diff --git a/src/font/fontconfigandfreetype.rs b/src/font/fontconfigandfreetype.rs
index 571c14782..3e528d8ae 100644
--- a/src/font/fontconfigandfreetype.rs
+++ b/src/font/fontconfigandfreetype.rs
@@ -134,30 +134,88 @@ impl Font for FontImpl {
             ftwrap::FT_Pixel_Mode::FT_PIXEL_MODE_BGRA => {
                 let width = ft_glyph.bitmap.width as usize;
                 let height = ft_glyph.bitmap.rows as usize;
-                let size = (width * height * 4) as usize;
-                let mut rgba = Vec::with_capacity(size);
-                rgba.resize(size, 0u8);
+
+                // emoji glyphs don't always fill the bitmap size, so we compute
+                // the non-transparent bounds here with this simplistic code.
+                // This can likely be improved!
+
+                let mut first_line = None;
+                let mut first_col = None;
+                let mut last_col = None;
+                let mut last_line = None;
+
                 for y in 0..height {
                     let src_offset = y * pitch as usize;
-                    let dest_offset = y * width * 4;
+
                     for x in 0..width {
+                        let alpha = data[src_offset + (x * 4) + 3];
+                        if alpha != 0 {
+                            if first_line.is_none() {
+                                first_line = Some(y);
+                            }
+                            first_col = match first_col.take() {
+                                Some(other) if x < other => Some(x),
+                                Some(other) => Some(other),
+                                None => Some(x),
+                            };
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+                for y in (0..height).rev() {
+                    let src_offset = y * pitch as usize;
+
+                    for x in (0..width).rev() {
+                        let alpha = data[src_offset + (x * 4) + 3];
+                        if alpha != 0 {
+                            if last_line.is_none() {
+                                last_line = Some(y);
+                            }
+                            last_col = match last_col.take() {
+                                Some(other) if x > other => Some(x),
+                                Some(other) => Some(other),
+                                None => Some(x),
+                            };
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+
+                let first_line = first_line.unwrap_or(0);
+                let last_line = last_line.unwrap_or(0);
+                let first_col = first_col.unwrap_or(0);
+                let last_col = last_col.unwrap_or(0);
+
+                let dest_width = 1 + last_col - first_col;
+                let dest_height = 1 + last_line - first_line;
+
+                let size = (dest_width * dest_height * 4) as usize;
+                let mut rgba = Vec::with_capacity(size);
+                rgba.resize(size, 0u8);
+
+                for y in first_line..=last_line {
+                    let src_offset = y * pitch as usize;
+                    let dest_offset = (y - first_line) * dest_width * 4;
+                    for x in first_col..=last_col {
                         let blue = data[src_offset + (x * 4)];
                         let green = data[src_offset + (x * 4) + 1];
                         let red = data[src_offset + (x * 4) + 2];
                         let alpha = data[src_offset + (x * 4) + 3];
 
-                        rgba[dest_offset + (x * 4)] = red;
-                        rgba[dest_offset + (x * 4) + 1] = green;
-                        rgba[dest_offset + (x * 4) + 2] = blue;
-                        rgba[dest_offset + (x * 4) + 3] = alpha;
+                        let dest_x = x - first_col;
+
+                        rgba[dest_offset + (dest_x * 4)] = red;
+                        rgba[dest_offset + (dest_x * 4) + 1] = green;
+                        rgba[dest_offset + (dest_x * 4) + 2] = blue;
+                        rgba[dest_offset + (dest_x * 4) + 3] = alpha;
                     }
                 }
                 RasterizedGlyph {
                     data: rgba,
-                    height,
-                    width,
-                    bearing_x: ft_glyph.bitmap_left,
-                    bearing_y: ft_glyph.bitmap_top,
+                    height: dest_height,
+                    width: dest_width,
+                    bearing_x: (ft_glyph.bitmap_left as f64 * (dest_width as f64 / width as f64))
+                        as i32,
+                    bearing_y: (ft_glyph.bitmap_top as f64 * (dest_height as f64 / height as f64))
+                        as i32,
                 }
             }
             ftwrap::FT_Pixel_Mode::FT_PIXEL_MODE_GRAY => {
diff --git a/src/opengl/render.rs b/src/opengl/render.rs
index a40e708af..b14a44429 100644
--- a/src/opengl/render.rs
+++ b/src/opengl/render.rs
@@ -441,7 +441,7 @@ impl Renderer {
 
     /// Perform the load and render of a glyph
     fn load_glyph(&self, info: &GlyphInfo, style: &TextStyle) -> Result<Rc<CachedGlyph>, Error> {
-        let (has_color, glyph, cell_width, cell_height) = {
+        let (has_color, glyph, cell_width, _cell_height) = {
             let font = self.fonts.cached_font(style)?;
             let mut font = font.borrow_mut();
             let metrics = font.get_fallback(0)?.metrics();
@@ -451,13 +451,14 @@ impl Renderer {
             (has_color, glyph, metrics.cell_width, metrics.cell_height)
         };
 
-        let scale = if (info.x_advance / f64::from(info.num_cells)).floor() > cell_width {
-            f64::from(info.num_cells) * (cell_width / info.x_advance)
-        } else if glyph.height as f64 > cell_height {
-            cell_height / glyph.height as f64
+        let effective_width = f64::from(info.num_cells) * cell_width;
+
+        let scale = if glyph.width as f64 > effective_width {
+            effective_width / glyph.width as f64
         } else {
             1.0f64
         };
+
         #[cfg_attr(feature = "cargo-clippy", allow(float_cmp))]
         let (x_offset, y_offset) = if scale != 1.0 {
             (info.x_offset * scale, info.y_offset * scale)