Write and design with the dingbats
If you think that the dingbats, or to be more precise the fonts composed by symbols are not so serious and almost useless, you have to start changing your mind. Elegant, nifty, humorous…there are for all tastes and needs. They are easy to use, modify, resize and able to aesthetically enrich every single graphic project.
Thus, a selection has to be made in order not to fall into amateurial work, given that not all the dingbats are of a high quality: some are imprecise, others if resized could become jagged and so on.
For not to mention the dingbats already used&abused to the extreme.
I have tried to gather into this mini collection some of the dingbats I believe you might find useful: some that I have personally used in certain works (like the wonderful Nymphette), and others that I have become aware of through reflex thanks to certain sites that make a skillful use out of them.
If you are a lover of these fonts or if this article has struck a little bit of curiousity inside of you, I recommend to visit the Font Garden website, which collects hundreds of extremely beautiful dingbats that are still largely unknown.
But let’s get started with our collection!
1. Nymphette
The first place not by chance, Nymphette is the queen of dingbat. Elegant and refined, is able to give a touch of style to any work and, if used well, can be the detail that makes a difference in a graphic project.
2. Kfon
A very charming dingbat whose florals are often used as separators.
3. Zoologic
There is a galore of dingbats using animal silhouettes: this is one of the best, because in a single collection,it is possible to find dozens of animals: from the dolphin to the ferret; there’s a little bit of everything.
4. Separate
The name already says it all: another dingbat that collects various floral separators and not only, classical and modern. Totally useful!
5. FingerprintInside
A dingbat with a very aesthetic arrangement, captivating and original. Perfect for graphic works that are a bit unconventional, leaflets, grunge style websites.
6. Travelcon
International symbols and not only: a resource to be kept in mind, it can be always useful.
7. Talkies
Alright, I admit I am a little biased. But eventhough I have a visceral passion for the balloons and the comics, it doesn’t neccessarily mean this is not an objectively beautiful, cute, and youthful dingbat.
8. Swinging
The doodles are always fascinating, and this dingbat is the living proof.
9. Wc rhesus
Stains, squirts & akins. A cocktail tested in different styles, from street to grunge.
10. Freakyface
Curious and original, this font is used pretty often, more or less indirectly, in webdesign illustrations. Just to prove it: Who hasn’t seen at least once the whirled bees of Denise?
On websites and in all css galleries; nonetheless, almost nobody knows that these so original designs are in reality fruit of a font.
11. Efon
Many creative styles in a font more punk. But don’t be prejudiced: it can turn out to be really useful, one way or another.
12. Webmasters
More on a whim than anything else: webmasters and other computer maniacs, with lots of cupid-monitor, to represent the web people. A font accurate to the details and extremely cute.
Conclusions
The dingbats can turn out to be a huge resource for designers, provided that it is known how to choose high quality fonts and not to abuse. Under every circumstance they are to be preferred to eventual cheap cliparts, used and reused, just because vectors are suitable both for web graphics and typography alike.
And you, do you often use one or more dingbats? If so, which one?
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L'immagine principale dell'articolo è stata fornita da @Fotolia
The Author
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Thanks Sara, very useful!
I’m working on a project right now and I used a dingbat called Dot Com.
ps: the description of Nymphette is in Italian
Hi Federica, thanks for the warning
I’ve tried to search Dot Com dingbat but i don’t find it…can you help me? (i’m very curious!)
Very nice, thanks girl!
You’re welcome, Hillary, thanks
I didn’t find any dingbats in the separate font file, just letters and numbers.
Hi Steve, welcome to YIW. I don’t understand, what is the problem? I’ve downloaded all the dingbat of this posts, without particular issues…
I don’t know what the problem is. I followed the link, downloaded separate.tff, reviewed it in my font manager and all I saw was letters and numbers. I scanned the whole character set and did not see anything else.
thank you so much for showing the examples of the dingbats in actual use. Very nice!