You’ve definitely seen them. You might have even used them without knowing they had a name. Those tiny little scissors, the pointing hands, the stars, and the weird geometric squares that show up in the middle of a sentence? They aren't just glitches. They aren't emojis, either—at least not in the way we think of them today. We’re talking about the definition of a dingbat, a term that bridges the gap between the dusty world of lead-type printing and the high-speed world of digital font rendering.
It’s a funny word. Dingbat.
Back in the day, if you called someone a dingbat, you were probably channeling Archie Bunker from All in the Family. But in the world of design and typography, a dingbat is a specialized ornament or character that is used for structural or decorative purposes. Think of them as the ancestors of the modern "like" button or the "check" icon on your banking app. They have been around since the very first printing presses were cranking out Bibles and pamphlets, and they aren't going anywhere.
Where the Heck Did the Term Dingbat Come From?
Etymology is often a bit of a mess, and the definition of a dingbat is no exception. Most historians agree it likely originated in print shops. In the 19th century, printers used the term to describe any small, decorative piece of metal type that wasn't a letter or a number. Some suggest it might be a combination of "ding" (representing a bell or a strike) and "bat" (a piece of wood), but that’s mostly speculation.
What we do know is that by the 1920s, it was firmly established in the industry.
Printers were practical people. They needed things to fill empty spaces in a layout. They needed something to show where one chapter ended and another began. Instead of carving a whole new block of wood, they had these little pre-cast ornaments. Some were simple lines; others were elaborate Victorian flourishes called "fleurons." If you’ve ever seen a little leaf-shaped icon at the end of a paragraph in an old book, you’ve seen a dingbat in its natural habitat.
📖 Related: Why the twitter com web page still dominates our screens despite everything
But then, things got digital.
The Great Digital Shift: Hermann Zapf and the 1970s
The biggest turning point for the modern definition of a dingbat happened in 1978. A legendary typeface designer named Hermann Zapf created a collection of over 1,000 symbols. He wasn't trying to make a "font" in the traditional sense; he was creating a toolbox. This collection was eventually whittled down to the 360 most useful characters, which became the world-famous "ITC Zapf Dingbats."
When Steve Lowell and the team at Apple were building the Macintosh, they included Zapf Dingbats as one of the core fonts. Suddenly, every office worker with a computer had access to a library of tiny icons.
It changed everything.
You didn't have to draw a checkbox anymore. You just typed the letter "o" in Zapf Dingbats and—boom—there it was. This was the moment the definition of a dingbat moved from a niche printer's tool to a household utility. It also paved the way for Wingdings, the font everyone loves to mock, which Microsoft released in 1990 as a way to compete with Apple’s symbol library.
Why Do We Still Use Them Instead of Just Using Images?
You might wonder why we bother with font-based symbols in 2026. Why not just use a PNG or an SVG? Honestly, it comes down to efficiency.
A dingbat is part of a font file. This means it scales perfectly. Whether you make it 12 points or 1200 points, the edges stay crisp because it’s based on mathematical vectors, not pixels. Also, since it's "text," the computer treats it like a letter. It loads instantly. It doesn't require a separate server request like an image does.
The Unicode Revolution
For a long time, dingbats were a bit of a headache. If you sent a document using Zapf Dingbats to someone who didn't have that font installed, they’d just see a bunch of random letters. It was chaos.
Then came Unicode.
Unicode is basically the universal translator for computers. It assigns a unique number to every character in every language—and it includes a massive section for dingbats. This is why you can copy a symbol from a website and paste it into an Instagram caption or a text message and it actually works. The definition of a dingbat has evolved from a specific font style into a standardized set of global characters.
- U+2702 is always a pair of scissors.
- U+2709 is always an envelope.
- U+2713 is always a check mark.
Common Misconceptions: Dingbat vs. Emoji
People get these mixed up all the time. It’s understandable. They both look like little pictures. But there is a technical wall between them.
An emoji is a specific type of pictograph that is rendered differently depending on your device. When you send a "smiley face" emoji from an iPhone to an Android, the code is the same, but the artwork looks different because Apple and Google have their own sets of emoji art.
A dingbat, however, is a typographic character. While it can be styled with colors (especially in modern "Color Fonts"), its primary existence is as a glyph within a typeface. Dingbats are usually monochromatic. They are designed to sit alongside text without drawing too much attention to themselves. They are functional. They are the "utility players" of the design world.
How Professionals Use Dingbats Today
If you're a graphic designer or a web developer, you're using the definition of a dingbat every single day, even if you call them "icon fonts."
Popular libraries like Font Awesome or Material Icons are essentially just massive, modern dingbat collections. They allow developers to drop a tiny piece of code into a website to display a "shopping cart" or a "user profile" icon.
Accessibility Matters
There is a catch, though. Because dingbats are technically "text," screen readers for the visually impaired will try to read them. If you use a dingbat for decoration, a screen reader might say "Black Right-Pointing Index" out loud to a user. This is why modern web standards (like ARIA labels) are so important—they tell the computer to ignore the symbol or explain what it actually means in context.
Actionable Ways to Use Dingbats in Your Own Work
Stop treating them like weird relics. They are incredibly powerful tools for organizing information.
- Bullet Points with Character: Instead of the boring round dot, use a dingbat that fits your brand. A small square, a chevron, or a subtle arrow can change the entire "vibe" of a document.
- Visual Hierarchy: Use larger dingbats (like the "ornamental fleurons") to separate major sections in a long-form article. It gives the reader's eyes a place to rest.
- Forms and Signatures: If you're creating a PDF for someone to sign, the "pointing hand" (the index) is the classic way to show exactly where the pen needs to hit the paper.
- Social Media Hooking: While emojis are great for emotion, dingbats are better for structure. Use simple geometric dingbats to align text in a bio or a post to make it look professional rather than cluttered.
Final Thought on the Meaning
The definition of a dingbat has survived the transition from lead to lasers to liquid crystal displays. It is a testament to the fact that humans need more than just words to communicate. We need symbols. We need visual cues. Whether you’re looking at a 500-year-old manuscript or the latest app on your phone, those little "worthless" ornaments are doing the heavy lifting of keeping our communication organized and readable.
Next time you see a tiny star or a checkmark in a text, remember that it’s not just a "thingy." It’s a piece of history that’s still working for you.
To start using these in your own digital documents, look for the "Symbols" or "Advanced Symbols" menu in your word processor. If you're on a Mac, use the "Character Viewer" (Cmd + Ctrl + Space) and search for "Technical Symbols" or "Dingbats." On Windows, the "Character Map" app is your best friend. Explore the Unicode ranges from 2700 to 27BF to find the classic set that started it all.