Pixel Emoji

Pixel Emoji is a compact 12×12 color fallback font for newer Unicode emoji that may be missing from older operating-system fonts. It is drawn by Lewis Moten using a retro EGA-inspired palette with additional Unicode skin-tone colors where modifiers require them.

The package contains a stable Pixel Emoji family for released characters and a separate Pixel Emoji Proposed family for experimental draft characters. Draft sequences can change before Unicode publishes them.

Install

npm install @lewismoten/pixel-emoji

Load both families with the packaged stylesheet:

@import "@lewismoten/pixel-emoji";

.emoji {
  font-family:
    var(--pixel-emoji-released-family), "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji",
    sans-serif;
}

.emoji--proposed {
  font-family:
    var(--pixel-emoji-proposed-family), var(--pixel-emoji-released-family),
    "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", sans-serif;
}

Keep the released family first for ordinary emoji. This prevents older text shapers from splitting a released modifier or ZWJ sequence across the released, proposed, and system fonts. Put the proposed family first only on text known to contain draft emoji.

Each painted entry in manifest.json also has a privateUseCodePoint. Render that single code point with the matching Pixel Emoji font version when a legacy text shaper cannot keep the original Unicode sequence together. The alias is a presentation fallback only; continue to store, transmit, search, and copy the entry's real emoji value.

The stable font can also be installed directly from font/pixel-emoji.ttf. WOFF and WOFF2 files are provided for websites.

Metadata and embedding

manifest.json identifies the font release, Unicode coverage, proposed versions, glyph counts, license, and included files.

The TTF uses installable embedding permissions. It may be installed, embedded, edited, and redistributed in documents subject to the included ISC license.

See the complete font documentation and Emoji Explorer.