are 17 planes, identified by the numbers 0 to 16, which corresponds with the possible values 00–1016 of the first two positions in six position hexadecim ...
, a few additional enclosed numerals are in the
Dingbats and the
Enclosed CJK Letters and Months
Enclosed CJK Letters and Months is a Unicode block containing circled and parenthesized Katakana, Hangul, and CJK ideographs. Also included in the block are miscellaneous glyphs that would more likely fit in CJK Compatibility or Enclosed ...
blocks. There is also a block with more of these characters in the
Supplementary Multilingual Plane
In the Unicode standard, a plane is a continuous group of 65,536 (216) code points. There are 17 planes, identified by the numbers 0 to 16, which corresponds with the possible values 00–1016 of the first two positions in six position hexadecimal ...
named
Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement (U+1F100–U+1F1FF), as of
Unicode 6.0.
Purpose
Many of these characters were originally intended for use as bullets for lists.
[''The Unicode Standard'', 6.0.1] The parenthesized forms are historically based on typewriter approximations of the circled versions.
Although these roles have been supplanted by styles and other markup in "rich text" contexts, the characters are included in the Unicode standard "for interoperability with the legacy East Asian character sets and for the occasional text context where such symbols otherwise occur."
The Unicode Standard considers these characters to be distinct from characters which are similar in form but specialized in purpose, such as the
circled C,
P or
R characters which are defined as copyright and trademark symbols or the
circled a used for an at sign.
A circled s (Ⓢ) was used in documents circa 1900 printed by German missionaries, especially the
Basel Mission
The Basel Mission was a Christian missionary society based in Switzerland. It was active from 1815 to 2001, when it transferred the operative work to , the successor organization of ''Kooperation Evangelischer Kirchen und Missione'' (KEM), found ...
, in the
Malayalam language to denote a
ditto mark
The ditto mark is a shorthand sign, used mostly in hand-written text, indicating that the words or figures above it are to be repeated.
The mark is made using 'a pair of apostrophes'; 'a pair of marks used underneath a word'; the symbol (quota ...
.
Block
Emoji
The Enclosed Alphanumerics block contains one
emoji
An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed convers ...
:
U+24C2, the enclosed M used as a symbol for
mask work
Layout designs (topographies) of integrated circuits are a field in the protection of intellectual property.
In United States intellectual property law, a "mask work" is a two or three-dimensional layout or topography of an integrated circui ...
s.
It defaults to a text presentation and has two
standardized variants defined to specify text presentation (U+FE0E VS15) or emoji-style (U+FE0F VS16).
History
The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Enclosed Alphanumerics block:
See also
*
Japanese rebus monogram
A Japanese rebus monogram is a monogram in a particular style, which spells a name via a rebus, as a form of Japanese wordplay or visual pun. Today they are most often seen in corporate logos or product logos.
These symbols are particularly com ...
*
Enclosed C
Enclosed C or circled Latin C (Ⓒ or ⓒ) is a typographical symbol. As one of many enclosed alphanumerics, the symbol is a " C" within a circle.
Encodings
The symbols are encoded by Unicode in the block Latin-1 supplement as and .
Uses
S ...
*
Enclosed A
Anarchists have employed certain symbols for their cause, including most prominently the circle-A and the black flag. Anarchist cultural symbols have been prevalent in popular culture since around the turn of the 21st century, concurrent with ...
*
Copyright symbol
The copyright symbol, or copyright sign, (a circled capital letter C for copyright), is the symbol used in copyright notices for works other than sound recordings. 17 U.S.C. The use of the symbol is described by the Universal Copyright Conv ...
*
Enclosed CJK Letters and Months
Enclosed CJK Letters and Months is a Unicode block containing circled and parenthesized Katakana, Hangul, and CJK ideographs. Also included in the block are miscellaneous glyphs that would more likely fit in CJK Compatibility or Enclosed ...
(extends enclosed Arabic decimal numbers to ㊿)
References
{{Unicode navigation
Typographical symbols
Alphanumerics
Alphanumericals or alphanumeric characters are a combination of alphabetical and numerical characters. More specifically, they are the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits. An alphanumeric code is an identifier made of alphanumeric ch ...