Public Review Issue #101

Proposal to Encode an External Link Sign

The UTC has received a proposal to encode an EXTERNAL LINK SIGN as a character. The proposal itself is available for review.

The UTC is seeking public feedback on the advisability of encoding this symbol as a character. In particular, feedback on the following questions is sought:

• Is the use of an icon (current online practice for external reference links) or the use of a text character (which would require encoding a new character) more appropriate?
• Besides widespread usage of the icon for external reference links on Wikipedia and similar sites, what other graphic forms are used and considered to be equivalent in function?
• Is the external reference link icon mirrored in right-to-left contexts? Should it be?
• If a character is required, would it be relevant and sufficient to encode a single, generic external reference link symbol, expecting it to take different forms in different fonts, or would a number of different symbols be required, based on a range of distinct graphic forms?

The UTC particularly invites publishers of websites making use of external reference icons to provide their input and opinions, to indicate whether current practice is sufficient and satisfactory, or whether the encoding of one (or more) character(s) for this symbol would be useful.