Unicode 18.0 Released, Adds 11,328 Chinese Seal Script Characters

The Unicode Consortium has announced the release of Unicode 18.0, introducing 13,007 new characters and bringing the total number of encoded characters to 172,808. A significant portion of these new additions, specifically 11,328 characters, are dedicated to the ancient Chinese Seal Script.

Seal Script, also known as Small Seal, is a historical Chinese script that was standardized by Prime Minister Li Si under Qin Shi Huang after the unification of China in 221 BCE. This standardization was a pivotal moment in unifying written Chinese, which had previously varied significantly across different states.

Beyond the extensive inclusion of Seal Script, Unicode 18.0 also incorporates numbers for Jurchen script and Proto-Cuneiform. Additionally, three new currency symbols have been added: the Maldivian rufiyaa, the UAE dirham, and the Omani rial.

The update also introduces nine new emojis. The adoption and display of these new emojis will depend on individual operating system, font, and application support. The Unicode standard is fundamental for digital communication, ensuring consistent text representation across diverse platforms and languages worldwide.