Editing WYSIWYG (section)

==History==
Before the adoption of WYSIWYG techniques, text appeared in editors using the system standard [[typeface]] and style with little indication of layout ([[margin (typography)|margins]], [[Line-spacing|spacing]], etc.). Users were required to enter special non-printing ''control codes'' (now referred to as markup ''code tags'') to indicate that some text should be in [[boldface]], [[italic type|italics]], or a different [[typeface]] or size. In this environment there was very little distinction between [[text editor]]s and [[word processor]]s.

These applications typically used an arbitrary [[markup language]] to define the codes/tags. Each program had its own special way to format a document, and it was a difficult and time-consuming process to change from one word processor to another.

The use of markup tags and codes remains popular today in some applications due to their ability to store complex formatting information. When the tags are made visible in the editor, however, they occupy space in the unformatted text, and as a result can disrupt the desired layout and flow.

[[Bravo (software)|Bravo]], a document preparation program for the [[Alto (computer)|Alto]] produced at [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]] by [[Butler Lampson]], [[Charles Simonyi]] and colleagues in 1974, is generally considered to be the first program to incorporate the WYSIWYG technology,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.computer.org/web/computingnow/annals/extras/wordvol28n4|title=Computing Now|access-date=22 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161007094104/https://www.computer.org/web/computingnow/annals/extras/wordvol28n4|archive-date=7 October 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> displaying text with formatting (e.g. with justification, fonts, and proportional spacing of characters).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/the-real-history-of-wysiwyg/?_r=0|title=The Real History of WYSIWYG|first=John|last=Markoff|website=[[The New York Times]]|date=18 October 2007 |access-date=29 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215161305/https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/the-real-history-of-wysiwyg/?_r=0|archive-date=15 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The Alto monitor (72 [[pixels per inch|PPI]], based on the [[Point (typography)|typographic unit]]) was designed so that one full page of text could be seen and then printed on the first [[laser printer]]s. When the text was laid out on the screen, 72 PPI font metric files were used, but when printed, 300 PPI files were used. As a result, one would occasionally find characters and words that are slightly off—a problem that would continue up to this day.

Bravo was released commercially, and the software eventually included in the [[Xerox Star]] can be seen as a direct descendant of it.<ref>[[Brad A. Myers]]. [https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~amulet/papers/uihistory.tr.html A Brief History of Human Computer Interaction Technology.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618110832/http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~amulet/papers/uihistory.tr.html |date=18 June 2019 }} ACM interactions. Vol. 5, no. 2, March, 1998. pp. 44–54.</ref>

In late 1978, in parallel with but independent of the work at Xerox PARC, [[Hewlett-Packard]] developed and released the first commercial WYSIWYG software application for producing overhead slides (or what today are referred to as presentation graphics). The first release, named [[BRUNO]] (after an HP sales training puppet), ran on the [[HP 1000]] minicomputer, taking advantage of [[HP 2640]]—HP's first bitmapped computer terminal. [[BRUNO]] was then ported to the HP-3000 and re-released as "HP Draw".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hpmuseum.net/pdf/ComputerFocus_1985_Sep_29pages_OCR.pdf|title=Hewlett Packard: Computer Focus|date=September 1985|website=HP Computer Museum|access-date=24 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909052157/http://www.hpmuseum.net/pdf/ComputerFocus_1985_Sep_29pages_OCR.pdf|archive-date=9 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

By 1981, [[MicroPro]] advertised that its [[WordStar]] word processor had WYSIWYG,<ref name="infoworld19810119">{{Cite magazine |date=1981-01-19 |title=Can your software pass this screen test? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kz4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=true |access-date=2025-04-12 |magazine=InfoWorld |page=5}}</ref><ref name="byte198103">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1981-03/1981_03_BYTE_06-03_Programming_Methods#page/n269/mode/2up | title=Can your word processor pass this screen test? | work=BYTE | date=March 1981 | access-date=18 October 2013 | pages=269 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140831033252/http://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1981-03/1981_03_BYTE_06-03_Programming_Methods#page/n269/mode/2up | archive-date=31 August 2014 | url-status=live }}</ref> but its display was limited to displaying [[styled text]] in WYSIWYG fashion; '''bold''' and ''italic'' text would be represented on screen, instead of being surrounded by tags or special [[control characters]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/in-the-beginning-there-was-the-word-processor/|title=In the beginning, there was the word processor|website=[[ZDNet]]|access-date=22 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923053713/http://www.zdnet.com/article/in-the-beginning-there-was-the-word-processor/|archive-date=23 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1983, the ''[[Weekly Reader]]'' advertised its [[Stickybear]] educational software with the slogan "what you see is what you get", with photographs of its Apple II graphics,<ref name="softline198301">{{cite news | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1983&pub=6&id=9 | title=What You See Is What You Get | work=Softline | date=January 1983 | access-date=2014-07-27 | pages=10–11 | type=advertisement | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703010324/http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1983&pub=6&id=9 | archive-date=3 July 2014 | url-status=live }}</ref> but [[home computer]]s of the 1970s and early 1980s lacked the sophisticated graphics capabilities necessary to display WYSIWYG documents, meaning that such applications were usually confined to limited-purpose, high-end workstations (such as the [[IBM Displaywriter System]]) that were too expensive for the general public to afford. As improving technology allowed the production of cheaper bitmapped displays, WYSIWYG software started to appear in more popular computers, including [[LisaWrite]] for the [[Apple Lisa]], released in 1983, and [[MacWrite]] for the [[Apple Macintosh]], released in 1984.<ref>{{Citation|last=Apple Computer|first=Claris|title=MacWrite|date=1984|url=http://archive.org/details/mac_MacWrite|access-date=2019-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190307105416/https://archive.org/details/mac_MacWrite|archive-date=7 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Apple Macintosh]] system was originally designed so that the [[display resolution|screen resolution]] and the resolution of the [[ImageWriter]] [[dot-matrix printer]]s sold by Apple were easily scaled: 72 PPI for the screen and 144 [[dots per inch|DPI]] for the printers. Thus, the scale and dimensions of the on-screen display in programs such as [[MacWrite]] and [[MacPaint]] were easily translated to the printed output. If the paper were held up to the screen, the printed image would be the same size as the on-screen image, but at twice the resolution. As the [[ImageWriter]] was the only model of printer physically compatible with the Macintosh printer port, this created an effective closed system. Later, when Macs using external displays became available, the resolution was fixed to the size of the screen to achieve 72 DPI. These resolutions often differed from the VGA-standard resolutions common in the PC world at the time. Thus, while a Macintosh {{convert|15|in|cm|adj=on}} monitor had the same 640&nbsp;×&nbsp;480 resolution as a PC, a {{convert|16|in|cm|adj=on}} screen would be fixed at 832&nbsp;×&nbsp;624 rather than the 800&nbsp;×&nbsp;600 resolution used by PCs. With the introduction of third-party dot-matrix printers as well as [[laser printer]]s and [[multisync]] monitors, resolutions deviated from even multiples of the screen resolution, making true WYSIWYG harder to achieve.<ref>{{Cite web |title=WYSIWYG History, Etymology, Variations, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |url=https://fr.edu.vn/en/WYSIWYG-4488080424 |access-date=2022-03-21 |website=Wiki |language=en-US}}</ref>