5 ms·

Emoji is such a weird thing. On one hand, I use them constantly for IMing. A quick 👍 is 10x better than the single-character "K" response in terms of expressiv

Emoji is such a weird thing. On one hand, I use them constantly for IMing. A quick 👍 is 10x better than the single-character "K" response in terms of expressiveness and playfulness. On the other hand, the symbol coverage seems very random to my western brain. For example, there are three different mounds of rice, but no tacos. Nine different commuter trains, but no motorcycle. Also, the seemingly random assortment of flags. I know this is a result of their Japanese origins, but if I had my druthers, emoji would be a little more inclusive, and then phones would have a little emoji-editor where you could edit your keyboards so they only included the symbols you wanted to use.

Mindless2112 13y ago
For anyone else who just sees a square: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f44d/ http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f44d/
- gee_totes 13y ago
  Why do I see a square? It is because of the encoding format on HN? Or because my browser's built in fonts don't have all the Unicodes?
  - jisaacstone 13y ago
    Yes you need a font on your system that has a symbol for that codepoint. I know I had to install 'symbola' font to get `love hotel` to display a few months ago.
    - porges 13y ago
      Note that Google Chrome on Windows often can't display characters even if you have an appropriate font installed.
  - gcr 13y ago
    It's not a character set issue. It's just that none of your fonts have that glyph. I'm on Linux, but after installing the symbola font (Arch package: `ttf-symbola`) and restarting firefox, the square turns into the proper thumbs up sign.
    - simcop2387 13y ago
      If you don't have a package for it in your distro, grab it from the author: http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/
    - mcrider 13y ago
      Oddly enough if you copy+paste the square to your URL bar it displays fine.
    - jtchang 13y ago
      What do I install on Ubuntu 10.04?
      - loevborg 13y ago
        On Ubuntu, try: mkdir -p ~/.fonts && wget -O /tmp/symbola.zip 'http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/Symbola708.zip' && unzip -j -d ~/.fonts /tmp/symbola.zip Symbola.ttf Restart Chrome. It should work on 10.04 or later (and possibly in earlier versions as well).
  - cezary 13y ago
    After installing the symbola font, I still see the square. Chrome on OSX doesn't support emoji. Try viewing it in safari. http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/41228/why-do-emoji-like-appear-when-i-use-safari-but-not-chrome http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/41228/why-do-emoji-...

Mindless2112 13y ago

For anyone else who just sees a square: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f44d/ http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f44d/

gee_totes 13y ago
Why do I see a square? It is because of the encoding format on HN? Or because my browser's built in fonts don't have all the Unicodes?
- jisaacstone 13y ago
  Yes you need a font on your system that has a symbol for that codepoint. I know I had to install 'symbola' font to get `love hotel` to display a few months ago.
  - porges 13y ago
    Note that Google Chrome on Windows often can't display characters even if you have an appropriate font installed.
- gcr 13y ago
  It's not a character set issue. It's just that none of your fonts have that glyph. I'm on Linux, but after installing the symbola font (Arch package: `ttf-symbola`) and restarting firefox, the square turns into the proper thumbs up sign.
  - simcop2387 13y ago
    If you don't have a package for it in your distro, grab it from the author: http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/
  - mcrider 13y ago
    Oddly enough if you copy+paste the square to your URL bar it displays fine.
  - jtchang 13y ago
    What do I install on Ubuntu 10.04?
    - loevborg 13y ago
      On Ubuntu, try: mkdir -p ~/.fonts && wget -O /tmp/symbola.zip 'http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/Symbola708.zip' && unzip -j -d ~/.fonts /tmp/symbola.zip Symbola.ttf Restart Chrome. It should work on 10.04 or later (and possibly in earlier versions as well).
- cezary 13y ago
  After installing the symbola font, I still see the square. Chrome on OSX doesn't support emoji. Try viewing it in safari. http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/41228/why-do-emoji-like-appear-when-i-use-safari-but-not-chrome http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/41228/why-do-emoji-...