For example, Windows 10 includes the Bookshelf Symbol 7 and Symbol fonts (minimal collections) plus Web Dings, Wing Dings (1, 2, 3), and Zaph Dingbats, which all have some great symbols.

They were protégés of legendary designer Hermann Zapf, whose own Zapf Dingbats font, another collection of odd symbols, broke ground when it was distributed with Apple Printers in the mid-1980s.

(Dingbat fonts are also known by other names such as Picture fonts, Pi fonts, or Symbol fonts.) In the early days of Web page design, these were often used to create icons.

Hermann Zapf, the German font designer who died Sunday, believed his famous Zapf Dingbats font should be used sparingly. ... included 360 symbols selected from the over 1000 that Zapf designed.

In the rarified, slightly arcane world of typography and font design, Hermann Zapf was a giant. You may know his name from the fonts Zapfino and Zapf Dingbats, a pre-emoji set of symbols, but he ...