A dingbat is a symbol, such as an arrow or a pointing finger, that is used as a typographical ornament. Despite their amusing name, dingbats have a long and illustrious history in typography. For those who work with letterpress, many type foundries continue to produce dingbats, and dingbats are also available as digital fonts for those who work with computers. Many computers come pre-installed with several dingbat fonts, and more can be downloaded.
Printers began developing ornaments when people first began setting things in type. The printer’s ornaments served a variety of purposes. They broke up the printed material in a design in the first sense, making it easier to read and more aesthetically pleasing. They were also purely ornamental, as the name suggests, and they took up white space that could have looked awkward in the finished piece.
Ornaments for printers can be very small, discrete shapes, or they can be decorative scrolls, bands, and lines. The term “dingbat” is most commonly used to refer to a single distinct symbol rather than the decorative engravings that once adorned the edges of many printed pages. Dingbats are also known as ornaments or typographical ornaments.
Dingbat styles come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Floral motifs are used by some, in which case they are referred to as fleurons. Others may have a more geometric design or may be modeled after animals or natural features. Dingbats can also serve a symbolic function, such as highlighting a line of text with a pointing finger, and mathematicians can use dingbats to create unique math symbols.
Historically, printers kept their ornaments in separate type cases, though some fonts came with several ornaments that were stored with them out of the box. Ornaments were divided into sizes so that a printer could quickly find a 14 point dingbat to match 14 point text, for example. They could also be hand-carved in wood or stamped in lead, which is the traditional material for movable type. These printer flourishes have the potential to transform a mundane document into a work of art.
Although some can be created by typing alphanumeric codes, digitized dingbats come in the form of complete typefaces. From the degree sign on a temperature measurement to the Euro symbol used when discussing European money, a standardized code known as unicode can be used to display a large number of commonly used symbols. Many of the same companies that make computer fonts also make dingbat fonts for typographers.