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Regional indicator flags (2 cols)

Category: text · Baseline: unicode · Tags: Unicode · Specification ↗

Regional Indicator symbols are paired to form flag emoji. For example, 🇺🇸 (US flag) is the sequence U+1F1FA U+1F1F8. A terminal that handles these correctly renders the pair as a single 2-column wide flag glyph.
How this is testedautomated
Write a regional indicator pair (e.g., U+1F1FA U+1F1F8 for US flag), verify it renders as a single 2-column glyph.

The same probe runs against headless backends (via Termless) and real terminal apps (via a daemon launched in each terminal). This lets us distinguish parser correctness from rendering correctness.

Analysis2026-04-06

Supported by 9 of 12 terminals (75%). Not supported by: vt100.js, Alacritty, xterm.js. Part of the Unicode baseline. Notes: vt100.js: Emoji flag sequences not rendered as wide characters; Alacritty: Emoji flag sequences not rendered as wide characters; xterm.js: Emoji flag sequences not rendered as wide characters.

Supported by 10 of 14 backends (71%)

Terminal Applications

TerminalVersionSupportNotes
iTerm23.6.9✓ yes
Ghostty1.3.1✓ yes
VS Code✓ yes
Warp✓ yes
Cursor✓ yes
Terminal.app✓ yes

Headless Backends

Parser correctness only — a means the parser accepts the sequence.

BackendVersionSupportNotes
Kitty0.40.0✓ yes
vterm0.2.0✓ yes
WezTerm0.1.0-fork.5✓ yes
Alacritty0.26.0✗ noEmoji flag sequences not rendered as wide characters
vt100.js0.2.1✗ noEmoji flag sequences not rendered as wide characters
xterm.js5.5.0✗ noEmoji flag sequences not rendered as wide characters