In typography, a dingbat (sometimes more formally known as a printer's ornament or printer's character) is an ornament, specifically, a grapheme 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 or used in bookbinding to order sections.
In the computer industry, a dingbat font or pi font is a computer font that has symbols and shapes located at the code points normally designated for alphabetical or numeric characters. This practice was necessitated by the limited number of code points available in 20th century operating systems. Modern computer fonts containing dingbats are based on Unicode encoding, which has unique code points for dingbats.
Examples Examples of characters included in Unicode (ITC Zapf Dingbats series 100 and others):
✁✂✃✄✅✆✇✈✉☛☞✌✍✎✏✐✑✒✓✔✕✖✗✘✙✚✛✜✝✞✟✠✡✢✣✤✥✦✧★✩✪✫✬✭✮✯✰✱✲✳✴✵✶✷✸✹✺✻✼✽✾✿❀❁❂❃❄❅❆❇❈❉❊❋●❍■❏☺☻♥♦♣♠•◘○❐❑❒▲▼◆❖◗❘❙❚❛❜❝❞
Dingbats Unicode block
Unicode provides code points 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 graphemes 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", so named for type designer Hermann Zapf) 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.
Ornamental Dingbats Unicode block
The Ornamental Dingbats block () 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.
Character table CodeResultDescriptionU+2700✀Black safety scissorsU+2701✁Upper blade scissorsU+2702✂Black scissorsU+2703✃Lower blade scissorsU+2704✄White scissorsU+2705✅White heavy check markU+2706✆Telephone location signU+2707✇Tape driveU+2708✈AirplaneU+2709✉EnvelopeU+270A✊Raised fistU+270B✋Raised handU+270C✌Victory handU+270D✍Writing handU+270E✎Lower right pencilU+270F✏PencilU+2710✐Upper right pencilU+2711✑White nibU+2712✒Black nibU+2713✓Check markU+2714✔Heavy check markU+2715✕Multiplication XU+2716✖Heavy multiplication XU+2717✗Ballot XU+2718✘Heavy ballot XU+2719✙Outlined Greek crossU+271A✚Heavy Greek crossU+271B✛Open center crossU+271C✜Heavy open center crossU+271D✝Latin crossU+271E✞Shadowed white Latin crossU+271F✟Outlined Latin crossU+2720✠Maltese crossU+2721✡Star of DavidU+2722✢Four teardrop-spoked asteriskU+2723✣Four balloon-spoked asteriskU+2724✤Heavy four balloon-spoked asteriskU+2725✥Four club-spoked asteriskU+2726✦Black four-pointed starU+2727✧White four-pointed starU+2728✨SparklesU+2729✩Stress outlined white starU+272A✪Circled white starU+272B✫Open center black starU+272C✬Black center white starU+272D✭Outlined black starU+272E✮Heavy outlined black starU+272F✯Pinwheel starU+2730✰Shadowed white starU+2731✱Heavy asteriskU+2732✲Open center asteriskU+2733✳Eight spoked asteriskU+2734✴Eight pointed black starU+2735✵Eight pointed pinwheel starU+2736✶Six pointed black starU+2737✷Eight pointed rectilinear black starU+2738✸Heavy eight pointed rectilinear black starU+2739✹Twelve pointed black starU+273A✺Sixteen pointed asteriskU+273B✻Teardrop spoked asteriskU+273C✼Open center teardrop spoked asteriskU+273D✽Heavy teardrop spoked asteriskU+273E✾Six petalled black and white floretteU+273F✿Black floretteU+2740❀White floretteU+2741❁Eight petalled outlined black floretteU+2742❂Circled open center eight pointed starU+2743❃Heavy teardrop spoked pinwheel asteriskU+2744❄SnowflakeU+2745❅Tight trifoliate snowflakeU+2746❆Heavy chevron snowflakeU+2747❇SparkleU+2748❈Heavy sparkleU+2749❉Balloon spoked asteriskU+274A❊Eight teardrop spoked propeller asteriskU+274B❋Heavy eight teardrop spoked propeller asteriskU+274C❌Cross markU+274D❍Shadowed white circleU+274E❎Negative squared cross markU+274F❏Lower right drop-shadowed white squareU+2750❐Upper right drop-shadowed white squareU+2751❑Lower right shadowed white squareU+2752❒Upper right shadowed white squareU+2753❓Black question mark ornamentU+2754❔White question mark ornamentU+2755❕White exclamation mark ornamentU+2756❖Black diamond minus white XU+2757❗Heavy exclamation mark symbolU+2758❘Light vertical barU+2759❙Medium vertical barU+275A❚Heavy vertical barU+275B❛Heavy single turned comma quotation mark ornamentU+275C❜Heavy single comma quotation mark ornamentU+275D❝Heavy double turned comma quotation mark ornamentU+275E❞Heavy double comma quotation mark ornamentU+275F❜Heavy low single comma quotation mark ornamentU+2760❞Heavy low double comma quotation mark ornamentU+2761❡Curved stem paragraph sign ornamentU+2762❢Heavy exclamation mark ornamentU+2763❣Heavy heart exclamation mark ornamentU+2764❤Heavy black heartU+2765❥Rotated heavy black heart bulletU+2766❦Floral heartU+2767❧Rotated floral heart bulletU+2768❨Medium left parenthesis ornamentU+2769❩Medium right parenthesis ornamentU+276A❪Medium flattened left parenthesis ornamentU+276B❫Medium flattened right parenthesis ornamentU+276C❬Medium left-pointing angle bracket ornamentU+276D❭Medium right-pointing angle bracket ornamentU+276E❮Heavy left-pointing angle quotation mark ornamentU+276F❯Heavy right-pointing angle quotation mark ornamentU+2770❰Heavy left-pointing angle bracket ornamentU+2771❱Heavy right-pointing angle bracket ornamentU+2772❲Light left tortoise shell bracket ornamentU+2773❳Light right tortoise shell bracket ornamentU+2774❴Medium left curly bracket ornamentU+2775❵Medium left curly bracket ornament U+2776❶Dingbat negative circled digit one U+2777❷Dingbat negative circled digit two U+2778❸Dingbat negative circled digit three U+2779❹Dingbat negative circled digit four U+277A❺Dingbat negative circled digit five U+277B❻Dingbat negative circled digit six U+277C❼Dingbat negative circled digit seven U+277D❽Dingbat negative circled digit eight U+277E❾Dingbat negative circled digit nine U+277F❿Dingbat negative circled digit ten U+2780➀Dingbat circled sans-serif digit one U+2781➁Dingbat circled sans-serif digit two U+2782➂Dingbat circled sans-serif digit three U+2783➃Dingbat circled sans-serif digit four U+2784➄Dingbat circled sans-serif digit five U+2785➅Dingbat circled sans-serif digit six U+2786➆Dingbat circled sans-serif digit seven U+2787➇Dingbat circled sans-serif digit eight U+2788➈Dingbat circled sans-serif digit nine U+2789➉Dingbat circled sans-serif digit ten U+278A➊Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit one U+278B➋Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit two U+278C➌Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit three U+278D➍Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit four U+278E➎Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit five U+278F➏Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit six U+2790➐Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit seven U+2791➑Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit eight U+2792➒Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit nine U+2793➓Dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit tenU+2794➔Heavy wide-headed rightward arrowU+2795➕Heavy plus signU+2796➖Heavy minus signU+2797➗Heavy division signU+2798➘Heavy south east arrowU+2799➙Heavy rightward arrowU+279A➚Heavy north east arrowU+279B➛Drafting point rightward arrowU+279C➜Heavy round-tipped rightward arrowU+279D➝Triangle-headed rightward arrowU+279E➞Heavy triangle-headed rightward arrowU+279F➟Dashed triangle-headed rightward arrowU+27A0➠Heavy dashed triangle-headed rightward arrowU+27A1➡Black rightward arrowU+27A2➢Three-D top-lighted rightward arrowheadU+27A3➣Three-D bottom-lighted rightward arrowheadU+27A4➤Black rightward arrowheadU+27A5➥Heavy black curved downward and rightward arrowU+27A6➦Heavy black curved upward and rightward arrowU+27A7➧Squat black rightward arrowU+27A8➨Heavy concave-pointed black rightward arrowU+27A9➩Right-shaded white rightward arrowU+27AA➪Left-shaded white rightward arrowU+27AB➫Back-tilted shadowed white rightward arrowU+27AC➬Front-tilted shadowed white rightward arrowU+27AD➭Heavy lower right-shadowed white rightward arrowU+27AE➮Heavy upper right-shadowed white rightward arrowU+27AF➯Notched lower right-shadowed white rightward arrowU+27B0➰Curly loopU+27B1➱Notched upper right-shadowed white rightward arrowU+27B2➲Circled heavy white rightward arrowU+27B3➳White-feathered rightward arrowU+27B4➴Black-feathered south east arrowU+27B5➵Black-feathered rightward arrowU+27B6➶Black-feathered north east arrowU+27B7➷Heavy black-feathered south east arrowU+27B8➸Heavy black-feathered rightward arrowU+27B9➹Heavy black-feathered north east arrowU+27BA➺Teardrop-barbed rightward arrowU+27BB➻Heavy teardrop-shanked rightward arrowU+27BC➼Wedge-tailed rightward arrowU+27BD➽Heavy wedge-tailed rightward arrowU+27BE➾Open-outlined rightward arrowU+27BF➿Double curly loop
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
See also Arrows in Unicode blocks Asterism (typography), a triangle of asterisks Fleuron (typography), known as a class of horticultural dingbats Punctuation Text semigraphics, a method for emulating raster graphics using text mode video hardware Unicode symbols
References
External links
Retinart: A history of often-seen typographic marks Dingbat Depot: a large, well-known archive of free dingbat fonts.