- Zapf Dingbats
Zapf Dingbats is one of the more common
dingbat typeface s. It was designed by thetypographer Hermann Zapf in 1978 and licensed by International Typeface Corporation.In 1977, Hermann Zapf created about 1000 (or over 1200 according to Linotype) sketches of signs and symbols. ITC chose from those a subset of 360 symbols, ornaments and typographic elements based on the original designs, which became known around the world as Zapf Dingbats.
The font first gained wide distribution when ITC Zapf Dingbats, which consists of the subset chosen by ITC, became one of 35 PostScript fonts built into Apple's LaserWriter Plus.
The ITC glyph set is included in
Unicode and it is one of the "Basic 14" typefaces guaranteed to be available forPDF files.ZapfDingbats, PostScript version of ITC Zapf Dingbats, is distributed with Acrobat Reader 5 and 5.1.
Zapf Essentials
This is an update to the Zapf Dingbats family, with consists of 6 symbol-encoded fonts categorized in Arrows One (black arrows), Arrows Two (white arrows, patterned arrows), Communication (pointing fingers, communication devices), Markers (squares, triangles, circles, ticks, hearts, crosses, check marks, leafs), Office (pen, clock, currency, scissors, hand), Ornaments (flowers, stars), for a total of 372 glyphs. However, not all ITC Zapf Dingbats glyphs are included in the Zapf Essentials collections (eg: airplane, letter).
Usages
David Carson, radical editor of experimental music magazine "Ray Gun", lent the font a degree of notoriety in 1994 when he printed an interview with
Bryan Ferry in the magazine entirely in the symbols-only font – the double-page spread was of course, quite illegible and would have to be interpreted like acryptogram for those unfamiliar with the font.External links
* [http://www.linotype.com/en/852/itczapfdingbats-family.html ITC Zapf Dingbats Font Family - by Hermann Zapf]
* [http://www.linotype.com/en/1460/linotypezapfessentials.html Linotype Zapf Essentials]
* [http://www.linotype.com/en/1769/zapfessentials-family.html Zapf Essentials Font Family - by Hermann Zapf]
* [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2700.pdf Official Unicode Zapf Dingbat code chart] (Unicode.org, PDF format)
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