Can You Download Prince's Symbol Font?

Since the news broke that the incomparable musician Prince died on Thursday, aged 57, fans have been memorialising him in their own ways in order to mourn the loss of his genius. If, like me, you have an urgent obsession with the literally unspeakable rebellion of early '90s Prince and his "love symbol" monicker, then you may also be wondering "where can I download Prince's Symbol font?" so that you can celebrate and share his legacy on a digital platform. And that's totally understandable, especially when you find out the complete story behind the Prince Symbol font.

Though it's become an undeniable piece of musical iconography and a supreme emblem of everything he represents, the meaning of Prince's symbol actually goes far deeper than being just an exercise in artistic branding. Chosen for its impracticality and difficulty to reproduce, the symbol was a way for a fed-up Prince to mess with Warner Bros., his record label, who were critical of the speed of his output, as a way to negotiate the contract he had with them.

In 1993, when Prince changed his name to an untypeable and unspeakable symbol, it caused problems beyond his record label. Music journalists everywhere had no way that they could feature him in their publications without having a name. So, Prince came up with the perfect solution, creating his very own custom-designed font which substituted a capital P with Prince's symbol.

The custom font was distributed to publications on a floppy disc and was also made available to download. The accompanying letter is truly a wondrous thing to behold:

So, there must be someone out there who still has an original copy of that font and has been kind enough to upload it to the internet, right? Correct. Over the years the original and much cherished font has been notoriously difficult for people to find and download online, but Mike Wehner over at The Daily Dot has actually managed to find a copy in the software of the Prince Interactive Game (of all places) and has made it available to download via a handy dropbox link along with some useful instructions.

It may seem like one of the more mundane ways to remember and celebrate the work of a musical genius, but Prince's symbol is a powerful reminder of everything that he stood for: refuting the laws of record label "ownership," risktaking innovation and the power of love and equality (did you know that "the love symbol" derives from a combination of the male and female symbols?) So cool.