Vector Emoji

Design & Typography

Emoji rendered using scalable vector graphics (SVG or COLR) that remain crisp at any display size.

Vector emoji use mathematical descriptions of shapes rather than pixel grids, allowing them to scale to any size without quality loss. The two main vector technologies for emoji are:

- **COLR/CPAL**: Multi-layered vector glyphs where each layer has a color from a palette. Used by Windows, Chrome, and Android.
- **SVG in OpenType**: Full SVG documents embedded in font files. Used by Firefox and Adobe products.

Vector emoji are increasingly preferred because they use less storage than bitmaps and display crisply on high-DPI screens, variable-size contexts (like responsive web), and print.

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. Emoji Size Emoji Size
The display dimensions of emoji in different contexts, which vary by platform, application, and rendering context. 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.

Related Tools

🔀 Platform Compare Platform Compare
Compare how emojis render across Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, and more. See visual differences side by side.