Wingdings was created in the 1990s by Microsoft as a unique tool for the pre-internet era. It was essentially a font that consisted of various symbols and icons instead of traditional letters and numbers. The purpose of Wingdings was to provide users with a wide range of visual elements that could be easily inserted into documents, presentations, and other forms of written communication.
Back in the day, before the widespread use of the internet, finding and incorporating images into documents wasn’t as simple as it is today. There were no search engines or image databases readily available at our fingertips. If you wanted to include a picture, you would have to either draw it by hand or find a physical image, cut it out, and then physically paste it onto your document. It was a time-consuming and often messy process.
This is where Wingdings came in handy. By using the Wingdings font, users could simply type a specific letter or number on their keyboard, and it would be replaced with a corresponding symbol or icon. These symbols ranged from basic shapes and arrows to more complex images like smiley faces, telephones, and even little pictures of hands.
The versatility of Wingdings allowed users to add visual elements to their documents without the need for physical images. It provided a quick and convenient way to spruce up presentations, add emphasis to written text, or even convey certain ideas or concepts visually. It was like having a set of emojis before emojis became a widespread phenomenon.
Wingdings also served another purpose – it allowed users to encode and decode messages. The symbols and icons in the Wingdings font could be used as a form of encryption, where specific symbols represented different letters or words. This provided a fun and creative way to add a layer of secrecy to written communication, especially in the pre-internet era when online privacy and security were not as advanced as they are today.
However, it’s important to note that Wingdings was not without its limitations. Since Wingdings replaced traditional letters and numbers, it made the text unreadable unless the recipient also had the Wingdings font installed on their computer. This meant that if you sent a document or message written in Wingdings to someone who didn’t have the font, all they would see is a jumble of symbols and icons. This made it necessary to either convert the Wingdings text back to regular text or ensure that the recipient had the font installed.
Wingdings was created to provide users with a convenient way to incorporate symbols and icons into their written communication. It was a valuable tool in the pre-internet era when finding and inserting images into documents was more challenging. Wingdings served as a precursor to modern-day emojis and offered an element of fun and creativity in written communication. Despite its limitations, it played a significant role in enhancing the visual appeal and expressiveness of text-based documents.