Color emoji on Arch Linux.

color-emoji-on-linux.sh

# create folders if does not exist
mkdir -p ~/.fonts
mkdir -p ~/.config/fontconfig/

# download noto color emoji font from https://www.google.com/get/noto/#emoji-zsye-color
# extract NotoColorEmoji.ttf file into ~/.fonts/

# create font config file
cat << 'EOF' > ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">

<match>
 <test name="family"><string>sans-serif</string></test>
 <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
 <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
 </edit>
 </match>

<match>
 <test name="family"><string>serif</string></test>
 <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
 <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
 </edit>
 </match>

<match>
 <test name="family"><string>Apple Color Emoji</string></test>
 <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
 <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
 </edit>
 </match>
EOF

# build font information cache files
fc-cache -f -v 

This actually breaks the numbers in all GTK and Qt apps. It might be due to the updated Noto Color Emoji font. Can this be fixed?

I just removed all the mode="prepend" binding="strong" and it worked. No weired bugs with numbers.

Fixed color emojis, but removed spaces between words.

I tried running the script and had issues with spaces and numbers, then removed mode="prepend" binding="strong" and ran fc-cache -f -v as @gjvnq recommended and still had issues with spaces taht @jcpsantiago mentioned. I then removed the all of the contents from ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf and ran fc-cache -f -v again. After rebooting I now get Emoji One emoji with no number/spacing issues in GTK/Qt applications. Thanks for the script and helpful commnts! I don't know if it is possible, but it would also be interesting to display these Emoji One fonts in urxvt. The fonts seem to work just fine in gnome-terminal but some are displayed as boxes in urxvt.

Fontconfig error: "/home/henrique/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf", line 8: junk after document element

I'm getting this error running fc-cache... Anybody knows why?

@hbarcelos try adding a <fontconfig>-root tag for all <match>-tags, that worked for me.

does not work - it enforces Noto Color Emoji in the whole OS, which basically breaks fonts.

@carbolymer

It is outdated. I prepared updated and compatible file. Here is:

https://gist.github.com/gusbemacbe/393613ac23ec19f39dc963b40fb8a704

➜ cat /etc/fonts/conf.d/99-noto-mono-color-emoji.conf 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match>
    <test name="family"><string>monospace</string></test>
    <edit name="family" mode="append_last" binding="strong">
      <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

then restart. It works for me

I just followed this suggestion here

In my ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf, I just have this somewhere near the bottom:

<match>
   <edit name="family" mode="append_last" binding="same">
      <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
   </edit>
</match>

That was all I needed for everything to have emoji support. Of course, you will need to install the noto emoji fonts. If you're on Arch, you can find it here. You can also run fc-cache after, but this is usually done automatically if you are running an application which is using the fontconfig library.

For someone lazy

wget -O- https://gist.github.com/himalay/5c404a5f6653cb35154ceb3a6c606211/raw/b6ca198357b458c0e7ecc1ae0352de93621f8b87/color-emoji-on-linux.sh | bash

use at your own risk