Apple Color Emoji (stylized as AppleColorEmoji) is a color typeface used on Apple platforms such as iOS and

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

to display

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...

characters. The inclusion of emoji in the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

and in the

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

standard has been credited with promoting the spreading use of emoji outside Japan. As with many Apple icons past and present, they feature a design based on deep, saturated colors and gradual transitions of color, often incorporating subtle gloss effects.

Original release

The first version of Apple Color Emoji was released alongside iPhone OS 2.2 in November 2008 and contained 471 individual emoji glyphs. Originally limited to Japanese iPhone models, this restriction was later lifted. The designers of the first Apple Color Emoji typeface were Raymond Sepulveda, Angela Guzman and Ollie Wagner. Due to the iPhone originally launching in Japan on the SoftBank network, some Apple emoji designs may have been created to resemble those on SoftBank phones. For example, 💃 (defined by Unicode as 'dancer' with no specified gender) is feminine on Apple and SoftBank phones but was previously masculine or gender-neutral on others.

Expansion

In the years 20112018 the Apple Color Emoji font expanded from 471 to 3,633 emoji as of September 2021. An updated emoji keyboard was released in iOS version 8.3, this update also added varied skin tones and same-gender couples included in Unicode 6. As a result, the human emoji faces switched to a neutral yellow skin tone by default, similar to the smiley emoji. The majority of Apple Color Emoji designs were updated with the release of iOS 10.2 in December 2016, with many appearing to be 3D-rendered. According to Apple Vice President of User Interface Design Alan Dye, emoji redesigns were due to the advent of Animoji, Memoji, and higher resolution screens. 157 new emoji were added to iOS in October 2018. The designers of the Apple Color Emoji typeface in versions after the initial release have not been publicly credited, following Apple's standard practice of not crediting work to individuals. Former Apple employees have offered accounts of who created various designs.

Implementation

Prior to iOS 5 SoftBank encoding was used for encoding emoji on Apple devices. Beginning with iOS 5, emoji are encoded using the

standard. Emoji glyphs are stored as PNG images, at several resolutions (''strikes'' of 20, 32, 40, 48, 64, 96 and 160 pixels squared) using a proprietary "sbix" table that was later standardized in OpenType version 1.8. The font contains a number of Easter eggs. Several glyphs contain portions of the text of Apple's Think different advertisement ("Here's to the crazy ones..."), including 1F4CB "Clipboard" (📋), 1F4C4 "Page facing up" (📄), 1F4D1 "Bookmark Tabs" (📑), and 1F4D6 "Open book" (📖), among others. Other emoji, specified as generic objects, appear as Apple products. For example, 1F4BB "Personal computer" (💻) appears as a modern MacBook, while 231A "Wristwatch" (⌚) shows an

Apple Watch The Apple Watch is a brand of smartwatch products developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple. It incorporates activity tracker, fitness tracking, Health (Apple), health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates wit ...

. 1F301 "Foggy" (🌁) shows the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...

behind

San Francisco fog Fog is a common weather phenomenon in the San Francisco Bay Area and the entire coastline of California extending south to the northwest coast of the Baja California Peninsula. The frequency of fog and low-lying stratus clouds is due to a co ...

, a reference to Apple's California headquarters, and 1F4F0 "Newspaper" (📰)'s headline reads "The Apple Times". A variety of styles are used in the original sets. For example, 🐬 and 🐙 (dolphin and octopus) were quite stylized with 'button' eyes, while 🐈 and 🐀 (cat and rat) were more realistic, resembling watercolor paintings. This mixture of styles creates a range of possible designs: for example, 🐏 and 🐑 (ram and sheep) look clearly different, as do 🐫 and 🐪 (Bactrian camel and dromedary).

Trends

Because of the calendar emoji (📅) showing July 17, this date was chosen for the annual World Emoji Day. The date originally referred to the day Apple premiered its calendar application, iCal, in 2002. Although primarily intended for onscreen display (iOS having limited printing capabilities), some printed displays and signs have used Apple Color Emoji designs. ''New York'' magazine used Apple Color Emoji in a printed feature on the growing use of emoji.

Emoji

References

External links

Review of Apple Color Emoji by Si Daniels, Program Manager for Fonts at Microsoft

Top five nonsensical relationships you have to remember to be able to find the right emoji, ever
(Casey Johnson) {{Emoji navbox MacOS Emoji typefaces Computer-related introductions in 2008