# Variation Selectors Supplement

Variation Selectors Supplement is a Unicode block containing additional variation selectors beyond those found in the Variation Selectors block.
These combining characters are named variation selector-17 (for U+E0100) through to variation selector-256 (U+E01EF), abbreviated VS17 – VS256.

## Ideographic Variation Sequences

As of 12 December 2017, VS17 (U+E0100) to VS48 (U+E011F) are used in ideographic variation sequences in the Unicode Ideographic Variation Database (IVD). These selectors are known as Ideographic Variation Selectors (IVS). They are not listed in the list of standardized variation sequence, instead they are listed in another Ideographic Variation Database.

### IVD collections

The following IVS collections are currently registered in the IVD:
| Region | Name | Purpose | First registered | Last updated | Number of sequences | Chart |
| Japan | Adobe-Japan1 | CID-keyed Japanese OpenType fonts. Defines at least one sequence for every Japanese kanji from the Adobe-Japan1 collection present in Unicode, even for those with only one glyph, both as future-proofing and to allow that (Japan-region) glyph to be uniquely referenced. | 2007-12-14 | 2022-09-13 | 14684 | All Adobe sequences Contrastive Adobe sequences |
| Japan | Hanyo-Denshi | Unicode characters corresponding to more than one glyph collected by the Han'yō Denshi programme, a union of the character repertoires of the legacy kanji character sets used by multiple administrative systems in Japan (precursor to Moji Jōhō Kiban). Approximately 60% of the initial registration matches Adobe-Japan1 glyphs, but the existing Adobe-Japan1 variation sequences are not used for them. | 2010-11-14 | 2012-03-02 | 13045 | All Han'yō Denshi sequences |
| Japan | Moji_Joho | Unicode characters corresponding to more than one entry in the Moji Jōhō Kiban, a database of kanji used for administrative purposes in Japan. Supersedes and deprecates the Hanyo-Denshi collection, from which it retains 9866 of the existing IVSes. | 2014-05-16 | 2017-12-12 | 11384 | All Moji Jōhō sequences |
| Macau | MSARG | Macao Supplementary Character Set (MSCS) | 2016-08-15 | 2020-11-06 | 154 | All MSCS sequences |
| South Korea | KRName | Standard character variants permitted in personal names in South Korea | 2017-12-12 | 2017-12-12 | 36 | All Korean name sequences |

### Proposed IVD collections

Similarly to the Moji Jōhō Kiban's role in Japan, the character repertoire of CNS 11643 (including draft revisions) is used for administrative purposes in Taiwan. In some cases, multiple of these correspond to a single Unicode character. Many of these cases are currently handled with mappings to the Supplementary Private Use Area. However, the Taipei Computer Association, which represents the interests of Taiwan in the Ideographic Research Group, has been evaluating the feasibility of registering an additional IVD collection in the future.
In Mainland China, the Culture and Art Publishing House has been collecting variant forms required for digitisation of intangible cultural heritage in databases and e-books, and has expressed the intent to register an IVD collection once this is finalised.

## Code chart

Variation Selectors Supplement Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) :
| | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
| U+E010x | VS 17 | VS 18 | VS 19 | VS 20 | VS 21 | VS 22 | VS 23 | VS 24 | VS 25 | VS 26 | VS 27 | VS 28 | VS 29 | VS 30 | VS 31 | VS 32 |
| U+E011x | VS 33 | VS 34 | VS 35 | VS 36 | VS 37 | VS 38 | VS 39 | VS 40 | VS 41 | VS 42 | VS 43 | VS 44 | VS 45 | VS 46 | VS 47 | VS 48 |
| U+E012x | VS 49 | VS 50 | VS 51 | VS 52 | VS 53 | VS 54 | VS 55 | VS 56 | VS 57 | VS 58 | VS 59 | VS 60 | VS 61 | VS 62 | VS 63 | VS 64 |
| U+E013x | VS 65 | VS 66 | VS 67 | VS 68 | VS 69 | VS 70 | VS 71 | VS 72 | VS 73 | VS 74 | VS 75 | VS 76 | VS 77 | VS 78 | VS 79 | VS 80 |
| U+E014x | VS 81 | VS 82 | VS 83 | VS 84 | VS 85 | VS 86 | VS 87 | VS 88 | VS 89 | VS 90 | VS 91 | VS 92 | VS 93 | VS 94 | VS 95 | VS 96 |
| U+E015x | VS 97 | VS 98 | VS 99 | VS 100 | VS 101 | VS 102 | VS 103 | VS 104 | VS 105 | VS 106 | VS 107 | VS 108 | VS 109 | VS 110 | VS 111 | VS 112 |
| U+E016x | VS 113 | VS 114 | VS 115 | VS 116 | VS 117 | VS 118 | VS 119 | VS 120 | VS 121 | VS 122 | VS 123 | VS 124 | VS 125 | VS 126 | VS 127 | VS 128 |
| U+E017x | VS 129 | VS 130 | VS 131 | VS 132 | VS 133 | VS 134 | VS 135 | VS 136 | VS 137 | VS 138 | VS 139 | VS 140 | VS 141 | VS 142 | VS 143 | VS 144 |
| U+E018x | VS 145 | VS 146 | VS 147 | VS 148 | VS 149 | VS 150 | VS 151 | VS 152 | VS 153 | VS 154 | VS 155 | VS 156 | VS 157 | VS 158 | VS 159 | VS 160 |
| U+E019x | VS 161 | VS 162 | VS 163 | VS 164 | VS 165 | VS 166 | VS 167 | VS 168 | VS 169 | VS 170 | VS 171 | VS 172 | VS 173 | VS 174 | VS 175 | VS 176 |
| U+E01Ax | VS 177 | VS 178 | VS 179 | VS 180 | VS 181 | VS 182 | VS 183 | VS 184 | VS 185 | VS 186 | VS 187 | VS 188 | VS 189 | VS 190 | VS 191 | VS 192 |
| U+E01Bx | VS 193 | VS 194 | VS 195 | VS 196 | VS 197 | VS 198 | VS 199 | VS 200 | VS 201 | VS 202 | VS 203 | VS 204 | VS 205 | VS 206 | VS 207 | VS 208 |
| U+E01Cx | VS 209 | VS 210 | VS 211 | VS 212 | VS 213 | VS 214 | VS 215 | VS 216 | VS 217 | VS 218 | VS 219 | VS 220 | VS 221 | VS 222 | VS 223 | VS 224 |
| U+E01Dx | VS 225 | VS 226 | VS 227 | VS 228 | VS 229 | VS 230 | VS 231 | VS 232 | VS 233 | VS 234 | VS 235 | VS 236 | VS 237 | VS 238 | VS 239 | VS 240 |
| U+E01Ex | VS 241 | VS 242 | VS 243 | VS 244 | VS 245 | VS 246 | VS 247 | VS 248 | VS 249 | VS 250 | VS 251 | VS 252 | VS 253 | VS 254 | VS 255 | VS 256 |
| Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 |||||||||||||||||

## History

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Variation Selectors Supplement block:
| Version | Final code points | Count | L2 ID | WG2 ID | Document |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/97-260 | | Hiura, Hideki; Kobayashi, Tatsuo (1997-12-01), Plane 14 Variant Tag |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/98-039 | | Aliprand, Joan; Winkler, Arnold (1998-02-24), "2.D.4 Variant Tag Mechanism", Preliminary Minutes - UTC #74 & L2 #171, Mountain View, CA - December 5, 1997 |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/98-277 | | Hiura, Hideki; Kobayashi, Tatsuo (1998-07-29), Plane 14 Variant tag |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/98-281R (pdf, html) | | Aliprand, Joan (1998-07-31), "III.E.3 Variant Tagging (III.E.3)", Unconfirmed Minutes – UTC #77 & NCITS Subgroup L2 # 174 JOINT MEETING, Redmond, WA -- July 29-31, 1998 |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/01-268 | | Freytag, Asmus (2001-06-27), Variant selector |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/01-309 | | Jenkins, John (2001-08-08), Variation selectors and Han |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/01-324R | | Davis, Mark (2001-08-17), Variation Selectors [document has incorrect L2 ID number] |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/01-295R | | Moore, Lisa (2001-11-06), "88-M5", Minutes from the UTC/L2 meeting #88 |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/02-154 | N2403 | Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2002-04-22), "7.12", Draft minutes of WG 2 meeting 41, Hotel Phoenix, Singapore, 2001-10-15/19 |
| 4.0 | U+E0100..E01EF | 240 | L2/02-372 | N2453 (pdf, doc) | Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2002-10-30), "M42.21 (Amendment 1 to 10646-2)", Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 42 |