History typeface windows#
Microsoft includes Wingdings with Windows Users could then pluck the appropriate icon, by typing the letter assigned to it, to ornament, animate, or otherwise adorn their documents without worrying about file size or poor quality. Originally three separate fonts called Lucida Icons, Lucida Arrows, and Lucida Stars, the fonts that became Wingdings were crafted to harmonize with text and made with similar proportions to Lucida. But to be complete, their font needed complementary characters that worked well with letters, so they designed them in 1990. With Lucida, Bigelow and Holmes were at the vanguard of digital type designers. 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. As designers of the font Lucida, they crafted pioneering type uniquely suited to the digital era (you can read Bigelow & Holmes's thesis on Lucida's unique traits). Two people made Wingdings happen: Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes (proprietors of the firm and husband-and-wife team). Fonts like Wingdings provided a workaround by giving people high-quality, scalable images that didn't clog up their hard drives. Even worse, it was tough to get pictures to play nicely with text. There were few ways to get images, files were way too large for puny hard drives, and they were of poor quality.
Today it's easy to cut and paste images from the internet, but it used to be a lot harder. It was akin to emojis, but with even more utility. It was created to be used as a unique tool for the pre-internet era. Who made Wingdings - and whyĪs a means of writing sentences, Wingdings fails - but that was never its purpose. One of the creators of Wingdings, Charles Bigelow, of the legendary design studio Bigelow & Holmes, told me Wingdings marked one of the first times a font became part of the popular culture.Īnd when you delve into how Wingdings was born, it becomes clear why it become so iconic. In the early '90s, it was one of the first times people realized fonts could break through to the mainstream. What is Wingdings thinking? Why would someone want to write a comma using a mailbox? Why would anyone think we want to compose in peace signs and crosses and heart shapes? The below is just a brief example of Wingdings weirdness:īut Wingdings is much more than just a quirky font. Use them sparingly and mainly for headings or very short pieces of text.Wingdings is the font made entirely out of symbols. The same rules apply for the casual script fonts. They can still have strokes that vary in width but are not as sophisticated looking as the formal scripts. The other thing to remember is to use them sparingly.Ĭasual scripts look like more regular handwriting and are less formal. They become nearly impossible to read when all the letters are in capitals. One of the most important rules to remember when using formal script fonts is to never, ever set them in all caps.
They are not suitable for large amounts of body text but can look really beautiful in large sizes when used in headings and in logos.
They’re used a lot for invitations, scrolls and situations where elegant typography is called for.
History typeface free#
There are literally thousands of formal script typefaces available, both free and commercial. Snell Roundhand, is a contemporary font by Matthew Carter based on the work of George Snell.Įnglish font, based on the work of George Shelley. George Bickham, George Snell and George Shelley were master calligraphers who wrote with a quill or metal nib in the seventeenth and eighteen century.īickham Script Pro, based on the engravings of George Bickham. Many formal scripts are based on the letterforms of the three Georges. They can be further broken up into the very elegant or formal style that looks like traditional calligraphy and the more rough and ready casual style. Fonts that fall into the script category are those that have the appearance of hand lettering with a brush, calligraphy pen or pencil.
History typeface series#
Continuing our series on typeface categories, today we’re looking at Scripts.