Inkscape

How to use wingding characters in text strings?

Asked by ken@ascent-invent.com

In a text string I am using for a silk screen, I need to use an arrow that looks like the one on your keyboard enter key. I also need to use a filled triangle to point left or right. These are available in the character map for Wingdings 3. I cannot figure out how to bring the characters into my project in Inkscape. I have the remainder of the text in place and have left space for inserting the special characters later. I am happy to insert them as their own text blocks if necessary. Is there a way? I am a new user.
Thank you.
Ken

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Edouard
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Edouard (edouardst) said : 		#1

Hi,

In Wingdings 3, the character you're looking for is the "8" (as seen here : http://speakingppt.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/webdings-wingdings-character-map-speakingppt.png )

So just create a new text (the "A" icon of your toolbar), type 8, and choose wingdings 3 as your font in the font selector that has shown up in the taskbar
or
create a new text, type 8, go to your Text properties (CTRL SHIFT T or the "T" icon or under the Text > Text and Font menu) and select Wingdings 3 and hitOk.

Regards

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ken@ascent-invent.com (ken-i) said : 		#2

Thanks Edouard for the helpful method for doing this. It is different than I have tried. However it does not overcome a core issue that I have. I can select Wingdings 3 in many applications on my computer, but I cannot do so in InkScape. Wingdings and Webdings are passed over for some reason. I suppose that is more to the point. I did not know this at the time I wrote my first request for help. Can you offer any other aid for this new problem please?
Ken

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Best Edouard (edouardst) said : 		#3

Hi again,

Oh I see...Sorry for the misunderstanding, looks like bug 165665 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/165665) that is worked on ("fix commited"). In the meantime, there's a workaround described in the bug (near the end) but it seems overkill for what you're doing.

I would go with a workaround, like searching OpenClipart (https://openclipart.org/) for this kind of symbol (maybe with a better design) instead of using a special font. Or if you want this very glyph, you could type it in your word processor of choice and export it to a PDF which you can import in Inkscape.

Other options include :
- compiling Inkscape yourself (speaking of overkill ;) ),
- converting a bitmap (like the one I linked in my previous post) to a vector using Path > Trace bitmap,
- trying another font that includes this symbol,
- using a bitmap version of the symbol (type it in a text editor with a huge font size, then do a screen cap, trim around this symbol using a bitmap editor, save to png and import in Inkscape),
- drawing the arrow yourself (really easy !)

IMHO, depending on the quality you want and the use you have of thesymbol, I'd go with either OpenClipart or drawing the symbol myself.

Regards

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Edouard (edouardst) said : 		#4

(BTW, nice launchpad feature, just typing bug 165665 transforms it to a link to this bug and mouseover shows the title of the bug... impressed !)

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ken@ascent-invent.com (ken-i) said : 		#5

Thank you for the very informative reply. I thought it seemed like a bug but did not know how to ascertain. I needed three different symbols in total, and then had to repeat them in several sentences. I chose to draw them myself and then copy/paste them into all the places they were needed. In the end it worked out fine and exposed me to some of the tools that were good for me to learn about anyway. It was my first day in the saddle with InkSkape and I had a pretty slow day. For the return arrow I used the polygon function with 3 sides for the arrow head and a line with a stroke weight for the down and left stroke. Then I joined the entities together to make them one. This made for easy copy/paste into other locations.
I hope bug 165665 is solved soon, as I will be using other symbols again in the future.

Thank you for your very generous help Edouard.