CBDT/CBLC

CBDT

Design & Typography

Color Bitmap Data Table and Color Bitmap Location Table — OpenType tables for embedding bitmap color emoji in fonts.

CBDT (Color Bitmap Data Table) and CBLC (Color Bitmap Location Table) store pre-rendered color bitmap images directly in an OpenType font file. Google Noto Color Emoji uses this format.

CBLC provides an index mapping glyphs to their bitmap data locations, while CBDT contains the actual image data (typically PNG). Multiple "strike" sizes can be included for different display resolutions.

While CBDT produces consistent, high-quality results, the embedded bitmaps make font files large. Google's Noto Color Emoji font is approximately 10MB, compared to kilobytes for a standard text font.

Related Terms

Bitmap Emoji Bitmap Emoji
Emoji rendered as pixel-based images at fixed resolutions, stored as PNG or similar raster formats within font files. COLR/CPAL (COLR) COLR/CPAL (COLR)
OpenType color font tables that define emoji as layered vector shapes with a color palette, used by Windows and Chrome. OpenType OpenType
A font format developed by Microsoft and Adobe that supports color emoji rendering through multiple color table technologies. SVG in OpenType (SVGinOT) SVG in OpenType (SVGinOT)
A method of embedding SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) documents directly in OpenType font files for scalable color emoji.

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