jome 😏

jome (joh·mee) is a ⌨️ centric emoji picker 🖥️ application.

You can also pick an emoji with the 🖱️, don’t worry.

jome has all the emojis of ⬆️ to Emoji 16.0, including with skin tones.

I’m not a fan of the usual very broad categories of emojis which do not intersect so I made my own categories. A given emoji can be found in more than 1️⃣ category. For example, 🦈 is found in both the animals (no faces) and water categories. I find that it’s easier to 🔍 by theme than by very general category. Feel 🆓 to suggest more categories.

jome is currently only tested on 🐧.

Table of Contents

• Preview
• 🏗 jome
• Install on Arch Linux
• Usage
  • Graphical interface
  • 🔍 emojis
  • Select and ✅ an emoji
  • Go to Emojipedia page
  • 👤-defined emoji keywords
  • Server mode
  • Command-line options
• ⌨️ the ✅ emoji
  • Direct mode
  • Server mode

Preview

Default view

🌚 mode

Specific category

🔍 emojis matching “palm”

🔍 emojis matching “wom”

🔍 emojis matching “wom” and “fact”

🔍 all emojis of the transportation category

🔍 emojis matching “boa” within the transportation category

🔍 emojis matching “boa” and “sa” within the transportation category

If you prefer a minimal look

This is

$ jome -dCLRkw16

Options: -d, -C, -L, -R, -k, and -w.

🏗 jome

You need:

• CMake ≥ 3.30.0

• A C++14 compiler

• Boost ≥ 1.70 (only to 🏗)

• JSON for Modern C++ (only to 🏗, automatically 📥 by CMake if not found locally)

• {fmt} (only to 🏗, automatically 📥 by CMake if not found locally)

• Qt 5 (Core, GUI, Widgets, and Network modules)

🏗 jome

$ mkdir build && cd build && cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=release .. && make -j$(nproc)

Note	You need to install jome for it to find the correct data 📄. If you don’t want to install it on your system, use -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=path/to/install/directory when you run cmake.

Install jome

$ sudo make install

Install on Arch Linux

To install on Arch Linux from the jome AUR package:

$ yay -Sy jome

Note	jome-git is also available.

Usage

jome’s purpose is to help you pick an emoji. In other words, it doesn’t really care what you do with the chosen emoji afterwards: you can leverage 🛠️ such as xdotool(1) to “type” it or xsel(1) to copy it to the 📋. See ⌨️ the ✅ emoji and the -c option for a starting point.

When you ✅ an emoji (with the ⌨️ or with the 🖱️), jome 🖨️ the UTF-8 emoji or the Unicode codepoints (👀 the -f option), with an optional prefix (👀 the -p option) for each codepoint, to the standard output. Additionally, jome can:

• Copy the UTF-8 emoji or the Unicode codepoints to the 📋. 👀 the -b option.

• Execute a custom command which 📨 the UTF-8 emoji or the Unicode codepoints, with an optional prefix for each codepoint, as its last argument(s). 👀 the -c option.

• Send the UTF-8 emoji or the Unicode codepoints, with an optional prefix for each codepoint, in response to a client which requested picking an emoji. 👀 the -s option.

If you close the 🪟 (you can 👇 Escape or Ctrl+C to do this), then jome 🖨️ nothing to the standard output and executes nothing.

If you don’t start jome in server mode (-s option) and you don’t specify the -q option, then jome immediately 👋 after you ✅ an emoji or close the 🪟.

Graphical interface

There are 4️⃣ sections:

🔍 box (⬆️)

Input box where you can ⌨️ a query to 🔍 emojis.

Emoji grid

All emojis (with an empty 🔍 box) or 🔍 results.

When there’s at least 1️⃣ emoji, there’s always a selected emoji with a 🔲 box around it.

🖱️ an emoji to ✅ it. Press Shift when clicking to don’t 🖨️ VS-16 codepoints (see the -V option).

Hover an emoji to update the ⬇️ emoji info text temporarily.

Make the background behind emojis 🌚 with the -d option.

🙈 the category 🏷️ with the -L option.

🙈 the “Recent” category with the -R option.

Category 📜

📜 of available categories.

When all emojis are 👁️ (the 🔍 box is empty), 🖱️ a category name to scroll to this emoji category.

The first category, “Recent”, is a special category with the recently ✅ emojis.

Use the -H option to override the maximum number of recently ✅ emojis.

🙈 the “Recent” category with the -R option.

🙈 the whole category 📜 with the -C option.

Emoji info text (⬇️)

Name, Unicode codepoints, Emoji standard version, and keywords of the selected or hovered emoji.

🙈 the keyword list 📜 with the -k option.

🔍 emojis

The power of jome is its 🔍 box.

When you launch jome, the 🔍 box is focused, and it should stay focused unless you browse emojis manually with the intention of ✅ one with the 🖱️.

The format of a query is 1️⃣ of:

• TERMS

• CAT/

• CAT/TERMS

• CODEPOINT

• CAT/CODEPOINT

where:

CAT

Partial name of categories in which to 🔍.

TERMS

Space-separated 📜 of 🔍 terms.

For an emoji to be part of the results, its name and keywords must contain all the 🔍 terms.

CODEPOINT

A single Unicode codepoint using the standard U+ABCD notation.

Everything is 💼-insensitive.

Select and ✅ an emoji

To select an emoji, use the following ⌨️:

⬅️, ➡️, ⬆️, ⬇️

Go ⬅️/➡️/⬆️/⬇️.

Ctrl+⬅️, Ctrl+➡️

Go ⬅️/➡️ 5️⃣ emojis.

Page ⬆️, Page ⬇️

Go ⬆️/⬇️ 10 rows.

Home

Go to the first emoji.

End

Go to the last emoji.

To ✅ the selected emoji, 👇:

Enter

✅ the selected emoji with, if applicable:

Without the -t option

No skin tone (🟡).

With the -t option

The default skin tone (value of -t).

Shift+Enter

Like Enter, but do not 🖨️ VS-16 codepoints.

See the -V option option.

F1

F2

F3

F4

F5

If the selected emoji supports skin tones, ✅ the selected emoji with a light, medium-light, medium, medium-dark, or dark skin tone, overriding the -t option (if any).

Shift+F1

Shift+F2

Shift+F3

Shift+F4

Shift+F5

Like F1 to F5, but do not 🖨️ VS-16 codepoints.

See the -V option option.

To ❌, 👇 Escape or Ctrl+C, or close the 🪟.

Go to Emojipedia page

To go to the Emojipedia 🌐 of the selected emoji, 👇 F12.

To go to the Emojipedia 🌐 of any emoji with the 🖱️, right-click it and click “Go to Emojipedia page”.

👤-defined emoji keywords

You can either replace or ➕ the built-in 📜 of keywords which jome searches when 🔍 emojis.

To set 👤-defined keywords, create an emojis.json 📄 within:

On 🐧	~/.config/jome/
On 🍎	~/Library/Preferences/jome
On 🪟	C:/Users/USERNAME/AppData/Local/jome (probably) or C:/ProgramData/jome

emojis.json must contain a JSON object where 🔑 are emojis and values are objects. Each value may contain one of:

keywords

An array of keywords which replaces the built-in keywords entirely for this emoji.

extra-keywords

An array of keywords which ➕ either the built-in keywords or the keywords of the keywords entry for this emoji.

Example:

{
  "🍁": {
    "extra-keywords": ["canada", "laurentides"]
  },
  "😃": {
    "keywords": ["yay", "hourra"]
  },
  "🚬": {
    "extra-keywords": ["claude poirier"]
  },
  "🫚": {
    "extra-keywords": ["canada dry", "martin deschamps"]
  }
}

Server mode

jome features a server mode to avoid creating a process (a Qt 🪟 can be quite long to create) every ⌚ you need to pick an emoji. With this mode, you can 👁️ the jome 🪟 instantaneously.

To start jome in server mode, use the -s option to specify the server name:

$ jome -s mein-server

This creates a local server named mein-server. On Unix, it creates the socket 📄 /tmp/mein-server.

Important

On Unix, the server mode won’t work if the socket 📄 already exists. Remove the 📄 before you start jome in server mode: $ rm -f /tmp/mein-server $ jome -s mein-server

When jome starts in server mode, it doesn’t 👁️ its 🪟. Instead, it ⌛ for a command sent by the client, jome-ctl. To 👁️ the 🪟:

$ jome-ctl mein-server

When you ✅ an emoji, jome-ctl 🖨️ what jome also 🖨️ to the standard output and 👋 with exit code 0️⃣. Therefore, the output format of jome-ctl is 🎛 by the options passed to jome.

If you ❌ jome (👇 Escape or Ctrl+C, or close the 🪟), jome-ctl 🖨️ nothing and returns with exit code 1️⃣.

In server mode, jome doesn’t 👋 once you ✅ an emoji or ❌: it 🙈 the 🪟 and keeps 👂. To make it 👋 gracefully, which also removes the socket 📄:

$ jome-ctl mein-server quit

You don’t need to use what jome-ctl 🖨️ to the standard output. You can use jome in server mode with the -c option to make jome execute a command itself. For example:

$ rm -f /tmp/mein-server
$ jome -s mein-server -c 'xdotool type'

Then, bind a ⌨️ shortcut to:

$ jome-ctl mein-server

Command-line options

Option	Description
-f FMT	Set the output format to FMT: utf-8 (default) UTF-8 emoji. cp Space-separated Unicode codepoints (hexadecimal). Example: 1f645 200d 2642 fe0f Prepend a prefix to each codepoint with -p.
-p PREFIX	Set the prefix to be prepended to each Unicode codepoint with -f cp. For example, with -f cp and -p U+: U+1f645 U+200d U+2642 U+fe0f
-n	Do not 🖨️ a newline after 🖨️ the emoji or codepoints.
-V	Do not 🖨️ Variation Selector-16 (VS-16) codepoints. VS-16 is a suffix codepoint which specifies that the preceding character should be displayed with emoji presentation. For example, ♥ (which predates Unicode emojis) followed with VS-16 becomes ♥️. There are applications/fonts which don’t like VS-16.
-t TONE	Set the default skin tone to TONE instead of none: L Light. ML Medium-light. M Medium. MD Medium-dark. D Dark. The F1 to F5 keys still ✅ an emoji with a specific skin tone.
-c CMD	When you ✅ an emoji, execute the command CMD 20 ms after closing the jome 🪟. jome interprets CMD like a 🐚 does, so you can have arguments too. CMD 📨 the UTF-8 emoji or the Unicode codepoints (depending on the -f option) with their optional prefix as its last argument(s). Examples with xdotool: $ jome -c 'xdotool type' $ jome -f cp -p U -c 'xdotool key --delay 20'
-b	When you ✅ an emoji, copy the UTF-8 emoji or the Unicode codepoints (depending on the -f option) to the 📋. Warning This uses QClipboard and is known not to always work, depending on your 🪟 🧑‍💼.
-q	Do not 👋 when you ✅ an emoji. By default, when you ✅ an emoji (with the ⌨️ or with the 🖱️), jome: 🖨️ the ✅ emoji or its codepoints to the standard output. 🙈 its 🪟. Optional: Copies the ✅ emoji/codepoints to the 📋 (👀 the -b option). Optional: Executes a command (👀 the -c option) after 20 ms. If not running in server mode, 👋 (👀 the -s option). With the -q option, jome doesn’t 🙈 its 🪟 and doesn’t 👋 when you ✅ an emoji so that you can make it 🖨️ multiple emojis and/or execute a command multiple ⌚ with multiple emojis without restarting the application. You cannot specify the -q and -s options at the same ⌚.
-s NAME	Start jome in server mode and set the server name to NAME. On Unix, this creates the socket 📄 /tmp/NAME which must not exist before you start jome. You cannot specify the -s and -q options at the same ⌚.
-d	Use a 🌚 background for emojis.
-C	🙈 the category 📜.
-L	🙈 the category 🏷️ in the emoji grid.
-R	🙈 the “Recent” category.
-r	Include the recently accepted emojis in the results when 🔍 emojis. In this 💼, jome 👁️ the recently accepted emojis first within the result grid.
-k	🙈 the keyword 📜.
-w WIDTH	Set the width of individual emojis to WIDTH pixels, amongst 16, 24, 32 (default), 40, or 48.
-P PERIOD	Set the flashing period of the selection 🔲 to PERIOD ms (greater than or equal to 32). The selection 🔲 doesn’t flash by default.
-H COUNT	Set the maximum number of recently ✅ emojis to COUNT instead of 30.

⌨️ the ✅ emoji

Here are Bash 📜 to ⌨️ the ✅ emoji with xdotool.

Direct mode

With xdotool key

#!/usr/bin/bash

codepoints=$(jome -f cp -p U)

if (($? != 0)); then
    exit 1
fi

xdotool key --delay 20 "$codepoints"

With xdotool type

#!/usr/bin/bash

emoji=$(jome)

if (($? != 0)); then
    exit 1
fi

xdotool type "$emoji"

Server mode

With xdotool key

#!/usr/bin/bash

socket_name=jome.socket.$(id -u)

if [[ ! -e "/tmp/$socket_name" ]]; then
    jome -s "$socket_name" -n -w48 -f cp -p U & disown

    until [[ -e "/tmp/$socket_name" ]]; do
        sleep .1
    done
fi

codepoints=$(jome-ctl "$socket_name")

if (($? == 0)); then
    sleep .02
    xdotool key --delay 20 "$codepoints"
fi

With xdotool type

#!/usr/bin/bash

socket_name=jome.socket.$(id -u)

if [[ ! -e "/tmp/$socket_name" ]]; then
    jome -s "$socket_name" -n -w48 & disown

    until [[ -e "/tmp/$socket_name" ]]; do
        sleep .1
    done
fi

emoji=$(jome-ctl "$socket_name")

if (($? == 0)); then
    sleep .02
    xdotool type "$emoji"
fi