Webb S. Clash of Symbols: A ride through the riches of glyphs

Springer International Publishing AG, 2018. — 246 p. — ISBN: 3319713493.From the ampersat and amerpsand, via smileys and runes to the ubiquitous presence of mathematical and other symbols in sciences and technology: both old and modern documents abound with many familiar as well as lesser known characters, symbols and other glyphs.
Yet, who would be readily able to answer any question like: ‘who chose π to represent the ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference?’ or ‘what’s the reasoning behind having a ⌘ key on my computer keyboard?’ This book is precisely for those who have always asked themselves this sort of questions.
There are obviously countless others symbols. In recent years the computing industry has devel­oped Unicode and it currently contains more than 135 000 entries. This book would like to encourage the curious reader to take a stroll through Unicode, to meet many characters that will delight the eye and, researching their history, to gain some fascinating insights.Character sketches
Signs of the times
Signs and wonders
It’s Greek to me
Meaningless marks on paper