Zapf Dingbats

ITC Zapf Dingbats is one of the more common dingbat typefaces. It was designed by the typographer Hermann Zapf in 1978 and licensed by International Typeface Corporation.

Zapf Dingbats
CategoryDingbats
Designer(s)Hermann Zapf
FoundryITC
Zapf Dingbats Encoding
Alias(es)x-mac-dingbats[1]
Language(s)Dingbat ornaments
DefinitionsMac OS Dingbats
Adobe Zapf Dingbats
ClassificationPostScript core pi font
Other related encoding(s)Other dingbats: Webdings, Wingdings
Other PS Pi fonts: Symbol

History

In 1977, 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 as ITC 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.

When ITC Zapf Dingbats was first announced in U&lc magazine, volume 5-2,[2] the family was divided into the 100 series (ITC-100), 200 series (ITC-200), 300 series (ITC-300). Each series contains 120 symbols.

Zapf Dingbats series 100 became widely implemented on PostScript printers, and gained currency as a pi font encoding in the 1980s and early 1990s. It incorporates several rightward-facing arrows without counterparts for the other three cardinal directions, on the assumption that it would be used in contexts allowing rotation of text characters.[3]

Availability

The ITC glyph set is included in Unicode and it is one of the "Basic 14" typefaces guaranteed to be available for PDF files.

ZapfDingbats, the PostScript version of ITC Zapf Dingbats, is distributed with Acrobat Reader 5 and 5.1.

URW++ donated a version of ZaphDingbats to GhostScript under the non-commercial Aladdin Free Public License. The font can be found in GhostPCL source code, as D050000L.ttf.

ITC Zapf Dingbats Std is an OpenType version of the font family, based on the PostScript variant of the font. The glyphs are mapped to the corresponding Unicode code points. The family consists of 1 font (ITC Zapf Dingbats Medium) with 204 glyphs.

Zapf Essentials

Zapf Essentials is an update to the Zapf Dingbats family which 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, leaves), 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 (e.g.: airplane, letter).[4][5]

Codepage layout

ITC Zapf Dingbats[6]
_0 _1 _2 _3 _4 _5 _6 _7 _8 _9 _A _B _C _D _E _F
0
1_
2 SP
0020

2701

2702

2703

2704

260E

2706

2707

2708

2709

261B

261E

270C

270D

270E

270F
3
2710

2711

2712

2713

2714

2715

2716

2717

2718

2719

271A

271B

271C

271D

271E

271F
4
2720

2721

2722

2723

2724

2725

2726

2727

2605

2729

272A

272B

272C

272D

272E

272F
5
2730

2731

2732

2733

2734

2735

2736

2737

2738

2739

273A

273B

273C

273D

273E

273F
6
2740

2741

2742

2743

2744

2745

2746

2747

2748

2749

274A

274B

25CF

274D

25A0

274F
7
2750

2751

2752

25B2

25BC

25C6

2756

25D7

2758

2759

275A

275B

275C

275D

275E
8
2768

2769

276A

276B

276C

276D

276E

276F

2770

2771

2772

2773

2774

2775

 

 
9
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
A
 

2761

2762

2763

2764

2765

2766

2767

2663

2666

2665

2660

2460

2461

2462

2463
B
2464

2465

2466

2467

2468

2469

2776

2777

2778

2779

277A

277B

277C

277D

277E

277F
C
2780

2781

2782

2783

2784

2785

2786

2787

2788

2789

278A

278B

278C

278D

278E

278F
D
2790

2791

2792

2793

2794

2192

2194

2195

2798

2799

279A

279B

279C

279D

279E

279F
E
27A0

27A1

27A2

27A3

27A4

27A5

27A6

27A7

27A8

27A9

27AA

27AB

27AC

27AD

27AE

27AF
F
 

27B1

27B2

27B3

27B4

27B5

27B6

27B7

27B8

27B9

27BA

27BB

27BC

27BD

27BE

 

  Letter  Number  Punctuation  Symbol  Other  Undefined

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 therefore illegible and would have to be interpreted like a cryptogram for those unfamiliar with the font. He said he did it because the interview was "incredibly boring" and that upon searching his typeface collection for a suitable font and ending at Zapf Dingbats, decided to use it with hopes of making the article interesting again.[7]

References

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