Webdings

Webdings
Category Symbol
Designer(s) Vincent Connare
Sue Lightfoot
Ian Patterson
Geraldine Wade
Foundry Microsoft
Sample

Webdings is a TrueType dingbat typeface developed in 1997. It was initially distributed with Internet Explorer 4.0, then as part of Core fonts for the Web, and is included in all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows 98. All of the Webding glyphs that are not unifiable with existing Unicode characters were added to the Unicode Standard when version 7.0 was released in June 2014.[1]

Symbol Types

There are some "categories" of symbols in Webdings; groups of similar symbols. Symbol trends like this in the font include weather icons, land with different structures built on top, vehicles and ICT. Symbols which are the Webdings equivalent of characters not available on an English keyboard also exist in the font (for example, the dove and Earth symbols).

An unusual character in the font was the "man in business suit levitating," a humanized exclamation point. According to Vincent Connare, who design the font, the character was intended as a nod to the logo of the British ska record label 2 Tone Records.[2] Connare also designed the lightning bolt symbol to resemble the one on the cover of the David Bowie album Aladdin Sane.[2]

Following the controversy over possible anti-Semetic messages in the Wingdings font, Connare intentionally rendered the Webdings character sequence "NYC" as an eye, a heart, and a city skyline, referring to the I Love New York logo.[3][2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Unicode 7.0.0". Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 2014-06-27.
  2. 1 2 3 Veix, Joe (30 March 2016). "The secret history of the 'Man in Business Suit Levitating' emoji". Newsweek. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  3. ↑ MS Denies Wingding Thing, Again|Wired Magazine


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