apple-emoji-ttf

Brings Apple’s vibrant color emojis to Linux and Windows.

Disclaimer

This project is for educational purposes only. All Apple Color Emoji assets and designs belong to Apple Inc., and Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Using a font from a different operating system may have licensing implications; that responsibility is on you.

Known or potential issues

1. Smaller emoji in some Linux apps — Certain applications may render emoji at a smaller size than expected. This may be related to how the font is built or how specific toolkits handle color fonts. We're still investigating a fix.
2. Qt applications — Some Qt-based apps may not render the emoji correctly or at all due to how Qt handles color font tables.
3. Not usable as a web font (@font-face) — The font uses Apple's morx table for shaping instead of the standard GSUB table. Browsers that require GSUB (or reject CBDT/CBLC-only fonts) will not load it as a web font.

Putting the font on Linux

Ubuntu / Debian

Download the .deb from Releases and install it:

sudo dpkg -i fonts-apple-color-emoji.deb
# or
sudo apt install ./fonts-apple-color-emoji.deb

Fedora / RHEL

Download the .rpm from Releases and install it:

sudo dnf install ./fonts-apple-color-emoji.rpm
# or
sudo rpm -i fonts-apple-color-emoji.rpm

Arch Linux

Download the .pkg.tar.zst from Releases and install it:

sudo pacman -U ttf-apple-emoji.pkg.tar.zst

Manual install

Grab AppleColorEmoji-Linux.ttf from the repo’s releases (or build it yourself). Put it in your user font folder:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts
cp AppleColorEmoji-Linux.ttf ~/.local/share/fonts/

So that apps actually use it for emoji, fontconfig has to prefer Apple Color Emoji. Two things help:

1. Emoji family — In /etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf (or your distro’s equivalent), find the <alias> for <family>emoji</family>. In the <prefer> list inside it, make sure <family>Apple Color Emoji</family> is first. It’s often already in the list; if so, move it to the very front. If it’s not there, add it at the top so it’s chosen before Noto, Segoe, etc.

2. Your own config — Create ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf (create the directory if it doesn’t exist). You can copy the repo’s fonts.conf into that path. It tells fontconfig to prefer Apple Color Emoji for serif, sans-serif, and monospace, and to use it when an app asks for Noto Color Emoji.

Then clear the font cache: fc-cache -fv.

Putting the font on Windows

Download the Windows build from releases or build with --target windows. The font is set up to replace Segoe UI Emoji.

Important: The font file cannot be installed by double-clicking, and Windows font viewer cannot preview it. This is expected. You must replace the system font file manually using the steps below.

Back up the original C:\Windows\Fonts\seguiemj.ttf first, then replace it. From an elevated Command Prompt you can try a direct copy; if Windows has the file locked, use this instead:

takeown /f "C:\Windows\Fonts\seguiemj.ttf"
icacls "C:\Windows\Fonts\seguiemj.ttf" /grant administrators:F
del "C:\Windows\Fonts\seguiemj.ttf"
copy "AppleColorEmoji-Windows.ttf" "C:\Windows\Fonts\seguiemj.ttf"

Then restart so all apps pick up the new font.

Build the font yourself

Most people can skip this and use the CI-built fonts from the releases. If you want to build the converted font yourself:

What you need

• Python 3.12+
• fonttools — pip install -r requirements.txt
• Apple Color Emoji.ttc — We don’t provide the font; you can get it from macOS. If you run the script on a Mac, leave the input argument empty and it will use the default TTC path.

On a Mac you can run the script with no arguments. It will use the system path for the TTC and write output/AppleColorEmoji.ttf:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python convert.py

If your TTC is somewhere else, or you’re on Linux and copied the file over:

python convert.py --input "/path/to/Apple Color Emoji.ttc" --output output/AppleColorEmoji.ttf

--input and --output are optional; defaults are the macOS path and output/AppleColorEmoji.ttf.

Use --target windows if you’re building for Windows (Segoe UI Emoji replacement). Other options: --ppem (strike size, default 96), -v for verbose logs.

Building with Nix

You can use Nix to get a reproducible environment or to build the font. The TTC file is not shipped with the repo; obtain it from macOS or another source (same as above).

Dev workflow — Get a shell with Python 3.12 and fonttools, then run the converter yourself:

• With flakes: nix develop, then run python convert.py (on macOS with no args, or python convert.py --input /path/to/Apple\ Color\ Emoji.ttc elsewhere).
• Without flakes: nix-shell, then the same.

Building the font — To build the Linux and Windows TTFs and get a store path, you must provide the TTC as a flake input:

nix build --input ttc /path/to/Apple\ Color\ Emoji.ttc

The built fonts will be in ./result/share/fonts/truetype/ (AppleColorEmoji-Linux.ttf and AppleColorEmoji-Windows.ttf).

Acknowledgments

This project would not be possible without the help, contributions, and knowledge sharing from the people listed below.

• @dmlls — Multiple font updates and help with the community
• @lnking81 — Updating font with the latest emojis
• @win0err — Linux installation instructions (gist).
• @jjjuk — Changes needed for TTF to render correctly on Windows and Windows font installation instructions (emoji-win).
• @dibenzepin and @typedrat — Nix build support.