ConEmu can't represent unicode characters properly (e.g. emojis)

[luc0x61]

Version Information

Cmder version: 1.3.25.328
Operating system: Win 11 25H2

Cmder Edition

Cmder Full (with Git)

Description of the issue

I have some Unicode characters missing/misrepresented in the terminal, see below, compared to the Windows terminal

I know that this is dependent on ConEmu.
Since the latter looks to be a dead project (here on Github), but cmder uses it, this is the only place where I can report this issue.
Ultimately, the bug is that cmder relies on a dead project.

How to reproduce

1. Take the file icons.example from the lf project, still on Github
2. Execute sed -n -e "/tex/p" -e "/\.r/p" icons.example to expose some of the missing characters
3. The same command in Windows terminal (or in a Unicode editor) will show the correct characters

Additional context

Note that missing characters also generate misprints in width, misaligning text.

Checklist

• I have read the documentation.
• I have searched for similar issues and found none that describe my issue.
• I have reproduced the issue on the latest version of Cmder.
• I am certain my issues are not related to ConEmu, Clink, or other third-party tools that Cmder uses.

[DRSDavidSoft]

@luc0x61 We've been tracking this emoji drawing issue in ConEmu for a quite a while now:
https://github.com/ConEmu/ConEmu/issues?q=Emoji

Ultimately, the only possible options for Cmder as I can currently see are:

1. The original developer to implement this in ConEmu (which isn't likely, as the project has become inactive now)
2. Someone else to fork the project and implement it (sadly I don't know anyone at the moment with the required time, effort and/or technical knowledge to work on ConEmu)
3. Switch to something else completely instead (we can drop the ConEmu and use Windows Terminal instead)

Since there have been plenty reports like this already, we have plans to introduce Cmder + Windows Terminal integration and have already implemented it in our development branch.

We have a guide for integrating any version of Cmder (including your current one) into Windows Terminal here:
https://github.com/cmderdev/cmder/wiki/Seamless-Windows-Terminal-Integration

Of course, there are other Terminal Emulators you can vote for that we can bundle Cmder with, please take a look at here:
https://github.com/orgs/cmderdev/discussions/2864

If you are relying on ConEmu, can you please let me know about some of the features it provides that Windows Terminal lacks? We could track some of the missing features over WT repo; while some of the other ConEmu features are out of scope in Windows Terminal.

However, if the Windows Terminal is already a good replacement for ConEmu for your use cases, you can try out our Cmder + Windows Terminal support now.

Hopefully the current available options can address your problem, I completely understand and agree with you. Please share your feedback with us so that we could arrive at the best possible option for you.

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Personally, I use Cmder in all of my Terminal emulators (be it ConEmu, Windows Terminal, Conhost.exs and more) and have come to terms and accepted the fact that each terminal serves a different purpose, and it is useful to use them for different tasks. WT is now my general purpose use Terminal, which supports emojis perfectly fine due to its modern rendering engine. I use ConEmu mainly for it's great capturing windows features, where you can bring windows from other apps to be ConEmu tabs, and I've accepted not to run programs that output emojis in ConEmu or at least not to expect beautiful emojis inside it.