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On computer displays, a computer icon is a small pictogram. Icons have been used to supplement the normal alphanumerics of the computer. Modern computers now can handle bitmapped graphics on the display terminal, so the icons are widely used to assist users. A computer icon usually ranges from 16 by 16 pixels up to 128 by 128 pixels. Some upcoming OSs will feature icons up to 512 by 512 pixels. When the graphical output device has a smaller size, the icon size is small. Vision impaired users (due to such conditions as poor lighting, tired eyes, medical impairments, bright backgrounds, or color blindness) may need to utilize the self-selected icon size options. Icons may represents a file, folder, application or device on a computer operating system. In modern usage today, the Icon can represent anything that the users want it to: any macro command or process, mood-signalling, or any other indicator. User friendliness also demands error-free operation, where the icons are distinct from each other, self explanatory, and easily visible under all possible user setups. Icons were first developed as a tool for making computer interfaces easier for novices to grasp in the 1970s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center facility. Icon-driven interfaces were later popularized by the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating environments. Icons may also be found on the desktop, toolbars and in the menus of computer application software such as Microsoft Word. Icons are made more use-friendly by being very clear from every other icon. Each Icon-set may also have unifying features that show that similar icons are related to each other. Icons show this by: Virtually every major computer operating system has the ability to use an icon-based graphical user interface (GUI) to display information to end users.
Function or program icons
Document icons In certain views of folders or directories in a GUI all the documents or files are represented as icons, in addition to their file name and, in certain cases, other details. In most systems and for most files these icons are generic images, representing the program used to create the file, or the file type. In this case, the comments made in the previous paragraph concerning the icon as an art form also apply to file icons. In the case of graphic files most modern systems replace the generic icon with a reduced image of the graphic. This reduced image usually fits into a 128 by 128 or a 117 by 117 pixel box, depending on the operating system used. It is available in a "thumbnail view" or within some other specialized viewing area on the screen. The most recent systems and the most recent applications often generate such reduced images from other types of files in programs which have not been traditionally viewed as "graphics," such as word processor software, text files, or business presentation programs such as Agnubis, Impress, or PowerPoint. See also | ||||||||||
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