The Wingdings Font: History, Versions & How to Use It
Wingdings is the symbol font that turns your keyboard into a picture gallery — and it has been installed on hundreds of millions of PCs since 1992. Here is what it is, where it came from, how to use it on any system, and how its four versions differ.
A Short History of Wingdings
Wingdings was born in 1990 when Microsoft combined three licensed symbol collections from the celebrated type designers Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes — Lucida Icons, Lucida Arrows and Lucida Stars — into one font. ("Lucida" hints at the name: these were Lucida-adjacent "wing"-dings.) It shipped with Windows 3.1 in 1992, putting a picture font on nearly every desktop computer on earth, and Microsoft extended the family with Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3 for Office users the same era.
The font's moment of mainstream fame came early: in 1992 a New York Post column claimed a three-letter Wingdings sequence spelled an antisemitic message, a controversy that followed the font for years (Microsoft explained the glyph order was a coincidence and later changed some mappings in Webdings). Its second life arrived in 2015, when Undertale's W.D. Gaster spoke in Wingdings and a new generation started decoding it.
In 2014, Unicode 7.0 standardized most Wingdings and Webdings symbols as regular text characters, which is precisely why this website can show you every symbol without installing any font.
Wingdings 1, 2, 3 and Webdings
| Font | Focus | Signature symbols | Try it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wingdings | General symbols | Hands, faces, zodiac, mail, checkmark (ü) | Translator |
| Wingdings 2 | Checks & boxes | Light check (P), boxed check (R), clocks, pens | W2 translator |
| Wingdings 3 | Arrows | Every arrow direction and weight | W3 translator |
| Webdings | Web-era icons | Computers, globes, vehicles, buildings | Webdings translator |
All four fonts share one keyboard layout: the same key gives a different picture in each font, which is why choosing the right font matters when decoding.
How to Use the Wingdings Font
In Microsoft Word / Excel / PowerPoint (Windows): Wingdings is preinstalled. Type your text first, select it, and change the font dropdown to Wingdings — the letters turn into symbols on the spot. For single symbols, open Insert → Symbol, set the font to Wingdings, and double-click the glyph you want. Excel works the same way for cells and the classic checkmark trick.
On Mac: Wingdings arrives with Microsoft Office. In Pages or TextEdit without Office, use this site instead: the translator outputs real Unicode symbols that need no font and work in every app.
The no-font method (recommended): font-dependent text only shows symbols where the font exists. Unicode symbols show everywhere — phones, browsers, consoles. Convert your text on the homepage translator and paste the result anywhere.
Why This Site Doesn't Offer a Wingdings Font Download
Wingdings is proprietary Microsoft software, so redistributing the .ttf/.otf files isn't legal — and it's unnecessary. If you use Windows or Office, you already own the font. If you don't, every symbol this site produces is a standard Unicode character that renders natively on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux. You get the Wingdings experience with none of the licensing or compatibility headaches.
Frequently Asked Questions
▸What is the Wingdings font?
Wingdings is a dingbat (symbol) font that Microsoft commissioned from designers Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes, first released in 1990 and bundled with Windows 3.1 in 1992. Instead of letters it draws pictures — a typed J shows a smiling face, a typed M shows a bomb. It ships free with Windows and Microsoft Office, so most PCs already have it.
▸Where can I download the Wingdings font?
You don't need to download it. Wingdings is included with Windows and Microsoft Office on Windows; on a Mac it comes with Microsoft Office if installed. The font is Microsoft's copyrighted software, so there is no legal free download — but everything this site outputs is plain Unicode text that looks like Wingdings without any font at all.
▸How do I use Wingdings in Word?
Type your text normally, select it, then set the font box on the Home tab to "Wingdings". The letters instantly render as symbols. To insert a single symbol, use Insert → Symbol, choose the Wingdings font, and pick from the grid. To send Wingdings-style symbols outside Word, use our translator to get copy-paste Unicode instead.
▸What is the difference between Wingdings, Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3?
They are three separate fonts with different symbol sets on the same keyboard positions. Wingdings 1 is the general-purpose classic (hands, faces, mail, zodiac). Wingdings 2 focuses on checkmarks, X marks, ballot boxes, clocks and pens. Wingdings 3 is almost entirely arrows in every direction. Webdings, released later, is a fourth set of web-era icons.
▸Is Wingdings still used today?
Less in professional design, but enormously in pop culture: secret messages, Undertale's Gaster, memes, classroom puzzles, and quick checkmarks in Word and Excel. Unicode also standardized most Wingdings symbols in 2014, so they now live on in chats and social media as normal text characters.
▸Who created Wingdings?
Type designers Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes created the underlying symbol collections (Lucida Icons, Lucida Arrows, Lucida Stars), which Microsoft combined and shipped as Wingdings in 1990. Bigelow and Holmes are also the designers of the Lucida font family. The glyph arrangement received a US design patent in 1993.