20250326-fonts_are_op.txt

Fonts are OP. As a web dev and Vivaldi user, I've noticed how some web pages use fonts to display icons/symbols instead of images. Granted, that's always what fonts have done, but it's a bit harder to grasp because we think of text as text, not codes that show the corresponding letter/glyph. There are Unicode characters for virtually everything, from trash cans to computers to envelopes. The reason I generally notice them is because when I force monospace on a webpage, it will just replace any undefined characters with a hollow rectangle. Most Unicode characters are not defined in monospace fonts, at least as far as I'm aware.

I'm still more old school and believe that ASCII/ANSI should be used whenever possible, although as someone who has studied foreign languages, I can appreciate the need for UTF. But with this epiphany, I finally realize why Wingdings existed: it wasn't supposed to be analogous to all the characters we're used to: they're supposed to be used for images. I suppose this realization might have come sooner had I been around when adding images to text documents wasn't as easy/possible and I hadn't quickly dismissed Wingdings as pointless.

But seriously, being able to define, resize, and put images inline with text is pretty cool and possibly easier on the bandwidth.