Wingdings is a symbolic font created by Microsoft in 1990, designed by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes. It replaces standard letters and numbers with decorative symbols—arrows, stars, geometric shapes, office icons, and more. Originally called "Lucida Icons," it was rebranded as Wingdings (combining "wing" from Windows and "dingbat," a typographic ornament). It became wildly popular for adding visual flair to documents, presentations, and creative projects. Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3 later expanded the symbol library.

Our translator converts every character you type into its corresponding Wingdings-style Unicode symbol. For example, typing "A" produces a scissors symbol (✂), "B" becomes a bomb icon (💣), and "N" turns into a skull (☠). The reverse mode decodes Wingdings symbols back to readable text. Since Wingdings is a font-level mapping, we use standard Unicode characters (Dingbats, Miscellaneous Symbols) that display consistently across all devices and browsers—no special font installation required.

Yes! Toggle the "Preview with Wingdings font" switch above. If your device has Wingdings installed (all Windows systems do, and macOS/Linux users can install it), the output will render using the authentic Wingdings typeface. When the font is applied, the visual appearance may differ slightly from our Unicode approximation. For sharing or cross-platform use, we recommend the default Unicode mode.

No, they are different fonts. Webdings was released by Microsoft in 1997 as an improved, more consistent symbol font designed specifically for web use. While Wingdings maps characters somewhat arbitrarily, Webdings follows a more logical thematic organization. Both are dingbat fonts, but Webdings has cleaner, more modern symbols. Many symbols overlap between the two, but the mappings are entirely different.

In the original Wingdings font, certain characters map to the same glyph, and some map to blank spaces. Our translator faithfully reproduces these mappings where possible. Additionally, uppercase and lowercase letters in Wingdings map to different symbols—so "A" and "a" will produce different results. Characters without a Wingdings equivalent (like some accented letters or emoji) are passed through unchanged in the output.

Wingdings gained unexpected notoriety after the 9/11 attacks. Users discovered that typing "Q33NY" (a flight number mistakenly associated with the event) in Wingdings produced a sequence showing an airplane, two building-like rectangles, a skull, and a Star of David. This was purely coincidental—the font was designed in 1990, years before the attacks—but it sparked widespread conspiracy theories. Microsoft later acknowledged it as an unfortunate coincidence.

Copy the Unicode symbols from our output and paste them anywhere—Word, Google Docs, social media, messaging apps, or design tools like Canva and Figma. Since we output standard Unicode characters, they'll display correctly on virtually any platform. For authentic Wingdings rendering in Microsoft Office, select the actual Wingdings font from the font menu and type normally. Our "Copy as Plain Text" button gives you the original text to use with the Wingdings font directly.

This tool focuses on the original Wingdings (Wingdings 1). Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3 use completely different symbol mappings and are less commonly used. Wingdings 2 features more arrows, circled numbers, and ornamental designs. Wingdings 3 is almost entirely composed of arrow variations. If you need Wingdings 2 or 3 conversion, stay tuned—we may add support in future updates.

While not as ubiquitous as in the 1990s, Wingdings remains a beloved piece of digital typography history. Modern use cases include nostalgic design projects, escape-room puzzles, coded messages in games, decorative bullet points, and creative social media content. With Y2K and retro aesthetics trending, Wingdings has seen a resurgence among designers and content creators. Plus, it's just fun to play with!

Yes! Click the swap button (↔) or toggle the direction to "Symbols → Text" mode. Paste your Wingdings symbols into the input, and the translator will decode them back to regular letters and numbers. Note that because some Wingdings symbols map to multiple possible characters in rare edge cases, the reverse conversion uses the most common mapping. For best results with reverse conversion, use the Unicode symbols generated by this tool.