Comparison of emoji and emoticons

85 views
Skip to first unread message

Arle

unread,
Dec 27, 2008, 5:58:40 PM12/27/08
to emoji4unicode
[For some reason the group page won't display email sent by me and I
have to manually post it here. Sorry for the delay.]

Hello all,

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

I think that if the emoji proposal were augmented by 30 to 40 code
points it could cover the "core" emoticons used in Western products as
well in a unified proposal. I think this approach would offer benefits
for interoperability and would make it easier for interchange. I don't
envision most western vendors adopting a character-based mechanism for
encoding emoticons internally (especially since some systems are user-
expandable), but it would be nice if the option existed.

In examining the chart I prepared, it is apparent that overlap with
the current emoji proposal is pretty sporadic, with key western
emoticons (e.g., ;-)) not having any direct matches in the emoji set.
Nevertheless there are a fair number that do overlap, often in
somewhat imprecise manners.

I hope the chart will prove of some use to the group.

Best,

Arle Lommel

Christopher Fynn

unread,
Dec 29, 2008, 1:58:58 AM12/29/08
to emoji4...@googlegroups.com, Unicode Mailing List
As Emoji and Emoticon Graphics are (mini) art work - are any of them,
particularly designs used by one carrie, currently subject to
copyright or design patent?

- Chris

Michael Everson

unread,
Dec 29, 2008, 4:16:17 AM12/29/08
to emoji4...@googlegroups.com, Unicode Mailing List

I too am concerned about the font issue, and I have asked about the
font. Peter said that something was under development. My subsequent
queries (who is doing it, can I see a draft) have not been responded to.

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com

John Hudson

unread,
Dec 29, 2008, 1:17:05 PM12/29/08
to Michael Everson, emoji4...@googlegroups.com, Unicode Mailing List
Michael Everson wrote:

> I too am concerned about the font issue, and I have asked about the
> font. Peter said that something was under development. My subsequent
> queries (who is doing it, can I see a draft) have not been responded to.

I'm not remotely concerned about the font issue, because this is a font
that is only ever going to inadequately represent emoji and only going
to be used to illustrate characters in a chart in the Unicode book.
Unlike typical text characters, emoji rely on colour and in some cases
animation, so I don't think anyone is going to reference a Unicode chart
as a guide to what the emoji should look like. Frankly, I don't think a
font is even necessary, and it would make more sense for the telecom
corporations involved to host an indexed gallery of emoji and for
Unicode or other standards organisations to link to that. I think it is
unlikely that a font will ever be the mechanism by which emoji are
displayed on mobile devices, since this would require definition,
standardisation and adoption of a new font format capable of supporting
animated graphics as glyphs (The Photofont format supports colour
bitmaps as glyphs, but not animated, so far as I am aware). Even if
emoji continue to be transmitted as text -- which I doubt, because this
limits the extensibility and customisability of the set available to
users, whom I am convinced will want to create their own emoji --, they
are not going to be displayed on devices using the same font technology
as text. They are, and seem most likely remain, inline bitmap graphics,
and even if they are index-linked to character codes that shouldn't
mislead anyone into thinking that they must be addressable with font
technology.

The most recent edition of the Unicode book already dispenses with the
majority of CJK character charts. I see no reason why the same could not
be done for emoji, with the images hosted in a medium in which they can
be displayed in colour and with animation. The font seems to me a waste
of time and money, although I suspect whoever is making it is having
some fun.

John Hudson

--

Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
Gulf Islands, BC ti...@tiro.com

The Lord entered her to become a servant.
The Word entered her to keep silence in her womb.
The thunder entered her to be quiet.
-- St Ephrem the Syrian

Markus Scherer

unread,
Jan 5, 2009, 4:08:52 PM1/5/09
to emoji4...@googlegroups.com
On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 2:58 PM, Arle <fen...@gmail.com> wrote:

[For some reason the group page won't display email sent by me and I
have to manually post it here. Sorry for the delay.]

Your message was held up because Groups thought it might be spam -- I don't know why. I now let your original mail be posted.

Sorry for the delay, I didn't work during the holidays.

markus
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages