Welcome to the Global Cultures of Text

A comprehensive Unicode 17 lexicon of scripts, symbols, characters and standardized emoji sequences

PROOF — 60,734 EVALUATED UNICODE ENTRIES

GlyphType evaluated the original system-font collections of Android 12, iOS 16, Windows 10 and macOS 11—font by font and code point by code point. These deliberately selected minimum versions represent at least 81.2% of measured European web traffic in December 2025; only 3.5% was confirmed below them.
PROOF contains 59,332 individually evaluated single-code-point entries and 1,402 standardized sequences assessed from their verified components. It provides a dependable collection for messaging, social media and other plain-text environments—without claiming a guarantee for every device or application.

GLOBAL — 162,375 UNICODE 17 CATALOG ENTRIES

Noto, Adobe Source Han and BabelStone have done extraordinary work to make the writing systems and symbols of Unicode visible. GlyphType brings these open font collections together in one searchable environment.
GLOBAL contains 159,615 assigned single-code-point entries and 2,760 standardized sequences—from everyday characters to rare symbols and historic writing systems. Where no suitable font is available, the catalog entry remains searchable.

This independent project is dedicated to everyone shaping, documenting, designing and researching the world’s written communication.

Details

A structured, inspectable Unicode 17 reference combining catalog data, empirical system-font analysis and browser-based font exploration.

Unicode target: 17.0

PROOF: 60,734 unique entries

GLOBAL: 162,375 unique entries

Why this exists

GlyphType is an independent Unicode reference and exploration environment connected to the Unicode Text Editor at glyphtype.one. It makes characters, sequences, blocks, metadata and available font coverage explorable in one place. It does not replace the Unicode Character Database or redefine Unicode properties and semantics.

1. Definitions and counting

A code point is one numerical Unicode value. A sequence contains multiple code points. A character is an abstract unit of encoded text, while a glyph is its visible form produced by a font and rendering system. A catalog entry is the project’s shared counting unit for either a single-code-point entry or a multi-code-point sequence.

PROOF: 60,734 unique entries — 59,332 single-code-point entries and 1,402 multi-code-point sequences.
GLOBAL: 162,375 unique entries — 159,615 assigned single-code-point entries and 2,760 multi-code-point sequences.

Counts refer to unique catalog identities after normalizing code-point notation and sequence identity. Repeated placements used to present an entry in more than one editorial context are not counted as additional unique entries.

2. Unicode sources and editorial data

Character assignments, block boundaries, Unicode names, age metadata and fully-qualified emoji sequences are derived from official Unicode 17 data, including UnicodeData.txt, Blocks.txt, DerivedAge.txt, relevant Unihan data files and emoji-test.txt. Editorial categories, short descriptions, practical groupings, font-coverage maps and platform assessments are maintained separately by the project. The editorial layer is therefore project data, not normative Unicode data.

3. Defined catalog scope

GLOBAL is a project-defined, display-oriented Unicode 17 catalog. It is organized into Global Scripts & Symbols, East Asian Writing Systems, Han ideographs and fully-qualified emoji. Standalone controls and format characters, private-use code points, surrogates, noncharacters and other non-display technical values are outside this scope. Structural code points such as variation selectors and the Zero Width Joiner may nevertheless occur as required components of standardized sequences.

Unicode 17 contains 159,801 assigned characters. GLOBAL presents 159,615 of them as standalone catalog entries. Of the remaining 186, 102 occur as required components of standardized sequences and 84 technical or structural values are intentionally not presented as standalone display entries. The GLOBAL number is not a count of theoretical Unicode code-space positions and does not imply visible font coverage for every entry.

4. What PROOF means

The 59,332 PROOF single-code-point entries were evaluated against extracted default system-font collections corresponding to Android 12, iOS 16, Windows 10 and macOS 11. Font faces were inspected for actual glyph content rather than accepted from declared character mappings alone. Outline, CFF, bitmap, SVG and color-glyph data were evaluated where present; .notdef mappings, known placeholder fingerprints, replacement-glyph matches and LastResort fonts were excluded. PROOF contains the intersection of the four resulting single-code-point datasets.

The 1,402 sequences were assessed separately. A sequence was included when all non-structural components had verified glyph content. This establishes component coverage; it does not verify identical shaping, joining, positioning or color rendering of the complete sequence in every application.

This is a deterministic analysis of documented font files, not a screenshot comparison of every operating-system renderer. Results apply to the tested reference collections. They do not guarantee support on every device, browser, app or later operating-system release.

5. Browser rendering and extended fonts

The Library separates catalog inclusion from font coverage. GLOBAL can load self-hosted font collections referenced by the runtime manifests, including fonts from Noto, Adobe Source Han and BabelStone. These fonts increase visibility inside GlyphType where suitable coverage is available. Entries without a mapped or suitable font remain cataloged and may appear as tofu or another missing-glyph form.

UI only: uses the browser and device font environment without the extended Library collection.
View all: loads the extended font collection required by the selected GLOBAL material.
User font: lets the user inspect a local font in the browser; the selected file is not uploaded by this interface.

A character visible through GlyphType’s self-hosted fonts may still be unavailable in another application that does not provide equivalent font coverage. Sources, embedded versions, copyright notices, file hashes and licenses are documented in the public Font Credits and Licenses.

6. Search and identification

Search operates within the currently selected PROOF or GLOBAL collection. It matches the catalog’s code point, character name, block, available description or definition, Unicode version and year fields. Searching does not imply that every result has visible font coverage. A pasted missing character can still be identified as a catalog entry even when its rendered form remains tofu.

7. Limitations

GlyphType is not a shaping conformance test, language-validity checker or guarantee of identical cross-platform rendering. Complex scripts, combining marks, variation selectors, emoji sequences and font fallback can behave differently across shaping engines and applications. Missing rendering can indicate absent font coverage; the replacement character � usually indicates an encoding or decoding problem and is not the same as a missing glyph. Platform font analysis, hosted-font coverage and traffic-based market estimates are separate forms of evidence and must not be interpreted as one universal support claim.

8. Independence and credits

Unicode is a registered trademark of Unicode, Inc. in the United States and other countries. GlyphType is an independent project and is not associated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Unicode, Inc. or the Unicode Consortium. Unicode data, Noto, Adobe Source Han and BabelStone remain the work of their respective maintainers. GlyphType’s catalog structure, editorial organization, font-coverage maps and platform analysis are project work. Built with OpenAI Codex, which generated the implementation under human-directed product design, methodology, testing and validation. This does not imply endorsement by OpenAI.

GlyphType Unicode 17 Character Library