How to get Colour Emojis on Linux platforms ?

Source Me supports Emoji Picker which actually shows you the exact proper code of each emoji in the picker. Unfortunately, Linux does not have built in support for Emojis and instead it grayscales the emojis & sometimes does not recognize the emoji.

There is a workaround for this particular problem.

Step 1: Get the font

Download Google Noto Color Emoji Font

Extract the zip archive & move the NotoColorEmoji.tff file to the (hidden) ~/.fonts/ directory in your Home folder. If this folder isn’t there you’ll need to create it.

Step 2: Configuration file for the font

Note: Do not skip this step.

First part to this is to create a fontconfig folder in the local config directory:

mkdir -p ~/.config/fontconfig/

Next, enter the following text into the terminal:

cat << 'EOF' > ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

Paste the code below in the Terminal without altering a single character

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>

  <match target="scan">
    <test name="family">
      <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="scalable" mode="assign">
      <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>
    <edit name="pixelsize" mode="assign">
      <double>18</double>
    </edit>
  </match>

  <match>
 <test name="family"><string>sans-serif</string></test>
 <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="weak">
 <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
 </edit>
 </match>

<match>
 <test name="family"><string>serif</string></test>
 <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="weak">
 <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
 </edit>
 </match>

<match>
 <test name="family"><string>Apple Color Emoji</string></test>
 <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
 <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
 </edit>
 </match>

</fontconfig>

Type EOF and hit enter to save.

Lastly,

Enter the following command:

fc-cache -f -v

Step 3: Run the application

The emojis render properly.

To read more about the issue, go here

If you experience any other issues, feel free to create an issue.