What is Unicodia?

It is a simple Unicode encyclopedia and replacement for Character Map. Right now Windows only.

Lifecycle phase: 4 (beta). Usable but still problems with sustainability.

I’m in Ukraine torn with war, so I’ll release often. See “war release” tag in Issues.

How to build?

• Slight C++20 and std::filesystem here → so need either MSYS or recent Qt with MinGW 11.
• Also need cURL (present in W10 18H2+), 7-zip, UTransCon.
• Configure and run tape.bat file.
• Configure and run rel.bat file.

How to develop?

• Download/find all tools mentioned above.
• Ensure that your Qt has MinGW 11/12. Or make a custom kit of some MinGW Qt and MSYS compiler; tested Qt 6.1.2, 6.1.3, 6.2.0, 6.2.4
• Compile and run AutoBuilder.
• Move UcAuto.cpp to Unicodia/Uc.
• Compile Unicodia.

If you want to rebuild GlyphWiki font

(This section is being written)

Compatibility and policies

Platforms

Win7/10/11 x64 only. Rationale:

• WXP, WVista and W8 are completely abandoned by all imaginable software.
• No obstacles for x86, just untested because no one compiled Qt for x86.
• Recently checked Windows 11, and it works.

Tofu/misrenderings

• W10/11 should support everything possible, W7 base plane only.
• Some base plane scripts (e.g. Georgian Nuskhuri) will not be shown the best way in W7, but will be shown.
• Of course, same for plane 1 scripts: if I find that some font supports e.g. Lycian, I’ll include it to font chain.
• Three scripts of plane 1 are considered “extremely important” and will be supported in W7: Phoenician, Aramaic, Brahmi. I’ll also support Gothic, just because its serif look is really “gothic”.
• Small misrenderings in descriptions are tolerable, I’ll fix them only if samples are bad, or if the font has other problems.

Future functionality

• Finish GlyphWiki loader.
• Better CJK reference.
• Egyptian hieroglyph reference.

What do utilities do?

• AutoBuilder — build UcAuto.cpp from Unicode base.
  • Warning: transition to older/newer Unicode requires a bit of handwork.
• GwLoader — loads glyphs from GlyphWiki
• GwRemake — does an auto-remake of GlyphWiki
• PanoseTool — early tool that used to remove fonts’ declared script support. Left for history. Current Unicodia uses custom font loading code based on PanoseTool + font matching flags.
• SmartCopy — copies the file if it actually differs.
• TapeMaker — creates a tape file for graphic emoji.
• UTranslator — translation tool.

Unicodia emoji style guide

Right now Unicodia emoji library is very small, but…

I discovered that most of professional emoji… do not work! Do not work because they have too much detail and too little contrast. The last professional emoji that really worked is… 2018 Microsoft!

High priority: emoji that are really badly grasped.

Canvas size: 64×64. For oblong/round object: leave 2px from edge. For square object: leave 6px from edge. For faces: leave 7px from edge.

Colour scheme: GNOME Human Interface Guidelines unless REALLY needed (e.g. military helmet). Use plain colours. Use black #000 sparingly, mainly for outlines and small details.

Projection: frontal/sideways unless the object is better identified in other projection. Bilateral animals, vehicles and people face to the left.

Style: avoid toyish look. Machinery should be based on real-life models.

Outline style: outer 2px, the darkest colour of palette (unless outlining grey/white/luminous thing). Inner may be thinner if present. Butts are round for natural objects and square/slanted for boxy ones. Same for corners.

Outline presence: outer may be partly omitted to gain more dynamic look; the object should continue from the OUTER edge of outline (like in OpenMoji). Inner lines are mostly absent. Truncation lines are never outlined. You may omit outline of small outer details (e.g. hooves); but if they really define object’s shape, it’s better to outline them at least partly, at least with 1px.

Grid: 1px; extremum nodes are snapped.