Trivial but ???!

[Chris]

Please, what it the intended purpose of the 8 or so
picture fonts i.e. cars, animals, pseudo hieroglyphics
and so on. Interestingly it checks for proper spelling etc
when typing, recognizing these symbols as alpha numeric.
So is this a novelty for kids perhaps to write in code
then converting the picture fonts at the receiving as if
decoding the message and read it in reg. font, or is
there something else I'm missing here?
Please, do tell.

Chris

 

[Bob I]

Computers don't know "Letters or Numerals", all they know is the
underlying code number. You can see that number if you look in "Insert ,
Symbols". Most Fonts all have the "conventional assignment" for the
lower part the font collection (small and large letter and numerals) and
then different "symbols" for the upper range. Then came Wing Dings! And
the whole set was used for "symbols", but of course the same underlying
code is used for all fonts so you can see how you could toggle to
symbols and back. The other "symbol fonts" are a relatively new addition
to the scene but that's the story in a nutshell.