January 19, 2005

"Symbols.com contains more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics." You can browse starting here or search using the graphic index or the word index.

This is a few years old (1998) and very possibly a re-post from before the great server crash of '04, but I'd never seen it before and I was amazed. The "browse" link is to the second group because the first group doesn't provide access to the following groups, at least that I can see.

posted by Jerry Junior 19 years ago
  • Nifty. Be nice if there was a *real* graphical search engine at the front-end, so you could just draw a squiggle and get the best matches.
  • Way cool, Junior. Can't think what I'd use it for, but I likes it!
  • Wonderful. There was a film years ago where the hero is sent an encrypted message in strange symbols: he casually reaches for a book which contains every known set of symbols. I've had a vague desire at the back of my mind for something like this ever since. Not for any particular reason, really - I suppose it's like the irrational desire for a digital watch which came over me for no apparent reason in about 1975. Anyway, this has to be )))
  • I believe ))) would be single-axis symmetric, soft, open, non-crossing.
  • Hey, they have one of my tattoos! Mine's a tiny bit different, though -- the "sun" symbol (signifying gold) is a bit smaller.
  • This is awesome. There goes more of my time down the drain...