Variation Selector

What Is a Variation Selector?

A variation selector is a Unicode character used to choose between alternate visual representations (variants) of a preceding character. Variation selectors are invisible — they contribute no visible content themselves — but they signal to the rendering system which specific glyph or presentation style should be used for the character that precedes them.

Variation selectors are used primarily for two purposes: emoji vs. text presentation and standardized glyph variants in CJK and other scripts.

Variation Selector Ranges

VS-15 and VS-16: Emoji Presentation

The most commonly encountered variation selectors for web developers are VS-15 (U+FE0E) and VS-16 (U+FE0F):

• VS-15 (text presentation selector): Requests the text/symbol rendering of the preceding character.
• VS-16 (emoji presentation selector): Requests the colorful emoji rendering.

print('\u2665')           # ♥  — default presentation (usually text)
print('\u2665\uFE0F')    # ♥️  — emoji presentation
print('\u2665\uFE0E')    # ♥   — explicit text presentation

print('\u2764')           # ❤   — default
print('\u2764\uFE0F')    # ❤️  — emoji presentation

# Detecting variation selectors in a string
text = '\u2665\uFE0F'
for cp in text:
    code = ord(cp)
    if 0xFE00 <= code <= 0xFE0F:
        vs_number = code - 0xFE00 + 1
        print(f'Variation Selector-{vs_number} found (U+{code:04X})')
# Output: Variation Selector-16 found (U+FE0F)

const heart = '\u2665';       // ♥ text
const heartEmoji = '\u2665\uFE0F'; // ♥️ emoji

console.log(heart.length);        // 1
console.log(heartEmoji.length);   // 2 (base + VS-16)

// Strip variation selectors
function stripVariationSelectors(str) {
  return str.replace(/[\uFE00-\uFE0F]/g, '');
}
console.log(stripVariationSelectors(heartEmoji) === heart); // true

CJK Glyph Variants

For CJK characters, VS1–VS16 and VS17–VS256 are used to select among standardized glyph variants — characters that have the same semantic meaning but differ in how strokes are drawn. These variants are documented in the Unicode StandardizedVariants.txt data file.

For example, U+845B (葛) has several standardized variants depending on regional typographic conventions, accessible via specific variation selectors.

Variation Sequences

A variation sequence is the combination of a base character plus a variation selector. Not all base + VS combinations are valid — only those explicitly listed in the Unicode variation sequences registry. Using an unregistered combination is technically a no-op (the variation selector is ignored by conforming renderers).

Practical Notes for Developers

When processing user-generated text or normalizing strings for storage and comparison: 1. Be aware that U+2665 and U+2665 U+FE0F are semantically the same character with different presentation hints. 2. For full-text search and deduplication, consider stripping VS-15 and VS-16 before indexing. 3. For display, respect the original variation selector to honor the user's intended presentation.