Playing cards in Unicode

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Unicode is a computing industry standard for the handling of fonts and symbols. Within it is a set of code points representing playing cards, and another depicting the French card suits.

Contents

Card suits

The Miscellaneous Symbols block contains the following, at U+2660–2667:

U+2660U+2665U+2666U+2663
Black Spade SuitBlack Heart SuitBlack Diamond SuitBlack Club Suit
♠♥♦♣
U+2664U+2661U+2662U+2667
White Spade SuitWhite Heart SuitWhite Diamond SuitWhite Club Suit

It is recommended to use stylistic fonts for regional variations of the French suits. [1] Though fleurons (e.g. ✿/❀) can be used for the flower suit, and stars (e.g. ★/☆) can be used for a fifth suit such as for Five Crowns.

Playing cards deck

Unicode's Playing Cards block (U+1F0A0–1F0FF) has code points for the 52 cards of the standard French deck plus the Knight (Ace, 2–10, Jack, Knight, Queen, and King for each of the four suits), three jokers (red, black, and white), the back of a card, The Fool, and generic trump cards numbered 1–21. The depiction of these trump cards in most supporting fonts is based on the Bourgeois Tarot.

U+1F0A1U+1F0B1U+1F0C1U+1F0D1
🂡🂱🃁🃑
Ace of SpadesAce of HeartsAce of DiamondsAce of Clubs
U+1F0A2U+1F0B2U+1F0C2U+1F0D2
🂢🂲🃂🃒
Two of SpadesTwo of HeartsTwo of DiamondsTwo of Clubs
U+1F0A3U+1F0B3U+1F0C3U+1F0D3
🂣🂳🃃🃓
Three of SpadesThree of HeartsThree of DiamondsThree of Clubs
U+1F0A4U+1F0B4U+1F0C4U+1F0D4
🂤🂴🃄🃔
Four of SpadesFour of HeartsFour of DiamondsFour of Clubs
U+1F0A5U+1F0B5U+1F0C5U+1F0D5
🂥🂵🃅🃕
Five of SpadesFive of HeartsFive of DiamondsFive of Clubs
U+1F0A6U+1F0B6U+1F0C6U+1F0D6
🂦🂶🃆🃖
Six of SpadesSix of HeartsSix of DiamondsSix of Clubs
U+1F0A7U+1F0B7U+1F0C7U+1F0D7
🂧🂷🃇🃗
Seven of SpadesSeven of HeartsSeven of DiamondsSeven of Clubs
U+1F0A8U+1F0B8U+1F0C8U+1F0D8
🂨🂸🃈🃘
Eight of SpadesEight of HeartsEight of DiamondsEight of Clubs
U+1F0A9U+1F0B9U+1F0C9U+1F0D9
🂩🂹🃉🃙
Nine of SpadesNine of HeartsNine of DiamondsNine of Clubs
U+1F0AAU+1F0BAU+1F0CAU+1F0DA
🂪🂺🃊🃚
Ten of SpadesTen of HeartsTen of DiamondsTen of Clubs
U+1F0ABU+1F0BBU+1F0CBU+1F0DB
🂫🂻🃋🃛
Jack of SpadesJack of HeartsJack of DiamondsJack of Clubs
U+1F0ACU+1F0BCU+1F0CCU+1F0DC
🂬🂼🃌🃜
Knight of SpadesKnight of HeartsKnight of DiamondsKnight of Clubs
U+1F0ADU+1F0BDU+1F0CDU+1F0DD
🂭🂽🃍🃝
Queen of SpadesQueen of HeartsQueen of DiamondsQueen of Clubs
U+1F0AEU+1F0BEU+1F0CEU+1F0DE
🂮🂾🃎🃞
King of SpadesKing of HeartsKing of DiamondsKing of Clubs
U+1F0A0U+1F0BFU+1F0CFU+1F0DF
🂠🂿🃏🃟
Playing Card BackRed JokerBlack JokerWhite Joker
U+1F0E0U+1F0E1U+1F0E2U+1F0E3
🃠🃡🃢🃣
FoolTrump-1 (individual)Trump-2 (childhood)Trump-3 (youth)
U+1F0E4U+1F0E5U+1F0E6U+1F0E7
🃤🃥🃦🃧
Trump-4 (maturity)Trump-5 (old age)Trump-6 (morning)Trump-7 (afternoon)
U+1F0E8U+1F0E9U+1F0EAU+1F0EB
🃨🃩🃪🃫
Trump-8 (evening)Trump-9 (night)Trump-10 (earth and air)Trump-11 (water and fire)
U+1F0ECU+1F0EDU+1F0EEU+1F0EF
🃬🃭🃮🃯
Trump-12 (dance)Trump-13 (shopping)Trump-14 (open air)Trump-15 (visual arts)
U+1F0F0U+1F0F1U+1F0F2U+1F0F3
🃰🃱🃲🃳
Trump-16 (spring)Trump-17 (summer)Trump-18 (autumn)Trump-19 (winter)
U+1F0F4U+1F0F5
🃴🃵
Trump-20 (the game)Trump-21 (collective)

Tarot

Four Knights of the Tarot deck were included when the Playing Cards Unicode block was added in Unicode 6.0 (U+1F0A0–1F0FF). In Unicode 7.0, a red joker, a fool, and twenty-one generic trump cards were added to the Playing Cards block, with the reference description being not the Italian-suited Tarot de Marseille or its derivatives (which are often used in cartomancy) but the French Tarot Nouveau used to play Jeu de tarot, which is used for divination less frequently.

Playing Cards block chart

Playing Cards [1] [2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+1F0Ax🂠🂡🂢🂣🂤🂥🂦🂧🂨🂩🂪🂫🂬🂭🂮
U+1F0Bx🂱🂲🂳🂴🂵🂶🂷🂸🂹🂺🂻🂼🂽🂾🂿
U+1F0Cx🃁🃂🃃🃄🃅🃆🃇🃈🃉🃊🃋🃌🃍🃎 🃏
U+1F0Dx🃑🃒🃓🃔🃕🃖🃗🃘🃙🃚🃛🃜🃝🃞🃟
U+1F0Ex🃠🃡🃢🃣🃤🃥🃦🃧🃨🃩🃪🃫🃬🃭🃮🃯
U+1F0Fx🃰🃱🃲🃳🃴🃵
Notes
1. ^ As of Unicode version 16.0
2. ^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Emoji

The Playing Cards block contains one emoji: U+1F0CF🃏PLAYING CARD BLACK JOKER. [2] [3]

The emoji presentation sequences refine and colorize the text presentation of the playing card suits. ♠︎♥︎♦︎♣︎ becomes ♠️♥️♦️♣️. This was done by appending the U+FE0F code point to the textual code points shown far above. For example, the black heart suit ♥ becomes the red heart emoji by ♥️. Conversely, the black heart suit can be coerced by appending U+FE0E with ♥︎. These hold for each suit. [4]

There is an emoji for Japanese hanafuda (flower playing cards): U+1F3B4🎴FLOWER PLAYING CARDS. The emoji can stand for any hanafuda card but it is usually depicted as the Moon card specifically.

References

  1. Stötzner, Andreas (December 7, 2010). "Swiss/German/Latin playing card symbols". unicode.org. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  2. "UTR #51: Unicode Emoji". Unicode Consortium. 2023-09-05.
  3. "UCD: Emoji Data for UTR #51". Unicode Consortium. 2023-02-01.
  4. "Emoji Presentation Sequences". unicode.org. Unicode, Inc. Retrieved 13 September 2022.