Microsoft opens up its 3D emoji for creators

San Francisco, August 11 (IANS) Tech giant Microsoft offers more than 1,500 of its 3D emoji as open source, making them available for creators to remix and develop.

Almost all of Microsoft’s library of 1,538 emojis will be available on Figma and GitHub in a move that Microsoft hopes will encourage more creativity and inclusivity in the emoji space, reports The Verge.

While Microsoft released its emoji in Windows 11 last year and 3D versions in Microsoft Teams in February, the company didn’t originally plan to open up its work.

“Initially, we were focused on building the whole job,” Jon Friedman, CVP of design and research at Microsoft, said in an interview.

“The idea has just started to emerge, and it fits with our belief and view that the more open source we are internally and externally, the more product excellence we can develop and the more we can be relevant to all of humanity,” Friedman added.

According to the report, Microsoft has spent a lot of time on the inclusive design and diverse needs of emojis that span different people, religions, and countries.

The result was over 1,500 emojis that include custom skin tones, with bright, saturated colors and a focus on fun at work.

Even Clippy has been introduced as a replacement for the paper clip emoji, but it’s one of the few that won’t be open source simply due to Microsoft’s legal trademark requirements, the report says.

Creators will be able to take many of Microsoft’s bright and colorful 3D emoji and remix them into stickers, use them in content, or create unique sets of emojis.

(Except for the title, the rest of this IANS article is unedited)

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