0x263B

0x263B is the hexadecimal notation for the Unicode code point U+263B, which is named BLACK SMILING FACE. It is a symbol within the Miscellaneous Symbols block and is typically rendered as the black version of a smiling face glyph ☻. The character is part of Unicode’s symbol repertoire and is available for text processing and display across platforms that support Unicode fonts.

Encoding details and representations:

In UTF-8, U+263B is encoded as the three-byte sequence E2 98 BB. In UTF-16, it is represented directly as the 16-bit code unit 0x263B. The character does not have a single-byte representation in ASCII or ISO-8859-1, since it lies outside the 128–255 range of those encodings.

Usage and interpretation:

BLACK SMILING FACE appears in various fonts and symbol sets, often used for decorative purposes or to convey a smiling expression in contexts where color emoji is not available. Its interpretation can vary by context and culture, and in modern digital communication it is less common than the color emoji versions of facial expressions. When used, it is important to consider font rendering and platform consistency, as glyph shapes can differ between environments.

Related symbols:

Related characters include WHITE SMILING FACE (U+263A ☺) and other facial-expression symbols in the Unicode Miscellaneous Symbols block, as well as newer colored emoji faces in the Unicode emoji set (for example, U+1F600 GRINNING FACE). These provide contemporary alternatives for conveying emotions in text.

Notes:

0x263B is primarily a reference to the code point in hex notation; the actual rendered glyph depends on font, platform, and rendering system.