Dingbat: History
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In typography, a dingbat (sometimes more formally known as a printer's ornament or printer's character) is an ornament, specifically, a glyph used in typesetting, often employed to create box frames, (similar to box-drawing characters) or as a dinkus (section divider). Some of the dingbat symbols have been used as signature marks, used in bookbinding to order sections. In the computer industry, a Dingbat font was a computer font that has symbols and shapes that reused the code points designated for alphabetical or numeric characters. This practice was necessitated by the limited number of code points available in 20th century operating systems. Most modern fonts are based on Unicode, which has unique code points for dingbat glyphs.

  • typography
  • glyph
  • unicode

1. Examples

Examples of characters included in Unicode (ITC Zapf Dingbats series 100 and others):

 
 

2. Encoding

Unicode provides code points (unique binary code) for many commonly used dingbats, as listed below. Prior to widespread adoption of Unicode in the early 2010s, "Dingbat fonts" were created that allocated dingbat glyphs to codepoints in code positions otherwise allocated to 'normal' character sets.

The Dingbats block (U+2700–U+27BF) (under the original block name "Zapf Dingbats") was added to the Unicode Standard in October 1991, with the release of version 1.0. This code block contains decorative character variants, and other marks of emphasis and non-textual symbolism. Most of its characters were taken from Zapf Dingbats. The block name was changed from "Zapf Dingbats" to Dingbats in June 1993, with the release of 1.1.[1][2]

2.1. Emoji

The Dingbats block contains 33 emoji: U+2702, U+2705, U+2708–U+270D, U+270F, U+2712, U+2714, U+2716, U+271D, U+2721, U+2728, U+2733–U+2734, U+2744, U+2747, U+274C, U+274E, U+2753–U+2755, U+2757, U+2763–U+2764, U+2795–U+2797, U+27A1, U+27B0 and U+27BF.[3][4]

The block has 40 standardized variants defined to specify emoji-style (U+FE0F VS16) or text presentation (U+FE0E VS15) for the following twenty base characters: U+2702, U+2708–U+2709, U+270C–U+270D, U+270F, U+2712, U+2714, U+2716, U+271D, U+2721, U+2733–U+2734, U+2744, U+2747, U+2753, U+2757, U+2763–U+2764 and U+27A1.[5]

Emoji variation sequences
U+ 2702 2708 2709 270C 270D 270F 2712 2714 2716 271D
default presentation text text text text text[6] text text text text text
base code point
base+VS15 (text) ✂︎ ✈︎ ✉︎ ✌︎ ✍︎ ✏︎ ✒︎ ✔︎ ✖︎ ✝︎
base+VS16 (emoji) ✂️ ✈️ ✉️ ✌️ ✍️ ✏️ ✒️ ✔️ ✖️ ✝️
 
U+ 2721 2733 2734 2744 2747 2753 2757 2763 2764 27A1
default presentation text text text text text emoji emoji text text text
base code point
base+VS15 (text) ✡︎ ✳︎ ✴︎ ❄︎ ❇︎ ❓︎ ❗︎ ❣︎ ❤︎ ➡︎
base+VS16 (emoji) ✡️ ✳️ ✴️ ❄️ ❇️ ❓️ ❗️ ❣️ ❤️ ➡️

Emoji modifiers

The Dingbats block has four emoji that represent hands. They can be modified using U+1F3FB–U+1F3FF to provide for a range of human skin color using the Fitzpatrick scale:[4]

Human emoji
U+ 270A 270B 270C 270D
emoji ✌️ ✍️
FITZ-1-2 ✊🏻 ✋🏻 ✌️🏻 ✍️🏻
FITZ-3 ✊🏼 ✋🏼 ✌️🏼 ✍️🏼
FITZ-4 ✊🏽 ✋🏽 ✌️🏽 ✍️🏽
FITZ-5 ✊🏾 ✋🏾 ✌️🏾 ✍️🏾
FITZ-6 ✊🏿 ✋🏿 ✌️🏿 ✍️🏿

Additional human emoji can be found in other Unicode blocks: Emoticons, Miscellaneous Symbols, Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs, Supplemental Symbols and Pictographs, Symbols and Pictographs Extended-A, and Transport and Map Symbols.

2.2. History

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Dingbats block:

Version Final code points[7] Count L2 ID WG2 ID Document
1.0.0 U+2701..2704, 2706..2709, 270C..2727, 2729..274B, 274D, 274F..2752, 2756, 2758..275E, 2761..2767, 2776..2794, 2798..27AF, 27B1..27BE 160     (to be determined)
L2/11-438[8][9] N4182 Edberg, Peter (2011-12-22), Emoji Variation Sequences (Revision of L2/11-429) 
L2/15-301[9][10]   Pournader, Roozbeh (2015-11-01), A proposal for 278 standardized variation sequences for emoji 
L2/19-377R   Daniel, Jennifer (2020-01-14), Multi-skintone Couples with Heart and Couples Kissing, Emoji ZWJ Sequences for Unicode 14.0 [Affects U+2764] 
L2/20-015R   Moore, Lisa (2020-05-14), Draft Minutes of UTC Meeting 162, "Accept 200 provisional emoji candidates" 
3.2 U+2768..2775 14 L2/00-420   Patel, Sairus (2000-11-21), Proposal for additional 14 Dingbats 
L2/00-436   Patel, Sairus (2000-12-18), Proposal to complete the Dingbats block in Unicode/ISO-IEC 10646 
L2/01-087 N2321 Patel, Sairus (2001-01-31), Proposal to complete the Dingbats block in Unicode/ISO-IEC 10646 
L2/01-012R   Moore, Lisa (2001-05-21), Minutes UTC #86 in Mountain View, Jan 2001 
L2/01-344 N2353 (pdf, doc) Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2001-09-09), Minutes from SC2/WG2 meeting #40 -- Mountain View, April 2001 
5.2 U+2757 1   N3353 (pdf, doc) Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2007-10-10), Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 51 Hanzhou, China; 2007-04-24/27 
L2/07-259   Suignard, Michel (2007-08-02), Japanese TV Symbols 
L2/07-391 N3341 Suignard, Michel (2007-09-18), Japanese TV Symbols 
L2/08-077R2 N3397 Suignard, Michel (2008-03-11), Japanese TV symbols 
L2/08-128   Iancu, Laurențiu (2008-03-22), Names and allocation of some Japanese TV symbols from N3397 
L2/08-158   Pentzlin, Karl (2008-04-16), Comments on L2/08-077R2 "Japanese TV Symbols" 
L2/08-188 N3468 Sekiguchi, Masahiro (2008-04-22), Collected comments on Japanese TV Symbols (WG2 N3397) 
L2/08-077R3 N3469 Suignard, Michel (2008-04-23), Japanese TV symbols 
L2/08-215   Pentzlin, Karl (2008-05-07), Comments on L2/08-077R2 "Japanese TV Symbols" 
L2/08-289   Pentzlin, Karl (2008-08-05), Proposal to rename and reassign some Japanese TV Symbols from L2/08-077R3 
L2/08-292   Stötzner, Andreas (2008-08-06), Improvement suggestions for n3469 
L2/08-307   Scherer, Markus (2008-08-08), Feedback on the Japanese TV Symbols Proposal (L2/08-077R3) 
L2/08-318 N3453 (pdf, doc) Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2008-08-13), Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 52 
L2/08-161R2   Moore, Lisa (2008-11-05), UTC #115 Minutes, "Approve 186 Japanese TV symbols for encoding in a future version of the standard." 
L2/09-064   Scherer, Markus (2009-01-29), Request to change some ARIB/AMD6 character names and a code point 
L2/09-234 N3603 (pdf, doc) Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2009-07-08), Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 54 
L2/11-438[8][9] N4182 Edberg, Peter (2011-12-22), Emoji Variation Sequences (Revision of L2/11-429) 
6.0 U+2705, 270A..270B, 2728, 274C, 274E, 2753..2755, 2795..2797, 27B0, 27BF[9] 14 L2/09-025R2 N3582[11] Scherer, Markus; Davis, Mark; Momoi, Kat; Tong, Darick; Kida, Yasuo; Edberg, Peter (2009-03-05), Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols 
L2/09-026R N3583 Scherer, Markus; Davis, Mark; Momoi, Kat; Tong, Darick; Kida, Yasuo; Edberg, Peter (2009-02-06), Emoji Symbols Proposed for New Encoding 
L2/09-027R2 N3681 Scherer, Markus (2009-09-17), Emoji Symbols: Background Data 
L2/09-114 N3607 Towards an encoding of symbol characters used as emoji, 2009-04-06 
L2/09-412 N3722 Suignard, Michel (2009-10-26), Disposition of comments on SC2 N 4078 (PDAM text for Amendment 8 to ISO/IEC 10646:2003) 
  N3703 (pdf, doc) Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2010-04-13), Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting no. 55, Tokyo 2009-10-26/30 
L2/09-335R   Moore, Lisa (2009-11-10), UTC #121 / L2 #218 Minutes 
L2/10-088 N3776 DoCoMo Input on Emoji, 2010-03-08 
L2/10-089 N3777 KDDI Input on Emoji, 2010-03-08 
L2/10-137 N3828 Suignard, Michel (2010-04-22), Disposition of comments on SC2 N 4123 (FPDAM text for Amendment 8 to ISO/IEC 10646:2003) 
L2/10-132   Scherer, Markus; Davis, Mark; Momoi, Kat; Tong, Darick; Kida, Yasuo; Edberg, Peter (2010-04-27), Emoji Symbols: Background Data 
L2/10-138 N3829 Constable, Peter (2010-04-27), Emoji Ad-Hoc Meeting Report 
L2/16-361   Pournader, Roozbeh; Felt, Doug (2016-11-07), Add text and emoji standardized variation sequences for 96 symbols 
U+275F..2760 2 L2/09-021 N3565 Proposal to encode two heavy low quotes for German in the UCS Dingbats block, 2009-01-15 
L2/09-003R   Moore, Lisa (2009-02-12), UTC #118 / L2 #215 Minutes 
L2/09-234 N3603 (pdf, doc) Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2009-07-08), Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 54 
7.0 U+2700 1 L2/11-052R   Suignard, Michel (2011-02-15), Wingdings and Webdings symbols - Preliminary study 
L2/11-149   Suignard, Michel (2011-05-09), Proposal to add Wingdings and Webdings symbols 
L2/11-196 N4022 Suignard, Michel (2011-05-21), Revised Wingdings proposal 
L2/11-247 N4115 Suignard, Michel (2011-06-08), Proposal to add Wingdings and Webdings Symbols 
L2/11-344 N4143 Suignard, Michel (2011-09-28), Updated proposal to add Wingdings and Webdings Symbols 
  N4103 Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 58, 2012-01-03 
L2/12-130 N4239 Suignard, Michel (2012-05-08), Disposition of comments on SC2 N 4201 (PDAM text for Amendment 1.2 to ISO/IEC 10646 3rd edition) 
  N4363 Suignard, Michel (2012-10-13), Status of encoding of Wingdings and Webdings Symbols 
L2/12-368 N4384 Suignard, Michel (2012-11-06), Status of encoding of Wingdings and Webdings Symbols 
L2/12-086 N4223 Requests regarding the Wingdings/Webdings characters in ISO/IEC 10646 PDAM 1.2, 2012-12-27 
  1. Proposed code points and characters names may differ from final code points and names
  2. 2.0 2.1 See also L2/10-458, L2/11-414, L2/11-415, and L2/11-429
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Refer to the history section of the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block for additional emoji-related documents
  4. See also L2/15-198 and L2/15-275
  5. Japanese translation of N3582 is available as N3621

3. Ornamental Dingbats Unicode Block

The Ornamental Dingbats block (U+1F650–U+1F67F) was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0. This code block contains ornamental leaves, punctuation, and ampersands, quilt squares, and checkerboard patterns. It is a subset of dingbat fonts Webdings, Wingdings, and Wingdings 2.[12]

4. Character Table

Code Result Description
U+2700 Black safety scissors
U+2701 Upper blade scissors
U+2702 Black scissors
U+2703 Lower blade scissors
U+2704 White scissors
U+2705 White heavy check mark
U+2706 Telephone location sign
U+2707 Tape drive
U+2708 Airplane
U+2709 Envelope
U+270A Raised fist
U+270B Raised hand
U+270C Victory hand
U+270D Writing hand
U+270E Lower right pencil
U+270F Pencil
U+2710 Upper right pencil
U+2711 White nib
U+2712 Black nib
U+2713 Check mark
U+2714 Heavy check mark
U+2715 Multiplication X
U+2716 Heavy multiplication X
U+2717 Ballot X
U+2718 Heavy ballot X
U+2719 Outlined Greek cross
U+271A Heavy Greek cross
U+271B Open center cross
U+271C Heavy open center cross
U+271D Latin cross
U+271E Shadowed white Latin cross
U+271F Outlined Latin cross
U+2720 Maltese cross
U+2721 Star of David
U+2722 Four teardrop-spoked asterisk
U+2723 Four balloon-spoked asterisk
U+2724 Heavy four balloon-spoked asterisk
U+2725 Four club-spoked asterisk
U+2726 Black four-pointed star
U+2727 White four-pointed star
U+2728 Sparkles
U+2729 Stress outlined white star
U+272A Circled white star
U+272B Open center black star
U+272C Black center white star
U+272D Outlined black star
U+272E Heavy outlined black star
U+272F Pinwheel star
U+2730 Shadowed white star
U+2731 Heavy asterisk
U+2732 Open center asterisk
U+2733 Eight spoked asterisk
U+2734 Eight pointed black star
U+2735 Eight pointed pinwheel star
U+2736 Six pointed black star
U+2737 Eight pointed rectilinear black star
U+2738 Heavy eight pointed rectilinear black star
U+2739 Twelve pointed black star
U+273A Sixteen pointed asterisk
U+273B Teardrop spoked asterisk
U+273C Open center teardrop spoked asterisk
U+273D Heavy teardrop spoked asterisk
U+273E Six petalled black and white florette
U+273F Black florette
U+2740 White florette
U+2741 Eight petalled outlined black florette
U+2742 Circled open center eight pointed star
U+2743 Heavy teardrop spoked pinwheel asterisk
U+2744 Snowflake
U+2745 Tight trifoliate snowflake
U+2746 Heavy chevron snowflake
U+2747 Sparkle
U+2748 Heavy sparkle
U+2749 Balloon spoked asterisk
U+274A Eight teardrop spoked propeller asterisk
U+274B Heavy eight teardrop spoked propeller asterisk
U+274C Cross mark
U+274D Shadowed white circle
U+274E Negative squared cross mark
U+274F Lower right drop-shadowed white square
U+2750 Upper right drop-shadowed white square
U+2751 Lower right shadowed white square
U+2752 Upper right shadowed white square
U+2753 Black question mark ornament
U+2754 White question mark ornament
U+2755 White exclamation mark ornament
U+2756 Black diamond minus white X
U+2757 Heavy exclamation mark symbol
U+2758 Light vertical bar
U+2759 Medium vertical bar
U+275A Heavy vertical bar
U+275B Heavy single turned comma quotation mark ornament
U+275C Heavy single comma quotation mark ornament
U+275D Heavy double turned comma quotation mark ornament
U+275E Heavy double comma quotation mark ornament
U+275F Heavy low single comma quotation mark ornament
U+2760 Heavy low double comma quotation mark ornament
U+2761 Curved stem paragraph sign ornament
U+2762 Heavy exclamation mark ornament
U+2763 Heavy heart exclamation mark ornament
U+2764 Heavy black heart
U+2765 Rotated heavy black heart bullet
U+2766 Floral heart
U+2767 Rotated floral heart bullet
U+2768 Medium left parenthesis ornament
U+2769 Medium right parenthesis ornament
U+276A Medium flattened left parenthesis ornament
U+276B Medium flattened right parenthesis ornament
U+276C Medium left-pointing angle bracket ornament
U+276D Medium right-pointing angle bracket ornament
U+276E Heavy left-pointing angle quotation mark ornament
U+276F Heavy right-pointing angle quotation mark ornament
U+2770 Heavy left-pointing angle bracket ornament
U+2771 Heavy right-pointing angle bracket ornament
U+2772 Light left tortoise shell bracket ornament
U+2773 Light right tortoise shell bracket ornament
U+2774 Medium left curly bracket ornament
U+2775 Medium left curly bracket ornament
U+2776 Dingbat negative circled digit one
U+2777 Dingbat negative circled digit two
U+2778 Dingbat negative circled digit three
U+2779 Dingbat negative circled digit four
U+277A Dingbat negative circled digit five
U+277B Dingbat negative circled digit six
U+277C Dingbat negative circled digit seven
U+277D Dingbat negative circled digit eight
U+277E Dingbat negative circled digit nine
U+277F Dingbat negative circled digit ten
U+2780 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit one
U+2781 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit two
U+2782 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit three
U+2783 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit four
U+2784 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit five
U+2785 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit six
U+2786 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit seven
U+2787 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit eight
U+2788 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit nine
U+2789 Dingbat circled sans-serif digit ten
U+278A Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit one
U+278B Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit two
U+278C Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit three
U+278D Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit four
U+278E Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit five
U+278F Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit six
U+2790 Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit seven
U+2791 Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit eight
U+2792 Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit nine
U+2793 Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit ten
U+2794 Heavy wide-headed rightward arrow
U+2795 Heavy plus sign
U+2796 Heavy minus sign
U+2797 Heavy division sign
U+2798 Heavy south east arrow
U+2799 Heavy rightward arrow
U+279A Heavy north east arrow
U+279B Drafting point rightward arrow
U+279C Heavy round-tipped rightward arrow
U+279D Triangle-headed rightward arrow
U+279E Heavy triangle-headed rightward arrow
U+279F Dashed triangle-headed rightward arrow
U+27A0 Heavy dashed triangle-headed rightward arrow
U+27A1 Black rightward arrow
U+27A2 Three-D top-lighted rightward arrowhead
U+27A3 Three-D bottom-lighted rightward arrowhead
U+27A4 Black rightward arrowhead
U+27A5 Heavy black curved downward and rightward arrow
U+27A6 Heavy black curved upward and rightward arrow
U+27A7 Squat black rightward arrow
U+27A8 Heavy concave-pointed black rightward arrow
U+27A9 Right-shaded white rightward arrow
U+27AA Left-shaded white rightward arrow
U+27AB Back-tilted shadowed white rightward arrow
U+27AC Front-tilted shadowed white rightward arrow
U+27AD Heavy lower right-shadowed white rightward arrow
U+27AE Heavy upper right-shadowed white rightward arrow
U+27AF Notched lower right-shadowed white rightward arrow
U+27B0 Curly loop
U+27B1 Notched upper right-shadowed white rightward arrow
U+27B2 Circled heavy white rightward arrow
U+27B3 White-feathered rightward arrow
U+27B4 Black-feathered south east arrow
U+27B5 Black-feathered rightward arrow
U+27B6 Black-feathered north east arrow
U+27B7 Heavy black-feathered south east arrow
U+27B8 Heavy black-feathered rightward arrow
U+27B9 Heavy black-feathered north east arrow
U+27BA Teardrop-barbed rightward arrow
U+27BB Heavy teardrop-shanked rightward arrow
U+27BC Wedge-tailed rightward arrow
U+27BD Heavy wedge-tailed rightward arrow
U+27BE Open-outlined rightward arrow
U+27BF Double curly loop

5. Dingbat Fonts

  • Webdings, a TrueType dingbat font designed at Microsoft and published in 1997
  • Wingdings, a TrueType dingbat font assembled by Microsoft in 1990, using glyphs from Lucida Arrows, Lucida Icons, and Lucida Stars, three fonts they licensed from Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes
  • Zapf Dingbats, a dingbat font designed by Hermann Zapf in 1978, and licensed by International Typeface Corporation

The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Dingbat

References

  1. "3.8: Block-by-Block Charts". The Unicode Standard. Unicode Consortium. https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode1.0.0/CodeCharts2.pdf. 
  2. "Appendix E Block Names". The Unicode Standard. Unicode Consortium. https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode1.1.0/appE.pdf. 
  3. "UTR #51: Unicode Emoji". Unicode Consortium. 11 February 2020. https://unicode.org/reports/tr51/. 
  4. "UCD: Emoji Data for UTR #51". Unicode Consortium. 2021-08-26. https://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/emoji/emoji-data.txt. 
  5. "UTS #51 Emoji Variation Sequences". The Unicode Consortium. https://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/emoji/emoji-variation-sequences.txt. 
  6. Google Chrome on Android uses the emoji presentation by default, despite this standard.
  7. Proposed code points and characters names may differ from final code points and names
  8. See also L2/10-458, L2/11-414, L2/11-415, and L2/11-429 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10458-emoji-var.pdf
  9. Refer to the history section of the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block for additional emoji-related documents
  10. See also L2/15-198 and L2/15-275 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2015/15198-varseq-text-emoji.pdf
  11. Japanese translation of N3582 is available as N3621 http://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n3621.pdf
  12. "N4115: Proposal to add Wingdings and Webdings Symbols". http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n4115.pdf. 
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