PSN Private Use Area (PUA) Symbol Research

What is the PUA (Private Use Area)?

The Private Use Area (PUA) is a section in the Unicode standard reserved for private use. This means it’s intentionally left undefined so companies or organizations can create their own characters or symbols for use within their systems. These characters won’t display correctly unless the device or software has a font or method that supports them.

For example, on the PS5 you can use a symbol like . It looks like an emoji but is actually an undefined Unicode character that Sony assigned as its own symbol. This symbol is often used to indicate things like game versions—such as whether the game is for PS4 or PS5.

Unicode PUA Ranges

• Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) PUA: U+E000 to U+F8FF (6,400 characters)
• Plane 15 (Supplementary PUA-A): U+F0000 to U+FFFFD
• Plane 16 (Supplementary PUA-B): U+100000 to U+10FFFD

Who Uses the PUA?

• Sony (PlayStation): For system UI symbols like wishlist hearts, notifications, trophies, and more.
• Microsoft: Some Windows system fonts use PUA codes.
• Apple: For some legacy emoji support.
• Font Creators: To embed logos or proprietary icons.
• Game Engines and Firmware: Often map UI glyphs here.

PUA codes are not standardized. That means the same code might mean different things in different systems or programs.

Reference: Community Contributions

These symbols were shared by contributors like Bann3r (Japanese EagleCrew modder), david1337hax, Amethyst, and others. They extracted many PUA codes from PlayStation firmware or fonts. While they haven’t detailed exactly how, their public tools include working PSN/PS4/PS5 icon codes.

These symbols appear on sites like PSXHAX as raw codes such as  or . You can test them directly by placing them in PSN party names, profile bios, or other editable UI sections.

My Plan

This blog will track my step-by-step research into PS5 PUA symbols. I don’t have a PS4 or deep coding skills, so I’ll focus on methodical testing and documentation.

Steps:

1. Collect all known symbols from sources like PSNTools, Amethyst’s lists, and PSXHAX. Remove duplicates to create a master list.
2. Analyze patterns in the master list, focusing on which Unicode planes are used (BMP, Plane 15, Plane 16).
3. Identify which code ranges PlayStation actually uses.
4. Create a prioritized list of likely PS5 PUA symbols based on patterns.
5. Test symbols on burner PSN accounts to see which render properly.

Daily Log Format

Each day, I will log:

• The date of the session
• What I worked on (e.g., cleaning data, testing symbols)
• Unicode ranges tested (e.g., U+E000 to U+E050)
• Notes on which symbols showed correctly
• Observations about PlayStation’s character limits for bios or descriptions

Goals

• Compile and organize all known PSN private Unicode symbols in one place.
• Discover usage patterns in Unicode planes and code ranges.
• Identify and test new candidate symbols.
• Provide a clear reference for developers and community members.
• Document the process so others can replicate or build on it without advanced skills.

Deliverables (final blog)

• A clean master list of PSN-related PUA symbols with duplicates removed.
• Visual examples and Unicode points of symbols that work on PSN profiles.
• A report on which Unicode planes and ranges are in active use.
• An archive of daily logs showing research steps, test results, and character limit findings.

Why am I doing this?

I’m doing this for several reasons. I enjoy writing and researching. It’s a lot of manual work since I don’t have the necessary tools or coding skills yet, but I’m doing it for fun. Hopefully, it benefits others who are interested in PSN PUA symbols too.