Wingdings

Wingdings are a series of dingbat fonts which render letters as a variety of symbols. They were originally developed in 1990 by Microsoft by combining glyphs from Lucida Icons, Arrows, and Stars licensed from Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes.^[1] Certain versions of the font's copyright string include an attribution to Type Solutions, Inc., the maker of a tool used to hint the font.

None of the characters were mapped to Unicode at the time; however, Unicode approved the addition of many symbols in the Wingdings and Webdings fonts in Unicode 7.0.^[2][3]

Wingdings

Wingdings

Category	Symbol
Designer(s)	Charles Bigelow Kris Holmes
Foundry	Bigelow and Holmes, Microsoft Corp.
Date released	1990
Sample

Wingdings is a TrueType dingbat font included in all versions of Microsoft Windows from version 3.1^[4] until Windows Vista/Server 2008, and also in a number of application packages of that era.^[5]

The Wingdings trademark is owned by Microsoft,^[4] and the design and glyph order was awarded U.S. Design Patent D341848 in 1993.^[6][7] The patent expired in 2005. In many other countries, a Design Patent would be called a registered design. It is registration of a design to deter imitation, rather than a claim of a novel invention.

This font contains many largely recognized shapes and gestures as well as some recognized world symbols, such as the Star of David, the symbols of the zodiac, index or manicule signs, hand gestures, and obscure ampersands.

Mosaic of Wingdings characters

Character set

  Letter   Number   Punctuation   Symbol   Other   undefined

Wingdings

	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F
0_	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
1_	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31
2_	SP 0020 32	🖉 1F589 33	✂ 2702 34	✁ 2701 35	👓 1F453 36	🕭 1F56D 37	🕮 1F56E 38	🕯 1F56F 39	🕿 1F57F 40	✆ 2706 41	🖂 1F582 42	🖃 1F583 43	📪 1F4EA 44	📫 1F4EB 45	📬 1F4EC 46	📭 1F4ED 47
3_	🗀 1F5C0 48	🗁 1F5C1 49	🗎 1F5CE 50	🗏 1F5CF 51	🗐 1F5D0 52	🗄 1F5C4 53	⌛ 23F3 54	🖮 1F5AE 55	🖰 1F5B0 56	🖲 1F5B2 57	🖳 1F5B3 58	🖴 1F5B4 59	🖪 1F5AB 60	🖫 1F5AC 61	✇ 2707 62	✍ 270D 63
4_	🖎 1F58E 64	✌ 270C 65	🖏 1F58F 66	👍 1F44D 67	👎 1F44E 68	☜ 261C 69	☞ 261E 70	☝ 261C 71	🖗 1F597 72	🖐 1F590 73	☺ 263A 74	😐 1F610 75	☹ 2639 76	💣 1F4A3 77	🕱 1F571 78	🏳 1F3F3 79
5_	🏱 1F3F1 80	✈ 2708 81	☼ 263C 82	🌢 1F322 83	❄ 2744 84	🕆 1F546 85	✞ 271E 86	🕈 1F548 87	✠ 2720 88	✡ 2721 89	☪ 262A 90	☯ 262F 91	🕉 1F549 92	☸ 2638 93	♈ 2648 94	♉ 2649 95
6_	♊ 264A 96	♋ 264B 97	♌ 264C 98	♍ 264D 99	♎ 264E 100	♏ 264F 101	♐ 2650 102	♑ 2651 103	♒ 2652 104	♓ 2653 105	🙰 1F670 106	🙵 1F675 107	⚫ 26AB 108	🔾 1F53E 109	◾ 25FC 110	🞏 1F78F 111
7_	🞐 1F790 112	❑ 2751 113	❒ 2752 114	🞟 1F79F 115	⧫ 29EB 116	◆ 25C6 117	❖ 2756 118	🞙 1F799 119	⌧ 2327 120	⮹ 2BB9 121	⌘ 2318 122	🏵 1F3F5 123	🏶 1F3F6 124	🙶 1F676 125	🙷 1F677 126	127
8_	🄋 1F10B 128	➀ 2780 129	➁ 2781 130	➂ 2782 131	➃ 2783 132	➄ 2784 133	➅ 2785 134	➆ 2786 135	➇ 2787 136	➈ 2788 137	➉ 2789 138	🄌 1F10C 139	➊ 278A 140	➋ 278B 141	➌ 278C 142	➍ 278D 143
9_	➎ 278E 144	➏ 278F 145	➐ 2790 146	➑ 2791 147	➒ 2792 148	➓ 2793 149	🙢 1F662 150	🙠 1F660 151	🙡 1F661 152	🙣 1F663 153	🙦 1F666 154	🙤 1F664 155	🙥 1F665 156	🙧 1F667 157	∙ 2219 158	• 2022 159
A_	⬝ 2B1D 160	⭘ 2B58 161	🞆 1F786 162	🞈 1F788 163	🞊 1F78A 164	🞋 1F78B 165	🔿 1F53F 166	▪ 25AA 167	🞎 1F78E 168	🟁 1F7C0 169	🟅 1F7C1 170	★ 2605 171	🟋 1F7CB 172	🟏 1F7CF 173	🟓 1F7D3 174	🟑 1F7D1 175
B_	⯐ 2BD0 176	⌖ 2316 177	⯎ 2BCE 178	⯏ 2BCF 179	⯑ 2BD1 180	✪ 272A 181	✰ 2730 182	🕐 1F550 183	🕑 1F551 184	🕒 1F552 185	🕓 1F553 186	🕔 1F554 187	🕕 1F555 188	🕖 1F556 189	🕗 1F557 190	🕘 1F558 191
C_	🕙 1F559 192	🕚 1F55A 193	🕛 1F55B 194	⮰ 2BB0 195	⮱ 2BB1 196	⮲ 2BB2 197	⮳ 2BB3 198	⮴ 2BB4 199	⮵ 2BB5 200	⮶ 2BB6 201	⮷ 2BB7 202	🙪 1F66A 203	🙫 1F66B 204	🙕 1F655 205	🙔 1F654 206	🙗 1F657 207
D_	🙖 1F656 208	🙐 1F650 209	🙑 1F651 210	🙒 1F652 211	🙓 1F653 212	⌫ 232B 213	⌦ 2326 214	⮘ 2B98 215	⮚ 2B9A 216	⮙ 2B99 217	⮛ 2B9B 218	⮈ 2B88 219	⮊ 2B8A 220	⮉ 2B89 221	⮋ 2B8B 222	🡨 1F868 223
E_	🡪 1F86A 224	🡩 1F869 225	🡫 1F86B 226	🡬 1F86C 227	🡭 1F86D 228	🡯 1F86F 229	🡮 1F86E 230	🡸 1F878 231	🡺 1F87A 232	🡹 1F879 233	🡻 1F87B 234	🡼 1F87C 235	🡽 1F87D 236	🡿 1F87F 237	🡾 1F87E 238	⇦ 21E6 239
F_	⇨ 21E8 240	⇧ 21E7 241	⇩ 21E9 242	⬄ 2B04 243	⇳ 21F3 244	⬁ 2B01 245	⬀ 2B00 246	⬃ 2B03 247	⬂ 2B02 248	🢬 1F8AC 249	🢭 1F8AD 250	🗶 1F5F6 251	✓ 2713 252	🗷 1F5F7 253	🗹 1F5F9 254	—[lower-alpha 1] 255
	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F

1. ↑ The character 255 (FF) represents the Windows icon, which as a corporate logo has no Unicode point.

Wingdings 2

Wingdings 2

Category	Dingbat
Designer(s)	Charles Bigelow Kris Holmes
Foundry	Type Solutions
Sample

Wingdings 2 is a TrueType font distributed with a variety of Microsoft applications, including Microsoft Office up to version 2010.^[5] The font was developed in 1990 by Type Solutions, Inc. The current copyright holder is Microsoft Corporation. Among the features of Wingdings 2 are 16 forms of the index, Enclosed alphanumerics from 0 to 10, multiple forms of ampersand and interrobang, several geometric shapes and an asterism.

Mosaic of Wingdings 2 characters

Wingdings 3

Wingdings 3

Category	Symbol
Designer(s)	Charles Bigelow Kris Holmes
Foundry	Type Solutions
Sample

Wingdings 3 is a TrueType dingbat font distributed with Microsoft Office (up to version 2010) and some other Microsoft products.^[5]

The font was originally developed in 1990 by Type Solutions, Inc. Currently, the copyright holder is Microsoft Corporation. Wingdings 3 consists almost entirely of arrow variations and includes many symbols for key tops as defined in ISO/IEC 9995-7.

Mosaic of Wingdings 3 characters

Controversy

The "NYC" symbols typed out in Wingdings

In 1992, only days after the release of Windows 3.1, it was discovered that the character sequence "NYC" (a frequently used abbreviation for New York City) in Wingdings was rendered as a skull and crossbones symbol, Star of David, and thumbs up gesture. This was often claimed to be an antisemitic message referencing New York's large Jewish community.^[8] Microsoft strongly denied this was intentional, and insisted that the final arrangement of the glyphs in the font was largely random. (The character sequence "NYC" in the later-released Webdings font, in turn, was intentionally rendered as eye, heart, and city skyline, referring to the I Love New York logo.^[9])

9/11 attacks

The "Q33 NY" symbols typed out in Wingdings

After September 11, 2001, an email was circulated claiming that entering "Q33 NY", which it claims is the flight number of the first plane to hit the Twin Towers, in Wingdings would bring up a character sequence of a plane flying into two abstract symbols which may be interpreted as skyscrapers, followed by the skull and crossbones symbol and the Star of David (✈︎🗏︎🗏︎ ☠︎✡︎).^[8] This is a hoax; the flight numbers of the two airplanes that hit the towers were American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175; the tail numbers were N334AA and N612UA.^[10]

See also

• Dingbat
• Zapf Dingbats
• Webdings
• Unicode symbols
• Zodiac symbols

References