The Unicode Standard is the foundation for all global digital communications, providing the encoding for text content used in all devices. The latest version of the standard, Version 17.0, is now available! This is a major update that includes new characters and code charts, updated data files, an updated Core Specification, and updated annexes and synchronized standards that cover implementation details for important aspects of text processing.

      

This version adds 4,803 new characters, including four new scripts, eight new emoji characters, as well as many other characters and symbols, bringing the  total of encoded characters to 159,801.

One of the newly encoded symbols is SAUDI RIYAL SIGN. Addition of this in Unicode 17.0 will allow interoperable support for the new symbol announced earlier this year by the Saudi Central Bank to represent their riyal currency.

The new additions also include 4,298 additional CJK unified ideographs in a new block, CJK Unified Ideographs Extension J, as well as 18 other CJK ideographs added to the existing Extension C and Extension E blocks. This increases the number of encoded CJK ideographs to over 100,000! Also, nearly 2,500 already-encoded CJK ideographs are horizontally extended by the addition of source references and glyphs reflecting use of those ideographs in China and Korea.

The following four new scripts increase the total number of supported scripts in the Unicode Standard to 172:

• Beria Erfe is a modern-use script used by Zaghawa communities in central Africa.
• Tolong Siki is a modern-use script used by Kurukh communities in northeast India.
• Tai Yo is the traditional script of Tai Yo communities in northern Vietnam.
• Sidetic is an historic script used in ancient Anatolia.

Support for these in Unicode is the key initial step in bridging the digital divide for users of these scripts.

See the delta code charts for details on all the new scripts and characters. For additional details regarding new emoji, see Emoji Recently Added, v17.0. For complete details on Unicode Version 17.0, see  https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode17.0.0/.