Wingdings is a “dingbat” font that Microsoft shipped with Windows 3.1 in 1992. It is not a language or a cipher: it simply draws a picture – a pointing hand, an envelope, a bomb, a zodiac sign – in place of each letter, digit and punctuation mark. Typing “NYC” in Wingdings famously shows a skull, a Star of David and a thumbs-up, which fuelled a 1992 urban legend, and the font later inspired the coded speech of W. D. Gaster in the game Undertale.
Because a Wingdings document still contains ordinary letters, its symbols disappear as soon as the font is unavailable. Since Unicode 7.0 (2014), however, almost every Wingdings glyph has a standard Unicode equivalent, many from the Ornamental Dingbats and Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs blocks. This translator swaps each character for that Unicode symbol, so the pictures display in any app or browser with a suitable font – and some appear as colour emoji.
Wingdings is case-sensitive: capital letters give hands, faces and religious symbols, lowercase letters give zodiac signs and geometric shapes, and digits give office icons such as folders and keyboards. Switch the direction to turn pasted symbols back into readable text.
How to use the Wingdings Translator
- Direction
- Your text
Everything is calculated in your browser, so results appear instantly and nothing you type is sent to a server.
How it works
Each character from ! (33) to ~ (126) is replaced by the Unicode code point of its Wingdings glyph using a 94-entry table; spaces and other characters stay as they are. Decoding looks up each symbol in the reverse table.
Worked example
“HELLO WORLD” becomes ☟☜☹☹🏳 🕈🏳☼☹👎: H = ☟ (pointing down), E = ☜, L = ☹, O = 🏳 (white flag), W = 🕈 (Celtic cross), R = ☼ and D = 👎. Ten letters, all with a symbol.
Wingdings capitals
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ✌ | 👌 | 👍 | 👎 | ☜ | ☞ | ☝ | ☟ | 🖐 | ☺ | 😐 | ☹ | 💣 |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| ☠ | 🏳 | 🏱 | ✈ | ☼ | 💧 | ❄ | 🕆 | ✞ | 🕈 | ✠ | ✡ | ☪ |
Formula
Each printable ASCII character (33–126) → the Unicode equivalent of its Wingdings glyph
Uppercase and lowercase map to different symbols (a = ♋, A = ✌)
Worked example
Inputs — Direction: Text → Wingdings symbols; Your text: HELLO WORLD.
Results — Result = ☟☜☹☹🏳 🕈🏳☼☹👎; Symbols used = Key Symbol Unicode
──────────────────────
D 👎 U+1F44E
E ☜ U+261C
H ☟ U+261F
L ☹ U+2639
O 🏳 U+1F3F3
R ☼ U+263C
W 🕈 U+1F548; Characters (without spaces) = 10; Characters without a Wingdings symbol = 0.
Key terms
- Dingbat
- A decorative symbol or ornament in a font.
- Wingdings
- Microsoft’s 1992 dingbat font family (Wingdings, Wingdings 2, Wingdings 3).
- Unicode equivalent
- The standard code point that represents a font glyph in any font.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wingdings a language?
No, it is a symbol font: each key simply shows a picture instead of a letter.
What does “R” look like in Wingdings?
A sun ☼ (U+263C). “A” is a victory hand ✌ and “J” a smiley ☺.
Are lowercase and uppercase different?
Yes – “a” is the Cancer sign ♋ while “A” is ✌.
Why do some symbols show as coloured emoji?
Characters such as 👍 and 💣 have emoji presentation by default on most phones.
What did NYC look like in Wingdings?
☠✡👍 – skull, Star of David and thumbs-up, the origin of a famous 1992 rumour.
How do I decode a Wingdings message?
Paste the symbols, choose “Wingdings symbols → text” and the original letters appear.