Fonts like Noto Color Emoji break ALL Emoji on Windows

Bug reports
1

Steps to reproduce

  1. Download Noto Color Emoji from Google Fonts
  2. Install on system (right-click, “Install” on Windows)
  3. Open Obsidian (even under sandbox mode)
  4. Enter in emoji, such as :smile: or those that use zero-width joiners (ZWJ) like 🏳‍⚧
  5. Select font under appearance (works on all, demonstrated with Text font)
  6. Save and close settings modal
  7. Observe that all emoji have disappeared

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]

Y

Expected result

Emoji should render, and preferably better (via standard ZWJ combos supported by the font, as on Obsidian for Android, etc) than the default on Windows (which is falling back to Segoe UI for text font and likely the Segoe UI Emoji as well, given it’s rendering Microsoft’s Windows 10 April 2018 version of the smile emoji).

Actual result

No emoji render at all, so no fall-back is occurring, so some part of Obsidian is getting caught on the emoji and seemingly picking nothing as the correct glyphs to render here (not even tofu, so Noto still holds, ironically).

Environment

Sandbox Vault.

SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: v1.4.13
	Installer version: v1.4.5
	Operating system: Windows 10 Home 10.0.19045
	Login status: logged in
	Catalyst license: insider
	Insider build toggle: off
	Live preview: on
	Legacy editor: off
	Base theme: dark
	Community theme: none
	Snippets enabled: 0
	Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	none

Additional information

Below are the above steps (from 4 onwards) recreated in the Sandbox Vault:

Screenshots

A fresh sandbox vault into which the emoji 😄 🏳‍⚧ have been added, with letters boxing them in from the lines above and below to highlight where they should be
A fresh sandbox vault into which the emoji 😄 🏳‍⚧ have been added, with letters boxing them in from the lines above and below to highlight where they should be1024×800 33.6 KB

The Appearance settings of the Sandbox, showing that nothing has changed
The Appearance settings of the Sandbox, showing that nothing has changed1024×800 45.5 KB

The Appearance settings of the Sandbox after having selected the font Noto Color Emoji for use as the Text font
The Appearance settings of the Sandbox after having selected the font Noto Color Emoji for use as the Text font1024×800 44.3 KB

Returning to the Sandbox vault, the emoji have seemingly disappeared and are no longer visible, however the letters above and below them are still there
Returning to the Sandbox vault, the emoji have seemingly disappeared and are no longer visible, however the letters above and below them are still there1024×800 31.3 KB

2

As an addendum, I have been able to recreate this on a difference device running Windows 11 (don’t ask why it says Windows 10 Home in the system info below, this is a laptop that came pre-installed with Windows 11, much to my annoyance). As it is Windows 11, the emoji will look different as Segoe UI Emoji was updated alongside it, however the same issue persists.

As sandboxed:

SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: v1.4.13
	Installer version: v1.4.5
	Operating system: Windows 10 Home 10.0.22621
	Login status: not logged in
	Insider build toggle: off
	Live preview: on
	Legacy editor: off
	Base theme: dark
	Community theme: none
	Snippets enabled: 0
	Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	none
Screenshots

A new sandbox vault on the second device into which the emoji 😄 🏳‍⚧ have been added, with letters boxing them in from the lines above and below to highlight where they should be
A new sandbox vault on the second device into which the emoji 😄 🏳‍⚧ have been added, with letters boxing them in from the lines above and below to highlight where they should be1792×1400 168 KB

The Appearance settings of the new Sandbox, showing that nothing was changed
The Appearance settings of the new Sandbox, showing that nothing was changed1792×1400 220 KB

The Appearance settings of the new Sandbox after having selected the font Noto Color Emoji for use as the Text font
The Appearance settings of the new Sandbox after having selected the font Noto Color Emoji for use as the Text font1792×1400 212 KB

Returning to the new Sandbox vault, the emoji have seemingly disappeared and are no longer visible, however the letters above and below them are still there
Returning to the new Sandbox vault, the emoji have seemingly disappeared and are no longer visible, however the letters above and below them are still there1792×1400 245 KB

3

The issue with specifically Noto Color Emoji seems to be that Windows doesn’t support the colour model used in that font.

I think theoretically it should work with the “WindowsCompatible” edition included in the zip in the Github release, but I haven’t managed to make it work on my Win10 machine. It shows up in the font list, but no emojis display when I use it. (Other emoji fonts such as Windows’s own Segoe UI Emoji or Twemoji do work.)