HarfBuzz 5.2 Released With Unicode 15 Support

HarfBuzz is the text shaping library used by many open-source projects from UI toolkits to directly by desktops like GNOME and KDE and then over to other notable software like Java, Android, Firefox, Chrome, and many others. Out this weekend is HarfBuzz 5.2 and most notably adds support for Unicode 15.

HarfBuzz 5.2 takes care of some regression fixes, extensions to the OpenType font format are now opt-in behind compile-time build flags, improvements to the experimental hb-subset variable fonts API, documentation improvements, and other fixes.

But most notable with HarfBuzz 5.2 is adding Unicode 15 support. Unicode 15.0 officially debuted on Tuesday and adds 4,489 new characters, bringing the overall count to 149,186 characters. Among the new characters are 20 new emojis. Unicode 15 also includes new scripts for dealing with languages in India as well as a new script for the counting system used by the Inuit and Yupik languages.

Among the 20 new emoji characters in Unicode 15 are a hair pick, flute, maracas, ginger root, pea pod, moose, donkey, pink heart, and a shaking face. Here's a look at the new Unicode 15 emojis for those curious...

More details on the Unicode 15 changes for those interested via Unicode.org. Downloads and more details on HarfBuzz 5.2 via GitHub.