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

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

and

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

to display Emoji characters. The inclusion of emoji in the iPhone and in the

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

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 is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...

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 2011—2018 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 OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark ...

version 1.8. The font contains a number of Easter eggs. Several glyphs contain portions of the text of Apple's

Think different "Think different" is an advertising slogan used from 1997 to 2002 by Apple Computer, Inc., now named Apple Inc. The campaign was created by the Los Angeles office of advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day. The slogan has been widely taken as a resp ...

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 Apple Watch is a line of smartwatches produced by Apple Inc. It incorporates fitness tracking, health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates with iOS and other Apple products and services. The Apple Watch was rel ...

. 1F301 "Foggy" (🌁) shows the Golden Gate Bridge behind San Francisco fog, 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

iCal Calendar is a personal calendar app made by Apple Inc. that runs on both the macOS desktop operating system and the iOS mobile operating system. It offers online cloud backup of calendars using Apple's iCloud service, or can synchronize wi ...

calendar application 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