diff --git a/src/font/CodepointResolver.zig b/src/font/CodepointResolver.zig
index b15bbcb27..e695e5a74 100644
--- a/src/font/CodepointResolver.zig
+++ b/src/font/CodepointResolver.zig
@@ -294,13 +294,14 @@ fn getIndexCodepointOverride(
 pub fn getPresentation(
     self: *CodepointResolver,
     index: Collection.Index,
+    glyph_index: u32,
 ) !Presentation {
     if (index.special()) |sp| return switch (sp) {
         .sprite => .text,
     };
 
     const face = try self.collection.getFace(index);
-    return face.presentation;
+    return if (face.isColorGlyph(glyph_index)) .emoji else .text;
 }
 
 /// Render a glyph by glyph index into the given font atlas and return
diff --git a/src/font/Collection.zig b/src/font/Collection.zig
index 38f4b92f8..86231b839 100644
--- a/src/font/Collection.zig
+++ b/src/font/Collection.zig
@@ -190,16 +190,23 @@ pub fn autoItalicize(self: *Collection, alloc: Allocator) !void {
         const list = self.faces.get(.regular);
         if (list.items.len == 0) return;
 
-        // Find our first font that is text. This will force
-        // loading any deferred faces but we only load them until
-        // we find a text face. A text face is almost always the
-        // first face in the list.
+        // Find our first regular face that has text glyphs.
         for (0..list.items.len) |i| {
             const face = try self.getFace(.{
                 .style = .regular,
                 .idx = @intCast(i),
             });
-            if (face.presentation == .text) break :regular face;
+
+            // We have two conditionals here. The color check is obvious:
+            // we want to auto-italicize a normal text font. The second
+            // check is less obvious... for mixed color/non-color fonts, we
+            // accept the regular font if it has basic ASCII. This may not
+            // be strictly correct (especially with international fonts) but
+            // it's a reasonable heuristic and the first case will match 99%
+            // of the time.
+            if (!face.hasColor() or face.glyphIndex('A') != null) {
+                break :regular face;
+            }
         }
 
         // No regular text face found.
@@ -344,7 +351,13 @@ pub const Entry = union(enum) {
             },
 
             .loaded => |face| switch (p_mode) {
-                .explicit => |p| face.presentation == p and face.glyphIndex(cp) != null,
+                .explicit => |p| explicit: {
+                    const index = face.glyphIndex(cp) orelse break :explicit false;
+                    break :explicit switch (p) {
+                        .text => !face.isColorGlyph(index),
+                        .emoji => face.isColorGlyph(index),
+                    };
+                },
                 .default, .any => face.glyphIndex(cp) != null,
             },
 
@@ -357,7 +370,13 @@ pub const Entry = union(enum) {
             .fallback_loaded => |face| switch (p_mode) {
                 .explicit,
                 .default,
-                => |p| face.presentation == p and face.glyphIndex(cp) != null,
+                => |p| explicit: {
+                    const index = face.glyphIndex(cp) orelse break :explicit false;
+                    break :explicit switch (p) {
+                        .text => !face.isColorGlyph(index),
+                        .emoji => face.isColorGlyph(index),
+                    };
+                },
                 .any => face.glyphIndex(cp) != null,
             },
         };
@@ -371,7 +390,7 @@ pub const PresentationMode = union(enum) {
     explicit: Presentation,
 
     /// The codepoint has no explicit presentation and we should use
-    /// the presentation from the UCd.
+    /// the presentation from the UCD.
     default: Presentation,
 
     /// The codepoint can be any presentation.
diff --git a/src/font/DeferredFace.zig b/src/font/DeferredFace.zig
index 8051895a4..94fbab445 100644
--- a/src/font/DeferredFace.zig
+++ b/src/font/DeferredFace.zig
@@ -281,6 +281,7 @@ pub fn hasCodepoint(self: DeferredFace, cp: u32, p: ?Presentation) bool {
         => {
             // If we are using coretext, we check the loaded CT font.
             if (self.ct) |ct| {
+                // TODO(mixed-fonts): handle presentation on a glyph level
                 if (p) |desired_p| {
                     const traits = ct.font.getSymbolicTraits();
                     const actual_p: Presentation = if (traits.color_glyphs) .emoji else .text;
diff --git a/src/font/SharedGrid.zig b/src/font/SharedGrid.zig
index 9c0f5ca9c..e99d39078 100644
--- a/src/font/SharedGrid.zig
+++ b/src/font/SharedGrid.zig
@@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ pub fn renderGlyph(
     if (gop.found_existing) return gop.value_ptr.*;
 
     // Get the presentation to determine what atlas to use
-    const p = try self.resolver.getPresentation(index);
+    const p = try self.resolver.getPresentation(index, glyph_index);
     const atlas: *font.Atlas = switch (p) {
         .text => &self.atlas_greyscale,
         .emoji => &self.atlas_color,
diff --git a/src/font/face/coretext.zig b/src/font/face/coretext.zig
index 306b6e5be..4618ad0b7 100644
--- a/src/font/face/coretext.zig
+++ b/src/font/face/coretext.zig
@@ -19,9 +19,6 @@ pub const Face = struct {
     /// if we're using Harfbuzz.
     hb_font: if (harfbuzz_shaper) harfbuzz.Font else void,
 
-    /// The presentation for this font.
-    presentation: font.Presentation,
-
     /// Metrics for this font face. These are useful for renderers.
     metrics: font.face.Metrics,
 
@@ -111,26 +108,11 @@ pub const Face = struct {
         var result: Face = .{
             .font = ct_font,
             .hb_font = hb_font,
-            .presentation = if (traits.color_glyphs) .emoji else .text,
             .metrics = metrics,
             .color = color,
         };
         result.quirks_disable_default_font_features = quirks.disableDefaultFontFeatures(&result);
 
-        // If our presentation is emoji, we also check for the presence of
-        // emoji codepoints. This forces fonts with colorized glyphs that aren't
-        // emoji font to be treated as text. Long term, this isn't what we want
-        // but this fixes some bugs in the short term. See:
-        // https://github.com/mitchellh/ghostty/issues/1768
-        //
-        // Longer term, we'd like to detect mixed color/non-color fonts and
-        // handle them correctly by rendering the color glyphs as color and the
-        // non-color glyphs as text.
-        if (result.presentation == .emoji and result.glyphIndex('🥸') == null) {
-            log.warn("font has colorized glyphs but isn't emoji, treating as text", .{});
-            result.presentation = .text;
-        }
-
         // In debug mode, we output information about available variation axes,
         // if they exist.
         if (comptime builtin.mode == .Debug) {
@@ -244,15 +226,15 @@ pub const Face = struct {
 
     /// Returns true if the face has any glyphs that are colorized.
     /// To determine if an individual glyph is colorized you must use
-    /// isColored.
+    /// isColorGlyph.
     pub fn hasColor(self: *const Face) bool {
         return self.color != null;
     }
 
     /// Returns true if the given glyph ID is colorized.
-    pub fn isColored(self: *const Face, glyph_id: u16) bool {
+    pub fn isColorGlyph(self: *const Face, glyph_id: u32) bool {
         const c = self.color orelse return false;
-        return c.isColored(glyph_id);
+        return c.isColorGlyph(glyph_id);
     }
 
     /// Returns the glyph index for the given Unicode code point. If this
@@ -328,7 +310,7 @@ pub const Face = struct {
             depth: u32,
             space: *macos.graphics.ColorSpace,
             context_opts: c_uint,
-        } = if (self.presentation == .text) .{
+        } = if (!self.isColorGlyph(glyph_index)) .{
             .color = false,
             .depth = 1,
             .space = try macos.graphics.ColorSpace.createDeviceGray(),
@@ -669,13 +651,18 @@ const ColorState = struct {
     }
 
     /// Returns true if the given glyph ID is colored.
-    pub fn isColored(self: *const ColorState, glyph_id: u16) bool {
+    pub fn isColorGlyph(self: *const ColorState, glyph_id: u32) bool {
+        // Our font system uses 32-bit glyph IDs for special values but
+        // actual fonts only contain 16-bit glyph IDs so if we can't cast
+        // into it it must be false.
+        const glyph_u16 = std.math.cast(u16, glyph_id) orelse return false;
+
         // sbix is always true for now
         if (self.sbix) return true;
 
         // if we have svg data, check it
         if (self.svg) |svg| {
-            if (svg.hasGlyph(glyph_id)) return true;
+            if (svg.hasGlyph(glyph_u16)) return true;
         }
 
         return false;
@@ -699,8 +686,6 @@ test {
     var face = try Face.initFontCopy(ct_font, .{ .size = .{ .points = 12 } });
     defer face.deinit();
 
-    try testing.expectEqual(font.Presentation.text, face.presentation);
-
     // Generate all visible ASCII
     var i: u8 = 32;
     while (i < 127) : (i += 1) {
@@ -722,8 +707,6 @@ test "name" {
     var face = try Face.initFontCopy(ct_font, .{ .size = .{ .points = 12 } });
     defer face.deinit();
 
-    try testing.expectEqual(font.Presentation.text, face.presentation);
-
     var buf: [1024]u8 = undefined;
     const font_name = try face.name(&buf);
     try testing.expect(std.mem.eql(u8, font_name, "Menlo"));
@@ -742,13 +725,10 @@ test "emoji" {
     var face = try Face.initFontCopy(ct_font, .{ .size = .{ .points = 18 } });
     defer face.deinit();
 
-    // Presentation
-    try testing.expectEqual(font.Presentation.emoji, face.presentation);
-
     // Glyph index check
     {
         const id = face.glyphIndex('🥸').?;
-        try testing.expect(face.isColored(id));
+        try testing.expect(face.isColorGlyph(id));
     }
 }
 
@@ -766,8 +746,6 @@ test "in-memory" {
     var face = try Face.init(lib, testFont, .{ .size = .{ .points = 12 } });
     defer face.deinit();
 
-    try testing.expectEqual(font.Presentation.text, face.presentation);
-
     // Generate all visible ASCII
     var i: u8 = 32;
     while (i < 127) : (i += 1) {
@@ -790,8 +768,6 @@ test "variable" {
     var face = try Face.init(lib, testFont, .{ .size = .{ .points = 12 } });
     defer face.deinit();
 
-    try testing.expectEqual(font.Presentation.text, face.presentation);
-
     // Generate all visible ASCII
     var i: u8 = 32;
     while (i < 127) : (i += 1) {
@@ -814,8 +790,6 @@ test "variable set variation" {
     var face = try Face.init(lib, testFont, .{ .size = .{ .points = 12 } });
     defer face.deinit();
 
-    try testing.expectEqual(font.Presentation.text, face.presentation);
-
     try face.setVariations(&.{
         .{ .id = font.face.Variation.Id.init("wght"), .value = 400 },
     }, .{ .size = .{ .points = 12 } });
@@ -828,19 +802,6 @@ test "variable set variation" {
     }
 }
 
-test "mixed color/non-color font treated as text" {
-    const testing = std.testing;
-    const testFont = @import("../test.zig").fontJuliaMono;
-
-    var lib = try font.Library.init();
-    defer lib.deinit();
-
-    var face = try Face.init(lib, testFont, .{ .size = .{ .points = 12 } });
-    defer face.deinit();
-
-    try testing.expect(face.presentation == .text);
-}
-
 test "svg font table" {
     const testing = std.testing;
     const alloc = testing.allocator;
@@ -871,12 +832,12 @@ test "glyphIndex colored vs text" {
     {
         const glyph = face.glyphIndex('A').?;
         try testing.expectEqual(4, glyph);
-        try testing.expect(!face.isColored(glyph));
+        try testing.expect(!face.isColorGlyph(glyph));
     }
 
     {
         const glyph = face.glyphIndex(0xE800).?;
         try testing.expectEqual(11482, glyph);
-        try testing.expect(face.isColored(glyph));
+        try testing.expect(face.isColorGlyph(glyph));
     }
 }