Missing numerals in Noto Color Emoji font

Question

I have used the following fonts.conf in Ubuntu 16.10 Unity to apply noto color emoji systemwide:

<!-- First install Noto Color Emoji font in ~/home/.fonts, then copy this file to
~/home/.config/fontconfig. This will set default emoji font to Noto Color Emoji font systemwide -->

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

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

But now in 16.04.2 GNOME, I'm facing a new kind of problem. All the numerals disappear when I place this .conf in its place. The clock, for example has no numbers:

And same with calender, battery and everywhere there's a numeral. How can I make the system show numerals?

Answer 1

The problem here is that we are making the Noto Color Emoji the default font for serif and sans-serif fonts, and Noto Color Emoji font doesn't have glyph for numerals. We have to remove those lines from the fonts.conf file, and add the lines which makes the mentioned font as "preferred" font, which can be overridden when it can't render other text properly:

<alias>
        <family>sans-serif</family>
        <prefer>
            <family>Noto Color Emoji</family>
        </prefer>
</alias>

This will let you see Color Emojis everywhere without removing the numerals or spaces.