🎲
Rounding up the emojis…
Rounding up the emojis…
Every emoji is a Unicode character with a unique codepoint — a hexadecimal number that identifies it across all platforms and devices. This lookup table shows the Unicode codepoints, UTF-8 byte encoding, and shortcodes for popular emoji. Understanding codepoints is essential for developers working with emoji in code, database storage, and cross-platform communication.
Some emoji are single codepoints (like 😀 = U+1F600), while others are sequences of multiple codepoints joined together. For example, flag emoji combine two Regional Indicator symbols, and family emoji use Zero Width Joiners (ZWJ) to link multiple person characters. The codepoints column shows the full sequence for each emoji.
Most basic emoji are single Unicode codepoints in the range U+1F600 to U+1FAF8 (Supplemental Symbols and Pictographs block). When you type or paste one of these characters, your device looks up the codepoint and renders the corresponding emoji image from its font or system emoji set.
Some characters exist in both text and emoji forms. The heart character (U+2764) can appear as a text symbol ❤ or an emoji ❤️. The difference is a variation selector: adding U+FE0F (VS16) after the character forces emoji presentation. This is why some emoji have two codepoints in their sequence — the base character plus the variation selector.
Complex emoji like families, professions, and flag combinations use Zero Width Joiner (U+200D) characters between component emoji. The woman technologist 👩💻 is actually: Woman (U+1F469) + ZWJ (U+200D) + Laptop (U+1F4BB). If a platform does not support a specific sequence, it shows the individual emoji side by side as a graceful fallback.
Human emoji support five skin tone modifiers (U+1F3FB through U+1F3FF) based on the Fitzpatrick dermatological scale. When placed after a compatible emoji, they change the skin color from the default yellow. Not all emoji support modifiers — only those depicting humans or human body parts.