Encoding italic (was: A last missing link)

[Andrew West via Unicode]

On Thu, 24 Jan 2019 at 02:10, Mark E. Shoulson via Unicode
<unicode at unicode.org> wrote:
>
> Unicode isn't here to encode cool new ideas that would be cool and
> new.  It's here for writing what people already do.

http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2018/18141r2-emoji-colors.pdf

"Add 14 colored emoji characters for decorative and/or descriptive
uses. These may be used to indicate that an emoji has a different
color."

No evidence has been provided that anybody is currently using colored
blobs for this purpose (in fact emoji users have explicitly rejected
this method for indicating emoji color:
http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2018/18208-white-wine-rgi.pdf), just an
assertion that it would be a good idea if emoji users could add a
colored swatch to an existing emoji to indicate what color they want
it to represent (note that the colored characters do not change the
color of the emoji they are attached to [before or after, depending
upon whether you are speaking French or English dialect of emoji],
they are just intended as a visual indication of what colour you wish
the emoji was).

This proposal to add 14 additional colored circles, squares and hearts
is a perfect example of a cool new idea for something that the authors
think would be really useful, but for which there is no evidence of
existing use. The UTC should have rejected it as out of scope, but we
all know that rules and procedures do not apply to the Emoji
Subcommittee, so in fact this cool new idea will be included in
Unicode 12 in March.

Andrew