Variation Selectors 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 ...
containing 16 variation selectors used to specify a
glyph variant for a preceding character. They are currently used to specify standardized variation sequences for mathematical symbols,
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 modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...
symbols,
'Phags-pa letters, and CJK unified ideographs corresponding to
CJK compatibility ideographs. At present only standardized variation sequences with VS1–VS4, VS7, VS15 and VS16 have been defined;
VS15 and
VS16 are reserved to request that a character should be displayed as text or as an
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 modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...
respectively.
These combining characters are named ''variation selector-1'' (for U+FE00) through to ''variation selector-16'' (U+FE0F), and are abbreviated VS1 – VS16. Each applies to the immediately preceding character.
As of Unicode 13.0:
*
CJK compatibility ideograph variation sequences contain VS1–VS3 (U+FE00–U+FE02)
*
CJK Unified Ideographs Extension A
__FORCETOC__
CJK Unified Ideographs Extension-A 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 adminis ...
and
B variation sequences contain VS1 (U+FE00) and VS2 (U+FE01)
* Emoji variation sequences contain VS16 (U+FE0F) for emoji-style (with color) or VS15 (U+FE0E) for text style (monochrome)
*
Basic Latin,
Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms
In CJK characters, CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) computing, graphic characters are traditionally classed into fullwidth and halfwidth characters. Unlike monospaced fonts, a halfwidth character occupies half the width of a fullwidth characte ...
,
Manichaean
Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...
,
Myanmar
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...
,
Myanmar Extended-A
Myanmar Extended-A is a Unicode block containing Myanmar characters for writing the Khamti Shan and Aiton languages.
Block
The block has eleven variation sequences defined for standardized variants. They use (VS01) to denote the dotted let ...
,
Phags-pa, and mathematical variation sequences contain only VS1 (U+FE00)
*
Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined Ideogram, ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct char ...
variation sequences VS1–VS4 and VS7 (U+FE00–FE03, and FE06) are used to rotate specific signs
* VS5, VS6, and VS8–VS14 (U+FE04, FE05, and FE07–FE0D) are not used for any variation sequences
This list is continued in the
Variation Selectors Supplement
Variation Selectors Supplement is a Unicode block containing additional variation selectors beyond those found in the Variation Selectors block.
These combining characters are named ''variation selector-17'' (for U+E0100) through to ''variation ...
.
See also
*
*
Variant form (Unicode)
A variant form is an alternate glyph for a character, encoded in Unicode through the mechanism of variation sequences: sequences in Unicode that consist of a base character followed by a variation selector character.
A variant form usually has a v ...
History
The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Variation Selectors block:
References
{{reflist
Unicode blocks