Decoding pictures is at the root of written language. What came before emojis?
Pictograms
Pictures, such as drawings of the sun, that are thought to be the very first elements of written communication have been found in Egypt and China.
Logograms
These are symbols that stand in for words, such as £. Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji are logograms, as were some Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Ideograms
Pictures or symbols that represent ideas or abstract concepts. Modern examples include the person-in-a-wheelchair symbol, and the red man symbol at a pedestrian crossing.
Wingdings
A modern digital font that renders letters as a variety of symbols. Created when it was much more difficult to use pictures from the internet, Wingdings was a way to use images that would harmonise with text quickly and easily.
