CosterGraphics

🎞️ Introduction

Hi there Unity and typography and/or symbol loving type of person who (like me) also can not live without having some form of Emojional Fallback Font Support.

On this page you can read the necessary steps to create a special TextMeshPro .fontasset file from a regular .ttf Emoji font file in the Unity Game Engine.
This TextMeshPro Emoji Font Asset can then be used just like any other regular TMP font in the UI Canvas TMP Text Components and the TMP Text Mesh Components.

Emoji fonts sadly don’t come with Unity by default so if you want to use Emojis in your Unity games and projects, you’ll have to add the font yourself.

Luckily the steps are easy (though a bit obscure) and it only takes a minute or so to add the Emoji font to your project so let’s go!

If you just want the ready to use Fluent Emoji TMP Font Asset, then you can download the complete 📦Unity Package, with the original .ttf and the TMP .fontasset files included at the bottom of the page.
Keep in mind though that you still need to add the Font Asset to your Unity Project Settings to use it as a project-wide TextMeshPro Emoji Fallback font!
Read Step 9 of this tutorial for instructions on how to do that.

👣 Steps

Step 1 – 😀 Download the Emoji font file and import it into your project:

For this tutorial you the Fluent Emoji Font is used, which can be downloaded from:
https://github.com/microsoft/fluentui-emoji/issues/164

Add the .ttf font file to your Unity project after downloading it by dragging it from your download folder to the Unity Project view.

Step 2 – Create a TMP Font Asset from the Fluent Emoji .ttf Font file:

Right click on the .ttf file in the Unity Project view and select Create > TextMeshPro > Font Asset > Color to generate a TMP Font Asset for the font.

Step 3 – Configure the Font Asset in the Font Asset Creator Window

Click on the created font asset in the Project view and select Update Atlas Texture in the Inspector to open the Font Asset Creator window.

Step 4 – Increase the Atlas Resolution

Set **Atlas Resolution** to **2048 x 2048** in the Font Asset Creator window.

Step 5 – Configure the Character Set

Set **Character Set** to **Unicode Range (Hex)** in the Font Asset Creator window.

Step 6 – Configure the range of characters to use for the font:

For the character range to include in the font atlas type 1F600-1F64F into the Character Sequence (Hex) text field.

Step 7 – Generate the Font Atlas image

Click on Generate Font Atlas to generate the Font Atlas image.

Step 8 – Save the Font Asset

Click Save and close the Font Asset Creator window.

Step 9 – Configure the Emoji TMP Font Asset as a Unity project wide Emoji Fallback Font

In the Unity menu bar click on Edit > Project Settings and navigate to TextMeshPro > Fallback Emoji Text Assets.
Click on the + icon and add the newly created Font Asset to the list:

💭 Final Thinks and Thonks:

That’s it!

With the Fluent Emoji TMP Font Asset added to your Unity TextMesh Pro Project Settings you can now type your Emoji’s into TMP Text and TMP Text Mesh Component text fields just like you’d normally do: On Windows 11 by pressing the Windows and dot key together (Win + .) to bring up the Emoji viewer and on MacOS by using the Control + Command + Space shortcut.

Cheers! 🍻

Tim

📝 Notes: