Symbols have dual nature. They are numbers - also called symbol codes - that are then looked up in a font file where codes are tied to their visual representations - vector pictures. Using this sequence of symbol codes and font file pictures programs (like your web browser) produce text, like this one, for example. So there are two important things that work together - code sequence and currently used font file. Unrecognised codes - those that aren't mapped in a font file usually get represented as ☐'s or ?'s just because it's a convention that makes people get what is wrong.

Getting back to the problem of creating symbols, you can make a font file. It that font file you can map numbers to your own vector images. You can then install that font on your system and when you'll choose to write in it - in Photoshop, for example, you will be able to use your symbols. But there is no way you can send that as text to your friends via Facebook, for example, because Facebook uses another font. For people to see your symbols, they basically have to have your font file and this font file has to be the one chosen for recognising the codes - the text, the symbols that you wrote.

If you have your own website, you can make your visitors' browsers download and use your font file for representing text on your website. As a good example, I use a special font on this website for headers. You don't have that one installed on your computer. So you do make and can use your own symbols on your own website by making your own fonts.

An example of a successful practical custom font for websites would be GlyphIcons. It was originally a library of icons for websites, but it took a relatively long time to style the icons in right colors before using them and all of that. So author decided to make a font, because it's much faster to implement them into one's website this way.

On my system I found Firefox and Opera displaying most symbols, Safari showing (only a bit) smaller number of symbols, Chrome even less and Internet Explorer on Windows less than 7.. entirely out-of-the-league. Fonts (libraries that have codes mapped to vector images of letters, symbols and all the stuff that you see as computer text) that are currently displaying the text don't have the required characters painted as a part of them. It turns out, that even different browsers use different installations of same-name fonts. You can see that some symbols that look so on this browser look different in another one.

"Combos"

Some symbols can form "combos" (like in video games =) ) and don't work if you put them one after another. So if you see some of your symbols turning into squares after you have put some new symbol into the input field - that might be a problem. To solve it just press "Ctrl" + "Z" and don't put these troublemaker symbols. Or put them in a first place, or well, it looks like they work if you put them in separate lines.

Example

Remember, that you may not see all the symbols anyway, and that's okay. Though, if you won't see A LOT of them - you'll have to get another system or take a look at the next answer.

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