Proposed New Characters

• Is there any advance information available for future versions of Unicode?
• Where do I find the information on how to use newly encoded characters for the Unicode Standard?
• Where do I find information on how to use proposed characters for future versions of the standard?
• Will there be an official beta period for future proposed characters?
• Is there a beta review underway now?
• When will the next version of Unicode be published?
• Will the next version of Unicode also be published as a book?

Q: Is there any advance information available for future versions of Unicode?

A: Yes, there is always summary information posted in Proposed New Characters. As proposed characters for future versions are accepted by the committees for the Unicode Standard and for ISO/IEC 10646, they are listed there. As characters get closer to final standardization, they will also be listed in more detail in preliminary charts, as those become available. Links to many proposal documents can also be found via the Unicode roadmaps. You may also wish to follow changes in Public Review Issues and monitor the Unicode Mail List for information on beta releases and other announcements.

Q: Where do I find the information on how to use newly encoded characters for the Unicode Standard?

A: The specification for the latest version of the Unicode Standard provides information about how to use the newly encoded characters, and gives a short summary of what has changed in the latest version. See Versions of the Unicode Standard for details about earlier versions.

Q: Where do I find information on how to use proposed characters for future versions of the standard?

A: Those characters are not yet standardized, and have not yet finished their rounds of international ISO balloting. Implementers must be very cautious about trying to implement tentatively accepted characters before their final publication. However, information about the proposed characters is generally available in the working proposal documents. UTC members can browse the L2 document list which contains new character proposals. Public proposal documents can also be found at the official JTC1/SC2/WG2 site, or at Michael Everson's standards site. Links to many proposal documents can also be found via the Unicode roadmaps.

Q: Will there be an official beta period for future proposed characters?

A: Yes. There is always an announced beta period, for public review of the accompanying data files of the Unicode Character Database, before final release of a version of the standard. Beta periods and periods for other public review issues are posted on the Public Review Issues page. You can periodically monitor that page and watch for changes.

Q: Is there a beta review underway now?

A: See http://www.unicode.org/versions/beta.html for information.

Q: When will the next version of Unicode be published?

A: Publication dates are announced on the Unicode web site. There is typically at least a year between versions and sometimes much longer.

Q: Will the next version of Unicode also be published as a book?

A: The Unicode Standard was published as a book through Version 5.0. Subsequent versions have been published online only. The UTC is investigating options to allows orders for printed copies of the latest version of the standard through publication on demand services.

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