diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3763aca0..24bd8a86 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -116,6 +116,8 @@
   exactly 0 rows. This happens when `[scrollback].line = 0`, and the
   window size (number of rows) is a power of two (i.e. 2, 4, 8, 16
   etc) ([#1610][1610]).
+* VS16 (variation selector 16 - emoji representation) should only
+  affect emojis.
 
 [1531]: https://codeberg.org/dnkl/foot/issues/1531
 [1573]: https://codeberg.org/dnkl/foot/issues/1573
diff --git a/vt.c b/vt.c
index 7529f302..4d2bf487 100644
--- a/vt.c
+++ b/vt.c
@@ -850,8 +850,14 @@ action_utf8_print(struct terminal *term, char32_t wc)
                 break;
 
             case GRAPHEME_WIDTH_DOUBLE:
-                if (unlikely(wc == 0xfe0f))
-                    width = 2;
+                if (unlikely(wc == 0xfe0f && new_cc->count == 2)) {
+                    /* Only emojis should be affected by VS16 */
+                    const utf8proc_property_t *props =
+                        utf8proc_get_property(new_cc->chars[0]);
+
+                    if (props->boundclass == UTF8PROC_BOUNDCLASS_EXTENDED_PICTOGRAPHIC)
+                        width = 2;
+                }
                 new_cc->width = min(grapheme_width + width, 2);
                 break;