Variation Selectors are a set of special control characters in the Unicode standard that modify the preceding base character to indicate which variant form should be displayed. In emoji contexts, they are primarily used to switch between text style (black-and-white/monochrome) and emoji style (color/graphic).
Basic Information
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Unicode range (VS1–VS16) | U+FE00 – U+FE0F (16 total) |
| Unicode range (VS17–VS256) | U+E0100 – U+E01EF (240 total) |
| Core emoji selectors | VS-15 (U+FE0E, text style)VS-16 ( U+FE0F, emoji style) |
How It Works
When the operating system or application font supports it, the character is rendered according to the variation selector's instruction; if not supported, it typically falls back to the default emoji style.
Combination formula:
Base character+U+FE0E(VS-15) = text styleBase character+U+FE0F(VS-16) = emoji style
Examples
| Base character | No selector | + VS-15 (U+FE0E) | + VS-16 (U+FE0F) |
|---|---|---|---|
U+2600 ☀ | Display depends on system | ☀︎ (text style) | ☀️ (emoji style) |
U+2665 ♥ | Display depends on system | ♥︎ (text style) | ❤️ (emoji style) |
U+2602 ☂ | Display depends on system | ☂︎ (text style) | ☂️ (emoji style) |