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.

Wingdings

Wingdings

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

Wingdings is a TrueType dingbat font included in all versions of Microsoft Windows from version 3.1 onwards^[2].

The Wingdings trademark is owned by Microsoft^[2], and the design and glyph order was awarded US Design Patent D341848 in 1993^[3][4]. 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 and the symbols of the zodiac. The font is not mapped to Unicode, although many of its symbols are available in that system^[5].

Mosaic of Wingdings characters

Wingdings 2

Wingdings 2

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

Wingdings 2 is a TrueType font distributed, for example, with Microsoft Office^[6]. The font was developed in 1990 by Type Solutions, Inc. Now the copyright holder is Microsoft Corp. Among the features of Wingdings 2 include 16 forms of the index, Enclosed Alphanumerics from 0 to 10, multiple forms of ampersand and interrobang, several geometric shapes and an asterism. The font is not mapped to Unicode.

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 and some other Microsoft products^[7].

The font was originally developed in 1990 by Type Solutions, Inc. Currently, the copyright holder is Microsoft Corporation. Wingdings 3 consists entirely of arrow variations.

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" in Wingdings was rendered as a skull and crossbones symbol, Star of David, and thumbs up gesture. This was often interpreted as an antisemitic message.^[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]

Hoax

The 'Q33 NY' symbols typed out in Wingdings

After September 11th, 2001, an email was sent around 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 towers, followed by the skull and crossbones symbol and the Star of David. However, this email was a hoax, as none of the planes involved in the attacks had the flight number 'Q33 NY'. (Indeed, the email itself contradicts itself, saying at one point 'The first plane crashing against the Twin Towers was flight number 11' and then 'Type in capitals Q33 NY. This is the flight number of the first plane to hit one of the Twin Towers'.) Other rumours that 'Q33 NY' was the tail or registration of one of the planes were also proved untrue.

See also

• Dingbat
• Zapf Dingbats
• Webdings
• Unicode symbols

References

1. ^ Notes on Lucida designs(by Charles Bigelow, November 2005)
2. ^ ^{a b} Fonts supplied with Windows 3.1
3. ^ Typeface - Google Patent Search
4. ^ United States Patent: D341848
5. ^ Wingdings character set and equivalent Unicode characters
6. ^ Wingdings 2 - Version 1.55
7. ^ Wingdings 3 - Version 1.55
8. ^ Does Microsoft's Wingdings font includes hidden anti-Semitic and 9/11-referential messages?
9. ^ MS Denies Wingding Thing, Again|Wired Magazine

External links

• Wingdings font family information: Wingdings, (Microsoft typography)
• Font Chart for Wingdings and Webdings
• Mikkelson, Barbara & David P. "Wingdings: Does the Wingdings font contain hidden anti-Semitic codes?" at Snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages.
• Wingdings character set and equivalent Unicode characters (Alan Wood's Unicode Resources)
• Glasner, Joanna. "MS Denies Wingding Thing, Again", Wired News. September 22, 2001. Retrieved February 9, 2006.
• Mikkelson, Barbara and David P. Snopes Urban Legends: "September 11: Wingdings", Snopes.com. December 11, 2005. Retrieved February 9, 2006.
• Christensen, Brett M. Q33 NY Wingdings Hoax - Elevens and the Wrath of the Eagle, Hoax Slayer. December 2005. Retrieved May 8, 2011.