Emoji Unicode Converter
Fast, accurate and free online emoji unicode converter tool running directly in your browser.
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Other tools you may find usefulEmoji to Unicode converter – how do computers interpret emoticons?
Emojis have become an integral part of modern digital communication, adding expression, emotion and color to text messages, emails and social media posts. For us, an emoji is a colorful picture (e.g. a smiling face 😊 or a rocket 🚀), but computer systems, databases and browsers see them completely differently. All graphic signs in the digital world are encoded using the Unicode standard. Each emoji is assigned a unique Code Point. Our emoji to Unicode converter is a free development tool that allows you to quickly decode emojis into various programming formats.
Just paste one or more emojis into the text box and the converter will automatically break them down. You will receive precise information about Unicode code points (in U+XXXXX format), HTML entities (decimal and hexadecimal), as well as escape sequences used in JavaScript, Python and CSS styles. The tool is an invaluable help for programmers creating web applications and ensuring character encoding compatibility.
Various emoji recording formats in programming
Depending on the technology and programming language you are working with, the same emoji character must be written in the appropriate format. The table below shows the formats for the rocket icon 🚀:
| Format name/Environment | Syntactic format | Example of notation for 🚀 | Where is it used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode Point (Code Point) | U+XXXXXX(hexadecimal) |
U+1F680 |
The official Unicode Consortium standard, technical documentation. |
| Entity HTML (decimal) | &#[decimal_code]; |
🚀 |
Paste directly into the HTML code of your web pages. |
| Entity HTML (hexadecimal) | &#x[hexcode]; |
🚀 |
An alternative entity notation in HTML code. |
| JavaScript/JSON Escape | \uXXXXor\u{XXXXXX} |
\u{1F680}(or a pair of surrogates\uD83D\uDE80) |
Displaying emojis in JS scripts, JSON configuration files. |
| CSS Escape Sequence | \[hex_code] |
\1F680 |
Inserting emojis in CSS styles using a pseudo-element::beforeor::after(content property). |
| Python Escape Sequence | \UXXXXXXXX |
\U0001F680 |
Using emojis in Python code and scripts. |
How do emojis connect to each other? ZWJ (Zero Width Joiner) sequences
One of the most fascinating aspects of emoji technology is how complex characters or symbols are created. Many emojis are created by combining several simpler characters using a special, invisible control character called a zero-width hyphen (ZWJ).Zero Width Joiner, code pointU+200D):
- Selecting skin color (Skin Tone Modifiers):Emojis representing people are combined with special skin color modifiers (based on the Fitzpatrick scale, from light U+1F3FB to dark U+1F3FF). For example: thumbs up 👍 + dark skin modifier = 👍🏿.
- Selection of gender and profession:The astronaut emoji 🧑🚀 is created by combining the figure of a human 🧑 (U+1F9D1), the character ZWJ (U+200D) and a rocket 🚀 (U+1F680). The browser interprets this sequence and renders a single image of the astronaut.
- Country flags:Most national flags are not single Unicode characters, but a combination of two special regional letters (Regional Indicator Symbols). For example, the Polish flag 🇵🇱 is a combination of the letter symbols P (🇵) and L (🇱).
How to encode and insert emoji in website code?
To ensure that the emoji displays correctly on every device and operating system, follow these guidelines:
- Set the UTF-8 encoding:Make sure that the meta tag is included in the header of your HTML document:
<meta charset="UTF-8">. Without this, browsers may render emojis as broken question marks or so-called "bushes". - Use HTML entities for safety:If the code editor has trouble displaying emojis directly, use a safe HTML entity (e.g.
😀for a smiley face 😀). - Style with CSS:You can insert icons directly in CSS styles using hexadecimal code. Remember to set the appropriate font family that supports emoji (e.g.
font-family: "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", sans-serif;). - Test on different systems:Remember that the same emoji looks completely different on Apple devices (iOS, macOS), Google (Android), Windows and in applications such as Twitter or Facebook. This is because each manufacturer designs its own sets of graphics for the same code points.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is Surrogate Pairs in character encoding?
The UTF-16 standard encodes basic characters in 16 bits (2 bytes). Because this pool was too small for all emojis, characters from higher registers (so-called supplementary code planes, including most emojis) are encoded using two 16-bit codewords - this is a pair of surrogates.
Why do some emojis appear as empty rectangles (tofu)?
A white rectangle (so-called "tofu") means that the operating system or browser does not have a font installed that supports the given Unicode code point. This often happens on older systems when we try to display newly released emojis that the system does not yet support.
Who decides on the creation of new emojis?
The Unicode Consortium, or more precisely its Emoji Subcommittee, is responsible for standardizing and approving new emojis. Anyone can submit an official request to add a new symbol, supporting it with an analysis of its popularity and social usefulness.
Do emojis affect the weight of a SQL database?
Yes. Emojis require 4-byte encoding. In the MySQL database, the standardutf8encoding (which only supports up to 3 bytes per character) will corrupt the database when trying to write an emoji. To save emoticons correctly, you need to change the table and database encoding toutf8mb4.
What is the difference between emoticons and emojis?
Emojis are text characters arranged in combinations that imitate facial expressions (e.g. colon, dash and bracket:-)). Emoji are ready-made graphic signs (pictograms) encoded directly in the Unicode standard as independent letters/symbols.