{{also|Variation Selectors Supplement|l1=Variation Selectors Supplement (Unicode block)}} {{Infobox Unicode block |blockname = Variation Selectors |rangestart = FE00 |rangeend = FE0F |script1 = Inherited |3_2 = 16 |note = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/ucd/|title=Unicode character database|work=The Unicode Standard|access-date=2023-07-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/enumeratedversions.html|title=Enumerated Versions of The Unicode Standard|work=The Unicode Standard|access-date=2023-07-26}}</ref> }}'''Variation Selectors''' is a Unicode block 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 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; <abbr title="text">VS15</abbr> and <abbr title="emoji">VS16</abbr> are reserved to request that a character should be displayed as text or as an emoji respectively.<ref>{{Cite web | title=StandardizedVariants.txt | url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/StandardizedVariants.txt | publisher=Unicode Consortium | date=2015-11-20 | access-date=2016-08-28 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title=Emoji Variation Sequences | url=http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Emoji_Variation_Sequences | publisher=Unicode Consortium | date=2020-09-18 | access-date=2020-11-18 }}</ref>
These combining characters are ''variation selector-1'' (for U+FE00) through ''variation selector-16'' (U+FE0F), and are abbreviated VS1 – VS16. Each applies to the immediately preceding character.
As of Unicode 17.0:<ref name="UniStdVarTxt">{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/StandardizedVariants.txt|title=UCD: Standardized Variation Sequences|publisher=Unicode Consortium }}</ref> * CJK compatibility ideograph variation sequences contain VS1–VS3 (U+FE00–U+FE02) * CJK Unified Ideographs Extension A 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). This use is deprecated; newer emoji versions of existing dingbat characters have a separate code point for the emoji form, such as {{unichar|1FAAF|KHANDA}} whose dingbat form is {{unichar|262C|ADI SHAKTI}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://corp.unicode.org/pipermail/unicode/2022-September/010317.html |title=Process of transforming existing glyphs to emojis via variants |date=2022-09-26 |last=Ewell |first=Doug |website=Unicode Mailing List Archives |access-date=2023-09-01 |archive-date=2023-09-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230901125303/https://corp.unicode.org/pipermail/unicode/2022-September/010317.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2023/23252-legacy-disunification.pdf |title=Proposal to disunify Symbols for Legacy Computing from emoji |first1=Rebecca |last1=Bettencourt |first2=Doug |last2=Ewell |id=UTC L2/23-252 |access-date=2023-11-17 |archive-date=2024-05-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526110207/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2023/23252-legacy-disunification.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Holbrook |first=Ned |date=2022-04-14 |publisher=Unicode Consortium |title=Emoji Subcommittee Repo for UTC #171 (2022Q2) |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2022/22066-esc-report-q2.pdf |access-date=2025-10-11 |id=UTC L2/22-066 |page=2}}</ref> * Basic Latin, Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms, Manichaean, Myanmar, Myanmar Extended-A, Phags-pa, and mathematical variation sequences contain only VS1 (U+FE00) * Egyptian Hieroglyphs variation sequences VS1–VS7 (U+FE00–FE06) are used to rotate specific signs * VS8–VS14 (U+FE07–FE0D) are not used for any variation sequences
{{Unicode chart Variation Selectors}}
This list is continued in the Variation Selectors Supplement.
==See also== * {{Section link|Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs|Emoji modifiers}} * Variant form (Unicode)
==History== The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Variation Selectors block:
{{sticky header}} {| class="wikitable sticky-header" |- ! Version !! {{nobr|Final code points<ref group=lower-alpha name=final/>}} !! Count !! L2 ID !! WG2 ID !! Document |- | rowspan="12" | 3.2 || rowspan="12" | U+FE00..FE0F || rowspan="12" | 16 || {{nobr|L2/97-260}} || || {{Citation|title=Plane 14 Variant Tag|date=1997-12-01|first1=Hideki|last1=Hiura|first2=Tatsuo|last2=Kobayashi|author-link2=Tatsuo Kobayashi|ref=none}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L1998/98039.pdf L2/98-039]}} || || {{Citation|title=Preliminary Minutes - UTC #74 & L2 #171, Mountain View, CA - December 5, 1997|date=1998-02-24|first1=Joan|last1=Aliprand|first2=Arnold|last2=Winkler|ref=none|section=2.D.4 Variant Tag Mechanism}} |- | {{nobr|L2/98-277}} || || {{Citation|title=Plane 14 Variant tag|date=1998-07-29|first1=Hideki|last1=Hiura|first2=Tatsuo|last2=Kobayashi|ref=none}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L1998/98281r.pdf L2/98-281R (pdf],}} [https://www.unicode.org/L2/L1998/98281R.htm html]) || || {{Citation|title=Unconfirmed Minutes – UTC #77 & NCITS Subgroup L2 # 174 JOINT MEETING, Redmond, WA -- July 29-31, 1998|date=1998-07-31|first=Joan|last=Aliprand|ref=none|section=III.E.3 Variant Tagging (III.E.3)}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2000/00187.htm L2/00-187]}} || || {{Citation|title=UTC minutes -- Boston, August 8-11, 2000|date=2000-08-23|first=Lisa|last=Moore|ref=none|section=Variation Selector}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01268-vs.txt L2/01-268]}} || || {{Citation|title=Variant selector|date=2001-06-27|first=Asmus|last=Freytag|ref=none}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01309-cwk.pdf L2/01-309]}} || || {{Citation|title=Variation selectors and Han|date=2001-08-08|first=John|last=Jenkins|ref=none}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01324r-variation_selectors.htm L2/01-324R]}} || || {{Citation|title=Variation Selectors [document has incorrect L2 ID number]|date=2001-08-17|first=Mark|last=Davis|author-link=Mark Davis (Unicode)|ref=none}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/consortium/utc-minutes/UTC-088-200108.html L2/01-295R]}} || || {{Citation|title=Minutes from the UTC/L2 meeting #88|date=2001-11-06|first=Lisa|last=Moore|ref=none|section=88-M5}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02154-n2403-minutes.pdf L2/02-154]}} || [https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2403.pdf N2403] || {{Citation|title=Draft minutes of WG 2 meeting 41, Hotel Phoenix, Singapore, 2001-10-15/19|date=2002-04-22|first=V. S.|last=Umamaheswaran|ref=none|section=7.12}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17086-vs16-keycaps-emoji.pdf L2/17-086]}} || || {{Citation|title=Add ZWJ, VS-16, Keycaps & Tags to Emoji_Component|date=2017-03-27|first1=Jeremy|last1=Burge|author-link1=Jeremy Burge|display-authors=etal|ref=none}} |- | {{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17103.htm L2/17-103]}} || || {{Citation|title=UTC #151 Minutes|date=2017-05-18|first=Lisa|last=Moore|ref=none|section=E.1.7 Add ZWJ, VS-16, Keycaps & Tags to Emoji_Component}} |- class="sortbottom" | colspan="6" | {{reflist|group=lower-alpha|refs=<ref name=final>Proposed code points and characters names may differ from final code points and names</ref>}} |}
== References == {{reflist}}
Category:Unicode blocks