Variation Selector-143

It selects a registered glyph variant after a base character. By itself, VS143 is not a letter, picture, or pronunciation. After a compatible Han character, it can request a particular drawing without creating a separate character.

This solves a practical typography problem: regional standards, scholars, governments, and publishers may need different forms of the same character. The Ideographic Variation Database records these base-plus-selector pairs.

Its history is technical, not pictorial

The trail for VS143 starts in Unicode's supplementary selector range, then continues through the IVD registry. Its first listed collection registrations date to 2007; later collections added Japanese, Korean, and other ideographic data.

Its purpose is glyph fidelity, not a universal visual effect. Across writing traditions, the chosen form comes from the base character and registered collection; the selector number alone has no fixed picture or word.

Can I send VS143 by itself?

No; alone, it is an incomplete selector. Without a base character to modify, it normally has nothing to display.

If it follows a valid pair, read the whole sequence as a request for one glyph form, not as a second character with its own pronunciation. Unsupported software normally shows the base and ignores the selector.