Bookshelf Symbol 7

Typeface

Bookshelf Symbol 7

Category| Symbol
Foundry| Ricoh
Date released| c. 2003
Sample

Bookshelf Symbol 7 is a typeface which was packaged with Microsoft Office 2003. It is a pi font encoding several less common variants of Roman letters (including a small subset of those used in the International Phonetic Alphabet), a few musical symbols and mathematical symbols, a few additional symbols (including torii), and a few rare or obscure kanji.

## Controversy

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In late 2003, several customers contacted Microsoft about the inclusion of two swastikas in this font (one diagonal, one straight), complaining that they did not like having the font on their computers.[1][2] After being informed of the issue, Microsoft contacted several Jewish organizations about the font.[1]

In December 2003, Microsoft published a tool to remove the font from Microsoft Office, and Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President for Microsoft Office, issued a public apology on behalf of Microsoft for the inclusion of the swastikas.[3][4] Microsoft Office product manager Simon Marks clarified that the font was based on a Japanese font set, and the inclusion of the swastikas was accidental.[1]

In February 2004, Microsoft released a critical update (KB833407) for Microsoft Office 2003 to remove "unacceptable symbols" from this font.[5] This update removed the two swastikas and a Star of David from this typeface.[6][2] According to Microsoft Office product manager Simon Marks, the Star of David was removed from Bookshelf Symbol 7 due to its proximity to the swastikas, but remains in other fonts shipped by Microsoft.[2]

The removed symbols are shown in the chart below at 0x7E, 0x86, and 0x74.

## Encoding

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Bookshelf Symbol 7  | 0  | 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | 6  | 7  | 8  | 9  | A  | B  | C  | D  | E  | F

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0x  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
1x  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
2x  |  SP | ǎ
01CE | ā́ | b́ | B́ | C̀ | D́ | D̀ | F́ | f́ | ℉
2109 | Ǵ
01F4 | G̀ | H́ | h́ | ǐ
01D0
3x  | ī́ | Ḿ
1E3E | m̥ | Ǹ
01F8 | Ṕ
1E54 | ṕ
1E55 | P̀ | Q́ | q́ | Q̀ | S̀ | T́ | t́ | T̀ | ṭ
1E6D | V́
4x  | V̀ | X́ | ȳ
0233 | ɑ́ | ɑ̀ | ɑ̃ | ɪ́ | ɪ̀ | ᴜ
1D1C | ᴜ́ | ᴜ̀ | ʌ́ | ʌ̀ | ə́ | ə̀ | ɚ́
5x  | ɚ̀ | ɔ́ | ɔ̀ | ɔ̃ | ɛ̃ | æ̀ | œ́ | œ̃ | ʤ
02A4 | ŋ
014B | 1̇ | 3̇ | 4́ | 8́ | －́ | －̀
6x  | 〜́ | 〜̀ | …́ | ♩
2669 | 𝄐
1D110 | 𝄑
1D111 | ♮
266E |  𝅝
1D15D | 𝄞
1D11E | 𝄪
1D12A | [a]
0024 | ∓
2213 | ≓
2253 | =⃥ | ↘
2198 | ↗
2197
7x  | ✓
2713 | ┒
2512 | ‴
2034 | ┈
2508 | ✡[b]
2721 | ⁂
2042 | [c] | ♥
2665 | ♠
2660 | ⁀
2040 | ‿
203F | ︷
FE37 | 悪⃝ | 善⃝ | ࿕[d] |
8x  | ヘ[e] | 〽
303D | ﹅
FE45 | ◦
25E6 | •
2022 | ⛩
26E9 | ࿕[f]
0FD5 | 𥝱
25771 | 𩺊
29E8A | 焮
712E | 莽
83BD | 攲
6532 | 麽
9EBD | 𩸽
29E3D | 鯼
9BFC | 〻
303B
9x  | [g] | 汴
6C74 | 㕞
355E |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Ax  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Bx  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Cx  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Dx  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Ex  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Fx  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

1. ^ Double barred dollar sign.
2. ^ Removed by KB833407.
3. ^ Turned asterism, i.e. ⁂ upside down.
4. ^ Diagonal right-pointing swastika, similar in orientation and rotation to the thick grotesque type-style form used by Nazi Germany.[7] Removed by KB833407.
5. ^ Resembles 〽 but with only one peak.
6. ^ Unicode U+0FD5 (as a religious symbol) or U+5350 (as a kanji).[7] Possibly intended as a symbol for a Buddhist temple[4] (especially given that it follows the ⛩ (torii) for a Shinto shrine), but the usual map symbol is the left-pointing 卍 (U+0FD6 or U+534D).[4] Removed by KB833407.
7. ^ IDS ⿰虫⿱廿内. Resembles 蜗, but with 廿 instead of 口. It may be U+8739 蜹.

## References

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1. ^ a b c "Microsoft to Cut Swastikas from Fonts". Seattle: Reuters. 2003-12-12. Archived from the original on 2003-12-31.
2. ^ a b c Rupley, Sebastian (2004-02-13). "Microsoft's Font Foibles". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on 2015-06-01.
3. ^ Sinofsky, Steven (2003-12-12). "An Open Letter from Senior Vice President Steven Sinofsky". Microsoft. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
4. ^ a b c Walkenbach, John (2003-12-13). "More Swastika Stuff". J-Walk Blog. Archived from the original on 2004-12-25. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
5. ^ "A critical update is available to remove unacceptable symbols from the Bookshelf Symbol 7 font". Microsoft Support. Microsoft. 2004-02-10. Archived from the original on 2004-02-25.
6. ^ Haines, Lester (2004-02-11). "MS tears swastika from roof of Office". The Register. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
7. ^ a b Everson, Michael; Fynn, Christopher; Scharf, Peter; West, Andrew (2007-05-09). "N3268 L2/07-148: Proposal to encode four religious characters in the Tibetan block" (PDF).

## External links

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* Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 833407 (archive)
* An Open Letter from Senior Vice President Steven Sinofsky
* Table displaying the full Microsoft Office XP Bookshelf Symbol 7 font (archive)