Skip to content

WYSIWYG

In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

Version
v1 · 2026-09-28 · History
Domain-specific #
12922
Domain group
Professional & Organizational Practice
Origin domain
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Subdomains
User Interface Design, Document Editing → Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

Core Idea

WYSIWYG is treated here as the recurring computer_science_and_information identity summarized by this source-grounded definition: In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation. WYSIWYG implies a user interface that allows the user to view something very similar to the result while the document is being created. In general, WYSIWYG implies the ability to directly manipulate the layout of a document without having to type or remember names of layout commands.

WYSIAYG, what you see is all you get, used to point out that advanced users are sometimes limited by the user interface. WYSIMOLWYG, what you see is more or less what you get, recognizing that most WYSIWYG implementations are imperfect. 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, but home computers of the 1970s and early 1980s lacks the graphics capabilities necessary to display WYSIWYG documents, and such applications are usually confined to limited-purpose, high-end workstations (such as the IBM Displaywriter System) that were too expensive for the general public to afford.

For WYSIWYG, the abstraction is narrower than the article's general subject matter: a positive case must preserve In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation. Retaining only the name, a familiar example, or a downstream effect is insufficient. The specialist roles and tests remain anchored in computer_science_and_information, which is why this identity is domain-specific rather than prime.

Structural Signature

Sig role-phrases:

  • Defining carrier — By 1981, MicroPro advertised that its WordStar word processor had WYSIWYG, but its display was limited to displaying styled text in WYSIWYG fashion; bold and italic text was displayed on screen instead of being surrounded by tags or special control characters.
  • Constitutive relation — PC Magazine wrote in 1988 that despite "heroic steps" by many companies, IBM PC-based word processors "are still unsatisfying" compared to those on Macintosh.
  • Operating condition — In this environment there is very little distinction between text editors and word processors.
  • Recognition evidence — Each program has 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.
  • Admissible variation — The Macintosh system was originally designed so that the screen resolution and the resolution of the ImageWriter dot-matrix printers sold by Apple is easily scaled: 72 PPI for the screen and 144 DPI for the printers.
  • Characteristic consequence — Thus, while a Macintosh monitor has the same 640 × 480 resolution as a PC, a screen is fixed at 832 × 624 rather than the 800 × 600 resolution used by PCs.
  • Failure boundary — The phrase "what you see is what you get", from which the acronym derives, was a catchphrase popularized by Flip Wilson's drag persona Geraldine, first appearing in September 1969, then regularly in the early 1970s on The Flip Wilson Show.

What It Is Not

  • Not the whole field of computer_science_and_information. The node requires the specific identity stated by In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.
  • Not an over-broad reading. Users enter special non-printing control codes (now referred to as markup code tags) to indicate that some text should be in boldface, italics, or a different typeface or size.
  • Not an over-broad reading. 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.
  • Not an over-broad reading. Thus, while a Macintosh monitor has the same 640 × 480 resolution as a PC, a screen is fixed at 832 × 624 rather than the 800 × 600 resolution used by PCs.
  • Not automatically Music engraving. Retrieval proximity does not establish equivalence; the two identities must be compared by carrier, operation, and failure boundary.

Scope of Application

WYSIWYG applies literally inside computer_science_and_information wherever the source-defined carrier and relation can be established. Its documented habitats include:

  • History. 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, but home computers of the 1970s and early 1980s lacks the graphics capabilities necessary to display WYSIWYG documents, and such applications are usually confined to limited-purpose, high-end workstations (such as the IBM Displaywriter System) that were too expensive for the general public to afford.
  • History. These applications typically use an arbitrary markup language to define the codes/tags.
  • History. The use of markup tags and codes remains popular today in some applications due to their ability to store complex formatting information.
  • History. 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).
  • History. Thus, while a Macintosh monitor has the same 640 × 480 resolution as a PC, a screen is fixed at 832 × 624 rather than the 800 × 600 resolution used by PCs.
  • Variations. Many variations are used only to illustrate a point or make a joke, and have very limited real use.

Outside computer_science_and_information, the name should be retained only when these same operational conditions survive; otherwise the comparison belongs to the broader parent Pattern or should be marked as analogy.

Clarity

A clear use of WYSIWYG names the carrier, the operative relation, and the conditions under which the source treats the identity as present. The minimal definition is In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation. The strongest recognition evidence in the frozen account is: Each program has 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. A report should distinguish that evidence from a proxy, consequence, or common implementation. It should also state the qualification Users enter special non-printing control codes (now referred to as markup code tags) to indicate that some text should be in boldface, italics, or a different typeface or size. so that a reader can reproduce the classification rather than infer it from topical resemblance.

Manages Complexity

WYSIWYG compresses multiple computer_science_and_information details into a stable diagnostic relation. The source shows both the central mechanism—pC Magazine wrote in 1988 that despite "heroic steps" by many companies, IBM PC-based word processors "are still unsatisfying" compared to those on Macintosh.—and the practical consequence—thus, while a Macintosh monitor has the same 640 × 480 resolution as a PC, a screen is fixed at 832 × 624 rather than the 800 × 600 resolution used by PCs. This compression makes cases comparable while leaving parameters, conventions, exceptions, and evidential quality explicit. It is lossy by design: local history and implementation details may be omitted only when they do not alter the defining relation.

Abstract Reasoning

  1. Type the carrier. Identify the computer_science_and_information entities to which the claim applies.
  2. State the relation. Use the source-grounded identity: In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.
  3. Check operation and conditions. In this environment there is very little distinction between text editors and word processors.
  4. Demand recognition evidence. Each program has 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.
  5. Test variation. Change an implementation or setting while preserving the Macintosh system was originally designed so that the screen resolution and the resolution of the ImageWriter dot-matrix printers sold by Apple is easily scaled: 72 PPI for the screen and 144 DPI for the printers.
  6. Run the collapse test. Remove the defining operation; if the label still seems equally apt, only a topic or correlate was retained.
  7. Reduce cautiously. When the specialist conditions cannot be carried, route the residual comparison to Pattern.

Knowledge Transfer

Within the home domain. Knowledge about WYSIWYG transfers literally when a new case preserves the same carrier type, relation, and recognition test. 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, but home computers of the 1970s and early 1980s lacks the graphics capabilities necessary to display WYSIWYG documents, and such applications are usually confined to limited-purpose, high-end workstations (such as the IBM Displaywriter System) that were too expensive for the general public to afford. These applications typically use an arbitrary markup language to define the codes/tags.

Beyond the home domain. No canonical parent is asserted for WYSIWYG. An outside case receives the specialist name only when the same typed roles and rejection conditions can be filled literally; otherwise the comparison remains an analogy pending later graph densification.

Examples

Canonical

As improving technology allowed the production of cheaper bitmapped displays, WYSIWYG software appeared in more popular computers, including LisaWrite for the Apple Lisa, released in 1983, and MacWrite for the Apple Macintosh, released in 1984. This case is canonical because it supplies a concrete carrier and lets the defining relation be checked rather than merely named.

Mapped back: carrier → the entities in the documented case; operation → In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation; recognition evidence → Each program has 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

Applied / In Practice

Thus, the scale and dimensions of the on-screen display in programs such as MacWrite and MacPaint are easily translated to the printed output. The applied case shows how the identity is used under a second setting or qualification while keeping the same operative relation.

Mapped back: changed setting → History; invariant → In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation; boundary → the case exits the class when users enter special non-printing control codes (now referred to as markup code tags) to indicate that some text should be in boldface, italics, or a different typeface or size

Structural Tensions

T1 — Stable identity versus admissible variation. Users enter special non-printing control codes (now referred to as markup code tags) to indicate that some text should be in boldface, italics, or a different typeface or size. The tension matters because emphasizing only one side either dissolves the identity or overstates what the evidence and domain conventions warrant.

Diagnostic: Which changes preserve the defining relation, and which replace it?

T2 — Recognition versus proxy. 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. The tension matters because emphasizing only one side either dissolves the identity or overstates what the evidence and domain conventions warrant.

Diagnostic: Does the cited evidence establish the identity or only a correlated sign?

T3 — Definition versus implementation. Thus, while a Macintosh monitor has the same 640 × 480 resolution as a PC, a screen is fixed at 832 × 624 rather than the 800 × 600 resolution used by PCs. The tension matters because emphasizing only one side either dissolves the identity or overstates what the evidence and domain conventions warrant.

Diagnostic: Is the observed implementation constitutive, optional, or merely common?

T4 — Scope versus overextension. WYSINWYW, what you see is not what you want, suggesting that Microsoft Word often controls the user, not the other way around. The tension matters because emphasizing only one side either dissolves the identity or overstates what the evidence and domain conventions warrant.

Diagnostic: Can every claimed application fill the same typed roles without metaphor?

T5 — Transfer versus domain accent. By 1981, MicroPro advertised that its WordStar word processor had WYSIWYG, but its display was limited to displaying styled text in WYSIWYG fashion; bold and italic text was displayed on screen instead of being surrounded by tags or special control characters. The tension matters because emphasizing only one side either dissolves the identity or overstates what the evidence and domain conventions warrant.

Diagnostic: Does the receiving case instantiate WYSIWYG literally, co-instantiate Pattern, or only resemble it?

T6 — Autonomy versus reduction. PC Magazine wrote in 1988 that despite "heroic steps" by many companies, IBM PC-based word processors "are still unsatisfying" compared to those on Macintosh. The tension matters because emphasizing only one side either dissolves the identity or overstates what the evidence and domain conventions warrant.

Diagnostic: What does WYSIWYG distinguish that the broader parent Pattern leaves together?

Structural–Framed Character

WYSIWYG is structural-leaning. Its structural side is the repeatable organization summarized by In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation. Its framed side is the computer_science_and_information vocabulary that fixes the carrier, evidence, exceptions, and admissible transformations.

Evaluative weight: the identity can be stated descriptively even when applications carry practical stakes. Human-practice dependence: the source-grounded carrier determines whether the relation exists independently or is constituted by a practice. Institutional origin: disciplinary conventions stabilize the name and test. Vocabulary portability: In this environment there is very little distinction between text editors and word processors. Import versus recognition: literal transfer requires the same mechanism; shape alone is analogy.

Its portable skeleton is Pattern. Its character: a recurring specialist identity whose thin organization can be abstracted, while its operational meaning remains domain-bound.

Structural Core vs. Domain Accent

What is skeletal. In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation. The stable skeleton is the typed relation expressed in that definition and the entry's recognition and collapse tests. The source identifies these operative conditions: By 1981, MicroPro advertised that its WordStar word processor had WYSIWYG, but its display was limited to displaying styled text in WYSIWYG fashion; bold and italic text was displayed on screen instead of being surrounded by tags or special control characters. PC Magazine wrote in 1988 that despite "heroic steps" by many companies, IBM PC-based word processors "are still unsatisfying" compared to those on Macintosh. It further constrains recognition and variation through: In this environment there is very little distinction between text editors and word processors. Each program has 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.

What is domain-bound. computer science and information supplies the operative entities, technical vocabulary, warrants, and exceptions that make WYSIWYG literal. Its documented scope includes the condition that 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, but home computers of the 1970s and early 1980s lacks the graphics capabilities necessary to display WYSIWYG documents, and such applications are usually confined to limited-purpose, high-end workstations (such as the IBM Displaywriter System) that were too expensive for the general public to afford. Another bounded application condition is that These applications typically use an arbitrary markup language to define the codes/tags. These are not decorative examples; they determine which carrier and evidence can fill the abstraction's roles.

Why no parent is asserted. Removing those specialist details does not currently yield one live catalog node that is a necessary genus for every instance. The entry is therefore approved as unparented rather than attached by topical resemblance. Its collapse evidence remains specific—The Macintosh system was originally designed so that the screen resolution and the resolution of the ImageWriter dot-matrix printers sold by Apple is easily scaled: 72 PPI for the screen and 144 DPI for the printers.—and future graph densification may discover a defensible relation only if it preserves that boundary.

  • Approved unparented node. No current live node supplies a defensible necessary genus or structural prerequisite for WYSIWYG. The reviewed identity is: In computing, WYSIWYG (; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation. The accelerated suggestion was declined because topical or lexical similarity does not establish hierarchy; the node is admitted without a parent pending later graph densification.
  • Related reasoning operations. Evidence, representation, comparison, classification, transformation, or evaluation may participate in particular cases, but participation does not make any one of them a necessary parent of every instance.

Neighborhood in Abstraction Space

WYSIWYG sits in a sparse region of the domain-specific corpus (95th percentile for distinctiveness): few abstractions share its structure, so a faithful description tends to retrieve it precisely.

Family — Phonological Classification & Sound Change (8 abstractions)

Nearest neighbors

Computed from structural-signature embeddings · 2026-10-08

Not to Be Confused With

  • Pattern. The parent omits the specialist differentia. Tell: Can the case establish In computing, WYSIWYG ( ; what you see is what you get) is software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation?
  • Music engraving. The exacting design and preparation of publishable music notation so simultaneous pitch, rhythm, text, articulation and layout relations remain readable, aligned and reproducible across pages and performers. Tell: Which entry's carrier, operation, and failure condition are satisfied?
  • Stropping (syntax). A programming-language notation technique marking character sequences so keywords or special identifiers occupy a namespace distinct from ordinary names. Tell: Which entry's carrier, operation, and failure condition are satisfied?
  • Typometry (printing). Compose maps, diagrams, and other nontextual images for relief printing from reusable movable-type elements, rules, and modular symbols rather than engraving a unique continuous plate. Tell: Which entry's carrier, operation, and failure condition are satisfied?
  • A measurement, proxy, or consequence. Those may provide evidence without being the identity. Tell: Would WYSIWYG remain present if the detector or downstream effect changed?
  • A metaphorical analogue. A similar shape outside computer_science_and_information lacks the specialist mechanism. Tell: Do the native roles transfer literally, or only the parent Pattern?

References

  • Frozen Wikipedia discovery revision: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG (revision 1361386468).
  • Preserved source candidate: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wysiwyg
  • Preserved source candidate: https://web.archive.org/web/20071130002644/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/WYSIWYG
  • Preserved source candidate: http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0963250
  • Preserved source candidate: https://archive.today/20130131064847/http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0963250
  • Preserved source candidate: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-ivanovs/wysiwyg-website-builders_b_8814882.html
  • Preserved source candidate: https://web.archive.org/web/20151216052905/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-ivanovs/wysiwyg-website-builders_b_8814882.html
  • Preserved source candidate: https://archive.org/details/sextantissue1spring1982/page/n18/mode/1up
  • Preserved source candidate: https://www.computer.org/web/computingnow/annals/extras/wordvol28n4

The frozen Wikipedia revision is discovery provenance. The retained source set was reviewed for identity, formal or operational relation, and scope. The encyclopedia's structural synthesis is bounded to those claims; a thin authority surface is recorded as a nonblocking source-strengthening repair rather than concealed.