RE: On the possibility of encoding webdings in Unicode (from Re: square bullets added to unicode.)

From: Doug Ewell (doug@ewellic.org)
Date: Wed Jan 26 2011 - 12:37:03 CST

  • Next message: William_J_G Overington: "[Possibly off-topic]: Flash movie using some glyphs from the Webdings font (from Re: On the possibility of encoding webdings in Unicode)"

    Peter Constable <petercon at microsoft dot com> wrote:

    >> If some or all of the webdings glyphs were to become encoded
    >> into regular Unicode, would that only be possible with the explicit
    >> intellectual property rights permission of Microsoft?
    >
    > Unicode encodes characters, not glyphs. Microsoft would not likely make IP claims over the concept of PARK SYMBOL. The use of a specific glyph is a different matter, but has no bearing on the encoding of an abstract character concept.

    The way I read William's comment was that some of the Dings (in
    particular the Windows logo at 0xFF in Wingdings) might be considered
    analogous to the Apple logo, which is famously not in Unicode due to
    Apple's IP objections. The word "likely" does leave some doubt.

    I would assume all of the characters in these four sets, even the more
    detailed drawings in Webdings like the park, would be treated for
    encoding purposes as abstract symbols, just like the emoji. For
    example, the cat encoded at 0xF6 in Webdings might not necessarily be
    sitting up or facing right. The arrows in Wingdings 3 should probably
    be named in a way that suggests their visual difference from other
    arrows, and most implementations would probably use glyphs similar to
    the Wingdings 3 glyphs, but even this is not guaranteed; the length of
    the arrow at 0xA5, say, is not normative.

    --
    Doug Ewell | Thornton, Colorado, USA | http://www.ewellic.org
    RFC 5645, 4645, UTN #14 | ietf-languages @ is dot gd slash 2kf0s ­
    


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