Unicode 9.0: Even more characters for adoption!

We’ve been delighted to see others in the type community adding their names in support of the Unicode Consortium’s Adopt-A-Character campaign. With the recent release of version 9.0 of the Unicode standard, there are 7,500 new characters available to claim — including 72 new emoji.

Even if you aren’t familiar with the Unicode Consortium, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve benefited from the work they do to maintain the digital standard for character encoding.

Unicode sponsor badge

Adobe’s gold badge, for adopting the ampersand at the Gold level.

We’re proud supporters of the non-profit organization, and feel it’s important for those of us who rely so much on type to throw some weight behind the digital infrastructure that supports modern communications.

New emoji selection

Just a few of the 72 new emoji in version 9.0. If you’d like your name permanently associated with pancakes, one of the newly-released emoji, your opportunity is here at last.

Sponsorships are available starting at $100 for bronze — and up to $5,000 for the Gold-level sponsorship. Sponsors get their names listed on the Unicode website and receive custom digital badges designed by our own Jake Giltsoff.

Congrats to Unicode on the new version release — and our thanks for all you do.

3 Responses

  1. Pigs will fly before I sponsor a emoji. Look at those above. Maybe a third aren’t even clear in what the represent. Why create confusion? Why sink so low, you have to add a smiley face to say “I’m happy.” Say it in words and add still more words explaining why.

    Emoji is like abandoning speaking and trying to communicate with gestures. Indeed, many of them are just facial gestures. Babies can’t do any better than that. Adults can.

    1. David Lemon says:

      Plenty of people share your perspective. No problem. Emoji constitute an infinitesimal portion of Unicode. Feel free to sponsor a character you find useful, as Adobe did (above).

  2. MJ says:

    Unicode will gladly add even more useless emoticons but will not encode a “g” with tilde, needed for several Tupi-Guarani languages. The priorities of the countries with more money.

Comments are closed.

Sally Kerrigan

Content Editor at Typekit. Usually knows the way to the nearest public library. Lives in San Francisco in real life, @draftwerk in Twitter life.

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