Typophile

Let's talk Symbols

ebensorkin

What do you think of the weight & position of these?

Why do we not use a rain cloud instead of an umbrella and a cloud with snowflakes or simply a snowflake rather than a snowman? What would you think about substitutes?

What do you think of the weight of these?

Note: This face is monospace so I have a bit less leeway than usual - eg the radiation symbol’s width is maxed-out.

The radiation symbol looks a bit much like an old fashioned computer tape reel, but I doubt there is much that can be done about that. Maybe lightning the outer circle to the stroke weight of the skull and bones will help, along with lengthening the fan blades.

Making the ring a little larger in the biohazard symbol might make it read better.

Very nice skull and bones. The teeth are going to be reduced beyond recognition at text sizes but the rest should hold up.

I quite often see a rain cloud (cloud with slashes underneath) on the local weather reports instead of an umbrella. Does Unicode specify “umbrella” for that position or just “rain” (or are you making this set up without regard for established Unicode symbols)? You’ll need a black cloud with a lightning bolt dropping from it for thunderstorms, if you don’t have one already. I’ll have to defer to people who live with snow for an opinion on the snowman vs. snowflake controversy.

Back up to your first two rows, the planetary symbols seem just fine but some of the others seem a touch too light. I’m a bit rusty on which of those is which, though.

Captured from web.archive.org on 5 Dec 2008. view this capture