The History and Use of the Wingdings Font

Vox contributor Phil Edwards researched the history of Wingdings fonts and how it is used in the video, “Why the Wingdings font exists.” The fonts derived from dingbats, special characters used in pre-computer printing, and are an early predecessor to emoji.

As a means of writing sentences, Wingdings fails — but that was never its purpose. It was created to be used as a unique tool for the pre-internet era. It was akin to emojis, but with even more utility.