Tracking terminal emulator support for Unicode's "Symbols for Legacy Computing" (U+1FB00-U+1FBFF) and its supplement block (U+1CC00-U+1CEBF)
Symbols for Legacy Computing and its supplement are unicode blocks containing graphical characters that were found on computers from the 70s and 90s. These characters were used to show semi-graphical elements on the terminal's text grid, and were used to display pictures, render games, and enhance terminal UIs.
Despite its limitations, terminal usage is more popular than ever, with many developers using modern text based tools like neovim and claude-code. The modern generation of terminal UI could benefit from many of the graphical elements in these blocks to provide high fidelity output and a more readable UI.
| Emulator | Legacy Computing U+1FB00-U+1FBFF |
Legacy Computing Supplement U+1CC00-U+1CEBF |
|---|---|---|
| ghostty |
100%
85%
|
99%
53%
|
| kitty |
85%
74%
|
69%
33%
|
| urxvt |
0%
0%
|
0%
0%
|
| vte |
93%
86%
|
77%
42%
|
| xtermjs |
99%
92%
|
0%
0%
|
| Section | ghostty | kitty | urxvt | vte | xtermjs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Block mosaic | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Smooth mosaic | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Block elements | 100% | 95% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Window title bar | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Rectangular shade | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Fill | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Diagonal fill | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Triangular shade | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Character cell diagonals | 100% | 48% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Light solid line with stroke | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Terminal graphic | 0% | 0% | 0% | 39% | 48% |
| Arrows | 0% | 0% | 0% | 40% | 40% |
| Negative terminal graphic | 100% | 100% | 0% | 33% | 33% |
| Geometric shapes | 100% | 12% | 0% | 25% | 100% |
| Segmented digits | 0% | 50% | 0% | 50% | 50% |
| Total | 85% | 74% | 0% | 86% | 91% |
| Section | ghostty | kitty | urxvt | vte | xtermjs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Block mosaic | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Smooth mosaic | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Block elements | 100% | 95% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Rectangular shade | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Fill | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Diagonal fill | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Character cell diagonals | 100% | 48% | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Negative terminal graphic | 100% | 100% | 0% | 33% | 33% |
| Geometric shapes | 100% | 12% | 0% | 25% | 100% |
| Total | 100% | 85% | 0% | 93% | 99% |
| Section | ghostty | kitty | urxvt | vte | xtermjs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game sprites | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Rule segments | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Schematic symbols | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Box drawing | 80% | 0% | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| Separated mosaic | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Circle segments | 100% | 0% | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| Fill | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Emoticon | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Terminal graphic | 11% | 0% | 0% | 6% | 0% |
| Lines with tick marks | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Faces | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Icons | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Chess symbols | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Outlined uppercase Latin alphabet | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Outlined digits | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Block mosaic | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| Dashed lines | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Large type pieces | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Block elements | 100% | 0% | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| Smalltalk symbols | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Total | 53% | 33% | 0% | 42% | 0% |
| Section | ghostty | kitty | urxvt | vte | xtermjs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Box drawing | 80% | 0% | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| Separated mosaic | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Circle segments | 100% | 0% | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| Block mosaic | 100% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| Total | 99% | 69% | 0% | 77% | 0% |