Unicode 16.0 Alpha Review Opens for Feedback

The repertoire for Unicode Version 16.0 is now open for early review and comment until April 2. As a reminder, during alpha review the repertoire is reasonably mature and stable, but is not yet completely locked down. Discussion regarding whether certain characters should be removed from the repertoire for publication is welcome. Character names and code point assignments are reasonably firm, but suggestions for improvement may still be entertained.

This early review is provided so that reviewers may consider the character repertoire and data file issues prior to the start of beta review (currently scheduled to start in May 2024). Once beta review begins, the repertoire, code points, and character names will all be locked down, and no longer be subject to changes.

Notable Changes

Unicode Version 16.0 adds 5,187 new characters, bringing the total number of characters to 155,000. The most significant addition for this release is 3,995 additional Egyptian Hieroglyph characters. There are also seven new scripts and many new symbols. See The Pipeline and the delta code charts for details.

In addition, new “Moji Jōhō Kiban” (文字情報基盤) Japanese source references will be added for over 36,000 CJK unified ideographs. This will be reflected in the code charts for virtually all CJK unified ideograph blocks by additional representative glyphs in the “J” column.

Unicode Emoji 16.0 will include eight new emoji—see PRI #498 Unicode Emoji 16.0 Alpha Candidates.

Some of the new scripts in Unicode 16.0 (Kirat Rai, Tulu-Tigalari, Gurung Khema) include characters that have normalization behavior not seen in earlier versions, which could affect optimized implementations of Unicode normalization, and implementations using “quick check” properties. The relevant data files are available as part of the Unicode 16.0 alpha to allow early review.

Feedback for the alpha review should be reported under PRI #497 using the Unicode contact form by April 2, 2024.

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