Pointing hand icon?
Hi
I was wondering if anyone knows the name of the pointing hand icon which appears in some fonts. I visited a museum in Italy last week, and I was surprised to see these pointing icons used in a book from the 16th century.
Anyone know the history of this symbol?
Thanks
Jim
14.Nov.2004 3.41pm
Fists and/or hands, as far as I recall.
Additional background available here:
http://www.typophile.com/forums/messages/30/4549.html
14.Nov.2004 4.53pm
The traditional English name is, as Grant notes, 'fist'. As an esoteric historical aside, Garamond's fists had six digits, here reproduced in our Garamond 1530:
15.Nov.2004 2.25am
"Printer's fist, fist, fist indicator, hand, poiting hand, indicator, index, digit, you name it."
From the book:
'H
15.Nov.2004 4.38am
16.Nov.2004 10.40am
John, I'm counting seven. Unless one of the fingers is missing, or conjoined, but then we'd have to define "finger"...
hhp
16.Nov.2004 11.34am
Ah, such pointed discussion. I have to hand it to you all!
16.Nov.2004 4.00pm
Here's my 2
16.Nov.2004 5.06pm
Hey, can't you guys stop talking about fists and get back to talking about hands?
Sorry...I never could resist a pun, good or bad. By the way, does anyone know the history behind calling text hand? Is that where we get handwriting from? Come on, give me a hand. (Ok, I'll stop.)
27.Nov.2004 6.29am
got a mac icon.
AS
mano (0.8 k)
27.Nov.2004 6.58am
After all, it is digital typography :-)
27.Nov.2004 1.51pm
Tiffany, that is splendid! Next time I design a fist for a typeface, I'm going to model it on the hand of Constantine.
27.Nov.2004 2.41pm
In UTF-8 the following are the html character codes for various hands (note, this probably won't display in IE... Gecko based browsers won't have a problem)
☚ BLACK LEFT POINTING INDEX
☛ BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX
☜ WHITE LEFT POINTING INDEX
☝ WHITE UP POINTING INDEX
☞ WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX
☟ WHITE DOWN POINTING INDEX
ON PREVIEW: Turns out the forum software doesn't allow character codes. You'll have to test it for yourselves.
16.Nov.2004 11.00am
Not really on topic but I thought it fun to post it anyway.
9.Apr.2007 10.04am
Hi all,
Can anyone recommend a good-looking fist? I was searching for the typeface that has fist and stumbled onto this discussion. I don't seem to have Garamond 1530 in my system. Thanks!
9.Apr.2007 11.07am
Back in September James Craig asked this question on the ATypI list:
"Ever wonder about the origins of the pointing hand?"
And then, noting that "This article may tell you more than you wish to know about the subject," posted this link:
http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/papers/FOR_2005_04_002.html
Check it out; fascinating.
powers
9.Apr.2007 11.40am
Will gets the "Fickle Finger of Fate" award :-)
ChrisL
3.Jan.2010 12.54pm
I am having a go at modern interpretations of fists...
The VR Glove already exists in 'ISOGLYPH' which is a rounded font but for what I am working on now: "Myopia', I am looking to develop something a little more pointy. I am not comfortable with seeing the fingers (it seems too polite) so I will try and put a glove on this one aswell...
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Michael Hernan