Source: C. E. Whitehead
Subject: Comments on PRI #286, Proposed Draft UTR #51
Date: January 25, 2015
Having read through current comments on: www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/tr51-1.html I have several more notes:
Some including Doug oppose skin tone modifiers; I myself would not be inclined to use them but I don't represent other users of emoji and I don't generally use that many emoji. I do note that, unlike some of the gender stuff, "skin color", if a single skin color is sought for all emoji, can be handled with the font, or with the color attribute. However there might be a use for a family group showing diverse skin colors -- that would not be handled simply with a color attribute or with a font -- just a thought -- this is a bit different than what you suggest (note: what you suggest is to have a non-color-specific symbol for a family group, followed by individual emoji; however I am thinking there might be a place for a symbol for a family group that would not need to be followed by individual emoji).
(There are beautiful symbols for family groups online -- I can imagine something like shadows but that could be displayed in different colors -- red, blue, etc -- to show a diverse family. I do not know how you'd show a disfunctional family; maybe no one wants any function.)
IMO Doug is right you; might face accusations of racism with the skin tone modifiers if used for individuals; I think hair dos would be less problematic -- spiked, slicked-back, afro/frizz, braids/dreadlocks, country pigtails; alas these are all Western/Caribbean styles; you might also offer a hijab symbol; you have sunglasses, square, round faces; why not different hairdos? (I do think it's fine to right-click on an emoji to select hair styles; I don't see any reason to add different emoji for hair styles the way you do for sunglasses; as for the groups/family symbol preceding individual family emoji, that sounds cumbersome but I do like having a family symbol in and of itself.)
Astrological symbols I believe are in use; additional ones have been added to fill the grid; is that correct? (Aquarius represents the new age we are on the cusp of; so for some it represents the coming era, and might do so in an emoji. Do you have a grail? -- to represent a quest maybe? are the various Medieval symbols "real emoji"?)
Below are my original comments.
The nice list of when various products adopted various emoji sets is useful, interesting.
I am unsure about the skin-tone modifiers (I might like a blue modifier for when I am down-in-the-dumps; the blue could then never be used to indicate race, no mood symbol could; but anyway -- if people want to use the skin modifiers then fine with me (I am white though & never got flack about skin tone till I got into occasional situations where I was the minority; I can't say how anyone else feels); other options include other indicators of ethnicity -- hairdos, etc; not sure how that would work into all this though. You all already have some symbols like this)
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{COMMENT: People use the "zipper mouth" emoji I imagine; but thermometer? head bandage (in the square where people are demonstrating?) Are these in use? Just curious. I see no puzzled face emoticons; I personally make a puzzled-face with a "?"
?-:
is my "emoticon" (probably no one else uses it)}
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What does
;-)
stand for, in terms of expressions -- idiot-look? Or what? Is it in use?
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"General-purpose emoji for people and body parts should also not be given overly specific images: the general recommendation is to be as neutral as possible regarding race, ethnicity, and gender. Thus for the character U+1F64B happy person raising one hand, the recommendation is to use a neutral graphic like 🙋 instead of an overly-specific image like 🙋. This includes the characters listed in the annotations chart under “human”. The representative glyph used in the charts, or images from other vendors may be misleading: for example, the construction worker 👷 may be male or female. For more information, see the Unicode Emoji FAQ."
{COMMENT: There should be a reference to section 2.2; par 2. -- I thought people were going to be able to select a preferred ethnicity, gender for display in their cell phone of such characters, and be able to switch another when they got tired of that; the way you can switch between Spanish and English -- I see 2.2 par 2 says that it will be possible for people to do the latter; so maybe you need a reference to this paragraph here.}
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"Emoji characters may not always be displayed on a white background. They are often best given a faint, narrow contrasting border to keep the character visually distinct from a similarly colored background. Thus a Japanese flag would have a border so that it would be visible on a white background, and a Swiss flag have a border so that it is visible on a red background."
{COMMENT -- proofreading nit: I think you need a logical connection linking the first two sentences. Insert "because" first, before the first sentence and join it to the following sentence; Also I don't like passives, and while you don't always need to avoid them, I think you ca get an active verb here, if you'll condescend to saying "our general recommendation is"; you can also be more impersonal and say "the general recommendation is"}
=>
"Because emoji characters may not always be displayed on a white background, the general recommendation is to give them a faint, narrow contrasting border to keep the character visually distinct from any similarly colored background. Thus a Japanese flag would have a border so that it would be visible on a white background, and a Swiss flag have a border so that it is visible on a red background."
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"U+1F6B9 mens symbol
U+1F6BA womens symbol"
{COMMENT: you decided apparently not to use the apostrophe "men's"/"women's" -- or else say male symbol/female symbol? O.k. as is I guess. People will probably hate "male" "female"}
U+1F574 man in business suit levitating
{COMMENT: this symbol is for males only? Fine, I guess, if that's how it's used.}
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"One of the goals of this document is to provide data for which Unicode characters should normally be considered to be emoji. Based on the data under development, would include the following 152 characters. Most, but not all, of these are new in Unicode 7.0. This gives a total of about 1,250 emoji characters (or sequences) for Unicode 7.0."
{COMMENT: proofreading nit -- you left off the subject of the second sentence}
=>
"One of the goals of this document is to provide data for which Unicode characters should normally be considered to be emoji. Based on the data under development, characters which can be used as emoji would include the following 152 characters. Most, but not all, of these are new in Unicode 7.0. This gives a total of about 1,250 emoji characters (or sequences) for Unicode 7.0."
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"Annotations are language-specific: searching on yelp.de, you’d expect a search for ⛽ to result in matches for “Tankstelle”. Thus annotations need to be in multiple languages to be useful across languages. They should also include regional annotations within a given language, like “petrol station”, which you’d expect search for ⛽ to result in on yelp.co.uk. An English annotation cannot simply be translated into different languages, since different words may have different associations in different languages. The emoji 🌵 may be associated with Mexican or Southwestern restaurants in the US, but not be associated with them in, say, Greece. The scope of this document is limited to English annotations, but can provide an example for other languages. "
{COMMENT -- proofreading nit: lots of information here; again I would insert a logical connector "however" or "nevertheless" or "but" before sentence four.}
=>?
"Annotations are language-specific: searching on yelp.de, you’d expect a search for ⛽ to result in matches for “Tankstelle”. Thus annotations need to be in multiple languages to be useful across languages. They should also include regional annotations within a given language, like “petrol station”, which you’d expect [a?] search for ⛽ to result in on yelp.co.uk. But an English annotation cannot simply be translated into different languages, since different words may have different associations in different languages. The emoji 🌵 may be associated with Mexican or Southwestern restaurants in the US, but not be associated with them in, say, Greece. The scope of this document is limited to English annotations, but can provide an example for other languages. "