Unicode Glyphs

The hand-coded SVG glyphs presented here are designed to be used in a color font eventually.

Colour Palette

Image colours extracted by TinEye Labs
Description	Hex	Attribution
red	`#D52025`	Strawberries by Brian Prechtel (Public domain)
orange	`#F1A125`	Ambersweet oranges by the Agricultural Research Service (Public domain)
yellow	`#F5CC25`	Lemon by André Karwath (CC BY-SA 2.5)
green	`#5B8C33`	Sa-fern by Sanjay ach (CC BY-SA 3.0)
blue	`#223DD9`	Clouds Blue Sky 001 by Kabir Bakie (CC BY-SA 2.5)
purple	`#C16CEE`	Purple pansy flower by Rosendahl (Public domain)
brown	`#81452B`	Chocolate02 by Fir0002 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
black	`#3B3A39`	Charcoal by Johnny Magnusson (Public domain with usage terms)
white	`#F8F8FD`	Clouds Blue Sky 001 by Kabir Bakie (CC BY-SA 2.5)
white die face	`#E5E4D8`	Risk dice example by Val42 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
black die pips	`#3C3C35`	Risk dice example by Val42 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
red die face	`#C11B08`	6 sided dice by Diacritica (CC BY-SA 3.0)
green die face	`#11AF5A`
purple die face	`#AE2593`
blue die face	`#103CBF`
white die pips	`#D1D1D0`
red die pips	`#B5150A`	Dice01 (Public domain)
blue die pips	`#3F58A1`	Dice01 (Public domain)
white draughts	`#CEC2A7`	Game, draughts (AM 1962.54) by Auckland Museum (CC BY-SA 4.0)
red draughts	`#AF304A`
white chess piece	`#DECEB8`	Opening chess position from black side by Michael Maggs (CC BY-SA 3.0)
black chess piece	`#130706`
light chessboard square	`#BA9867`
dark chessboard square	`#876A44`
card back	`#828C85`	Tarot nouveau - Grimaud - 1898 - Back side by Baptiste-Paul Grimaud (Public domain)
card back	`#B67E6E`
black suit	`#3A393E`	Tarot nouveau - Grimaud - 1898 - Spades - 08 by Baptiste-Paul Grimaud (Public domain)
card background	`#E1DFD4`
red suit	`#CB5D44`	Tarot nouveau - Grimaud - 1898 - Hearts - 08 by Baptiste-Paul Grimaud (Public domain)
mandolin	`#C2A986`	Tarot nouveau - Grimaud - 1898 - Trumps - Excuse by Baptiste-Paul Grimaud (Public domain)
black number	`#3B373C`	Tarot nouveau - Grimaud - 1898 - Trumps - 21 by Baptiste-Paul Grimaud (Public domain)
horseman’s axe	`#786664`	Horseman’s axe - 1475 by Icitatus (Public domain)
horseman’s axe	`#2B1917`	Horseman’s axe - 1475 by Icitatus (Public domain)
buckskin horse	`#403E38`	Buckskin New Forest pony by Paula Jantunen (Public domain)
buckskin horse	`#CCA986`	Buckskin New Forest pony by Paula Jantunen (Public domain)
grey horse	`#9A9494`	Cabalo044eue by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (CC BY-SA 3.0)
grey horse	`#DFD6CD`	Cabalo044eue by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (CC BY-SA 3.0)
bay horse	`#4D4839`	Bay Mare by Montanabw (CC BY-SA 3.0)
bay horse	`#976642`	Bay Mare by Montanabw (CC BY-SA 3.0)
chestnut horse	`#BB8561`	Pottok by Olav2 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
chestnut horse	`#E7A87F`	Pottok by Olav2 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
gold	`#E4C04C`	Imperial Crown of Napoleon III by Jürgen Abeler Reproduction displayed at the Abeler collection of crowns and regalia in Wuppertal.
amethyst	`#7F4977`	Amethyst Geode by Maatpublishing (CC BY-SA 4.0)
emerald	`#378869`	Beryl variety emerald on calcite by Maatpublishing (Public domain)
blue sapphire	`#2A3D9C`	Corundum 71826 by Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com (CC BY-SA 3.0)
ruby	`#CD3963`	Corundum Winza 17D by Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Geometric Shapes

heart, circle, square, and star glyphs in nine different colours

These glyphs come from various Unicode blocks and can be used in combination with other glyphs to indicate colour. Zero-width joiner sequences were used for star glyphs without assigned code points.

Geometric shape code points
Colour	Heart	Circle	Square	Star
red	`U+2764`	`U+1F534`	`U+1F7E5`	`U+2B50 U+200D U+1F7E5`
orange	`U+1F9E1`	`U+1F7E0`	`U+1F7E7`	`U+2B50 U+200D U+1F7E7`
yellow	`U+1F49B`	`U+1F7E1`	`U+1F7E8`	`U+2B50`
green	`U+1F49A`	`U+1F7E2`	`U+1F7E9`	`U+2B50 U+200D U+1F7E9`
blue	`U+1F499`	`U+1F535`	`U+1F7E6`	`U+2B50 U+200D U+1F7E6`
purple	`U+1F49C`	`U+1F7E3`	`U+1F7EA`	`U+2B50 U+200D U+1F7EA`
brown	`U+1F90E`	`U+1F7E4`	`U+1F7EB`	`U+2B50 U+200D U+1F7EB`
black	`U+1F5A4`	`U+26AB`	`U+2B1B`	`U+2605`
white	`U+1F90D`	`U+26AA`	`U+2B1C`	`U+2606`

Chess Symbols

Code points U+2654–U+265F from the miscellaneous symbols block represent traditional chess pieces. Code points U+1FA00–U+1FA53 were added in Unicode version 12.0 and represent heterodox or fairy chess pieces which add neutral colours, angle rotations, equihoppers and hybrid pieces to the traditional ranks.

Sample Text: Chess

Chess is a popular strategy game for two players. The game is played on a 8 by 8 square board and consists of 32 pieces (16 black, 16 white).

Chess pieces
Name	Quantity per colour	Relative Value (Lasker)
king	1	4
queen	1	9–10
rook	2	5
knight	2	3
bishop	2	3
pawn	8	1

chessboard with pieces in starting position

To start the game, the players choose a color and sit across from each other on either side of the board. Their pieces are placed in the first two rows in front of them. The rooks are setup in the corners of the closest row followed by the knights and bishops moving inward. The position of the king and queen is in the two center squares depending on the color: the white queen is on the left side of her king, the black queen is to the right of hers. The pawns are placed across the second row.

Die Faces

white, red, green, blue, purple and Chinese style dice

These glyphs from the miscellaneous symbols block represent a standard six-sided die in various colours as well as a Chinese style variant. Code points U+2680–U+2685 are combined with zero-width joiner sequences for the colour variants. The Chinese variant is designed to use the OpenType feature Stylistic Set 1.

Sample Text: Craps

Craps is a dice game popular in casinos. The possible rolls are outlined below. There are two ways to achieve the rolls in the singles column: the first one as displayed in the table, the second one by swapping the faces (e.g. , for ace deuce).

Rolls in craps
Sum	Name	Singles (easy)	Type
2	snake eyes		craps
3	ace deuce		craps
4	easy/hard four		point
5	five	,	point
6	easy/hard six	,	point
7	seven	, ,	natural
8	easy/hard eight	,	point
9	nine	,	point
10	easy/hard ten		point
11	yo (yo-leven)		natural
12	boxcars		craps

Domino Tiles

These glyphs in the domino tiles block (U+1F030–U+1F093) have western and eastern style variants. In the eastern style: ones and fours are red; the other pips are blue. A real double-six domino set has 28 tiles. In Unicode, each tile has separate horizontal and vertical code points representing rotation at 90 degree increments. Code points were added to represent a turned over tile as well. Doubles and tile backs have two code points each since 180 degree rotations for these tiles are visibly indistinguishable. There are four code points for each of the other tiles.

Domino code points
tiles	horizontal	vertical	total
any	1	1	2
doubles	7	7	14
singles	42	42	84
total	50	50	100

Playing Cards

These glyphs are inspired by Tarot Nouveau with numbers from the Libre Bodoni font. The trump card themes are not depicted since they are not significant to gameplay and would reduce glyph comprehension at smaller sizes. A poker card ratio is used to allow for a better use of space. Common card sizes: credit card, 85.6 mm by 53.98 mm; bridge card, 88 mm by 57 mm; poker card, 88 mm by 62 mm; and tarot card, 110 mm by 60 mm.

The court cards are depicted based on the following information:

Jacks carry a horseman’s axe for their knight.
Knights ride a horse. Each suit has a different horse type: buckskin, gray, bay or chestnut.
Queens wear a small crown. Each suit has a different crown jewel: amethyst, emerald, sapphire or ruby.
Kings wear a large crown. Each suit has a different crown jewel: amethyst, emerald, sapphire or ruby.
Jokers wear a hat with bells. There are three different joker colors: red, black and white.
The fool plays the mandolin.

Playing card code points
Unicode Block	Range	Description
miscellaneous symbols	`U+2660–U+2667`	black, red and white suit glyphs
playing cards	`U+1F0A0–U+1F0F5`	card back, pip cards, court cards, trump cards, joker cards
private use area	`U+E0A0–U+E0E0`	gemstone colour suit glyphs, horseman’s axe, horses, jeweled crowns, joker hats, mandolin

Sample Text: French Tarot

In a four person game, players are each dealt a hand of eighteen cards. Six cards are left in the dog (le chien) for use after the bid. Here is an example of a typical deal.

Tarot hands
Player	Hand
1
2
3
4

Each hand can be evaluated to determine whether or not the player should make a bid.

Hand evaluation (adapted from Fédération française de tarot)
Category	Feature	Points
Oudlers	the 21	10
	the fool	8
	the 1 with four trump	5
	the 1 with five trump	7
	the 1 with six or more trump	9
Trumps	four or more trump: 2 points each	2
	a major trump (16 to 21): 2 points each	2
	a major trump sequence: 1 point for each card in sequence	1
Court cards	a marriage (king and queen from the same suit)	10
	a king without his queen	6
	a queen without her king	3
	a knight	2
	a jack	1
Suits	five cards in the same suit	5
	six cards in the same suit	7
	seven or more cards in the same suit	9
Sans / Contre *	void suit	6
Sans / Contre *	one card in a suit	3
* Applicable only to garde sans or garde contre bids. The dog (le chien) would effect lesser bids.

Player 1 hand evaluation
Feature	Points
five trump	10
one major trump	2
one king	6
two jacks	2
six hearts	7
Total	27

Player 2 hand evaluation
Feature	Points
five trump	10
two major trump	4
one major trump sequence	2
one king	6
two queens	6
two knights	4
one jack	1
seven diamonds	9
Total	42

Player 3 hand evaluation
Feature	Points
four trump	8
one major trump	2
one king	6
one queen	3
one knight	2
one jack	1
five spades	5
Total	27

Player 4 hand evaluation
Feature	Points
the 21	10
the fool	8
seven trump	14
two major trump	4
one queen	3
five spades	5
Total	44

Using the bid guidelines below players 2 or 4 could make a prise bid. Players 1 and 3 don’t have enough points to warrant a bid.

Bid guidelines
Points	Recommended Bid
0–39	Passe (no bid)
40–55	Prise
56–70	Garde
71–80	Garde Sans
81–	Garde Contre

At first glance, player 4 may appear to have a much stronger hand due to the number of trumps. After further inspection the hand loses points for not having a sufficient amount of court cards. A rookie player may make the mistake of making a higher bid than the strength of the hand warrants.

Matthew Kwasnicki

matt@sourgift.com

PGP public key