fsymbols
🔍
Loading symbols…
››
󠄙

variation selector-42

Variation Selector-42

Variation Selector-42 is an invisible instruction that asks a text system to draw a registered form of the Chinese, Japanese, or Korean character immediately before it. Together, the character and selector form an ideographic variation sequence (IVS); VS42 alone has no reading. The alternate form appears only when the matching variation data and font are available.

Text symbol
Also called
VS42
Search it as
U+E0119 · E0119 · IVS · ideographic variation sequence · IVD · glyph variant · variation selector
Shows up in
Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws

What 󠄙 means

It selects a registered glyph variant for the character before it.

An ideographic variation sequence (IVS) pairs a written character with a selector such as VS42. This lets a registered collection specify a particular glyph form for a name, historical record, research text, or publication.

The general variation-selector mechanism was documented in Unicode 3.2. VS42 was added in Unicode 4.0, after design work in 2003 refined supplementary selectors for collection-based ideograph forms. Different regions, historical records, and publishers can need distinct legitimate glyph forms, so the Ideographic Variation Database (IVD) registers pairs by collection.

Why is U+E0119 invisible?

It has no separate visible glyph of its own.

A font draws the selected form only if it has matching variation data for that registered pair. With an unsupported or misplaced selector, the base character usually looks unchanged; a text inspector or show-hidden mode can expose the control.

Technical and invisible: it matters inside text that needs a specific written-character form.

VS42 is not a space; without a preceding base character, it has nothing to change.

What it means when someone sends it to you

3 readings
VS42 by itself
The sequence is incomplete; the selector has no base character to modify.
After a registered character
It requests the collection's specified glyph variant for that base.
After an unsupported base
The base usually remains unchanged because its font has no matching variation mapping; text tools may still expose the selector.

Don't confuse it with

1
️
No: VS16 (U+FE0F) requests emoji presentation for defined base characters. VS42 selects a registered form of an ideographic character.

Combination ideas

2
Hanyo-Denshi IVS: VS42 selects the registered glyph form for 邉.
Moji_Joho IVS: VS42 selects that collection's registered glyph form for 那.

Questions people ask

1

Why does 󠄙 show as a box on some devices?

Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.

How to type 󠄙

Windows (Word)
Alt+XType E0119, then Alt+X to get 󠄙.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “variation selector-42”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType e0119, then Enter or Space.
HTML
󠄙
CSS
\E0119
Python source
To type VS42 in Python, append the Unicode escape `\U000E0119` after the base character in the string literal.
HTML text
Place `󠄙` immediately after the base character in text content; the character reference inserts VS42.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
󠄙
HTML hex
󠄙
CSS content
content: "\E0119";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%F3%A0%84%99
1
On screen
1
Code points
2
JS .length
4
UTF-8 bytes

A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.

Families this belongs to

1

Accents & marks659 symbols

^`¨¯´¸ʰʱʲʳʴʵ