## Show Color or Black and White Emojis in different applications
<!-- published: 2023_08_24 -->

![](pic/emoji.png)

Okay, this is a *very* specific preference. But what is Linux for, if not for working exactly according to a specific preferences? 

I have mixed opinions about emojis. I find symbols as you see on the screenshot[^win], very useful in notes, documentation, and even [terminal](https://github.com/dmi3/bin/blob/master/control-panel). But I prefer them to be rendered *grayscale* (screenshot left) to not stand out in the text, and look consistent with other symbols I use a lot: `✔` `✖` `⚠` `←↑↓→`. If you search The Internet, there will be a million advices on how to make emojis *colorful*. But I was not able to find a bit of info on how to make them *black or white* or *grayscale*.

To make things even more tricky, I want *colorful* emojis in chat applications and Spotify, but *grayscale* in other applications like text editors and browser.

It turns out that it is very simple to achieve if you use the right configs.

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1. First you need to figure out which font provides color emojis in your system. Most probably it is `Noto Color Emoji` located in `/usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto/NotoColorEmoji.ttf`, but you may have another one. In any case, I recommend replacing it with [Apple Color Emoji for Linux](https://github.com/samuelngs/apple-emoji-linux#readme). Because everything else looks u-u-ugly! 🤪 
    - Changes should be visible in any application after you run `sudo fc-cache -fv` and restart the app
2. After all emojis are *colorful* we need to [blacklist](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/font_configuration#Whitelisting_and_blacklisting_fonts) the font, by creating config: `~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf`:
    ```xml
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
    
    <selectfont>
        <rejectfont>
            <glob>*/.local/share/fonts/AppleColorEmoji.ttf</glob>
        </rejectfont>
    </selectfont>
    ```
    - Now emojis should be *grayscale* by default
    - If after blacklisting the font you don't see emoji at all, you need to install font with a black and white emojis like [Symbola font](https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/symbola) and run `sudo fc-cache -fv`
3. Now we need to create another config with same font whitelisted: `~/.config/fontconfig/fonts-color-emojis.conf`:
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">

<fontconfig>

    <!-- Next line is important! -->
    <include ignore_missing="yes">/etc/fonts/fonts.conf</include>
    <selectfont>
        <acceptfont>
            <glob>*/.local/share/fonts/AppleColorEmoji.ttf</glob>
        </acceptfont>
    </selectfont>
</fontconfig>
```
4. After these changes by default emojis will be *grayscale*, but running any app with `FONTCONFIG_FILE=/path/to/config` eviroment variable should enable *colorful* emojis
  - For example `FONTCONFIG_FILE=~/.config/fontconfig/fonts-color-emojis.conf spotify`
  - If you need emojis to be *colorful* by default, just swap the `acceptfont`/`rejectfont` in the config files.

[^win]: And `💩` when mentioning Windows, obviously.

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