Variation Selectors Supplement 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 additional
variation selectors
Variation Selectors is a Unicode block containing 16 variation selectors used to specify a Variant form (Unicode), glyph variant for a preceding character. They are currently used to specify standardized variation sequences for mathematical symb ...
beyond those found in the
Variation Selectors
Variation Selectors is a Unicode block containing 16 variation selectors used to specify a Variant form (Unicode), glyph variant for a preceding character. They are currently used to specify standardized variation sequences for mathematical symb ...
block.
These combining characters are named ''variation selector-17'' (for U+E0100) through to ''variation selector-256'' (U+E01EF), abbreviated VS17 – VS256.
Ideographic Variation Sequences
, VS17 (U+E0100) to VS48 (U+E011F) are used in ideographic variation sequences in the Unicode Ideographic Variation Database (IVD).
These selectors are known as Ideographic Variation Selectors (IVS). They are not listed in the list of standardized variation sequence, instead they are listed in another Ideographic Variation Database.
IVD collections
The following IVS collections are currently registered in the IVD:
Proposed IVD collections
Similarly to the Moji Jōhō Kiban's role in Japan, the
character repertoire
Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to graphical characters, especially the written characters of human language, allowing them to be stored, transmitted, and transformed using computers. The numerical values that make up a c ...
of
CNS 11643
The CNS 11643 character set (Chinese National Standard 11643), also officially known as the Chinese Standard Interchange Code or CSIC ( zh, tr=, t=中文標準交換碼), is officially the standard character set of Taiwan (Republic of China). Publ ...
(including draft revisions) is used for administrative purposes in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
. In some cases, multiple of these correspond to a single Unicode character.
Many of these cases are currently handled with mappings to the
Supplementary Private Use Area.
However, the Taipei Computer Association, which represents the interests of Taiwan in the
Ideographic Research Group
The Ideographic Research Group (IRG), formerly called the Ideographic Rapporteur Group, is a subgroup of Working Group 2 (WG2) of ISO/IEC JTC1 Subcommittee 2 (SC2), which is the committee responsible for developing the Universal Coded Character Se ...
, has been evaluating the feasibility of registering an additional IVD collection in the future.
In Mainland China, the Culture and Art Publishing House has been collecting variant forms required for digitisation of
intangible cultural heritage
An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. In ...
in databases and
e-books
An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...
, and has expressed the intent to register an IVD collection once this is finalised.
Code chart
History
The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Variation Selectors Supplement block:
References
{{reflist
Unicode blocks