WYSIWYG implies a 

user interface that allows the user to view something very similar to the end 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. The actual
meaning depends on the user's perspective, e.g.

 In presentation programs, compound documents and web pages, WYSIWYG means the display

precisely represents the appearance of the page displayed to the end-user, but does not necessarily
reflect how the page will be printed unless the printer is specifically matched to the editing program,
as it was with the Xerox Star and early versions of the Apple Macintosh.
 In word processing and desktop publishing applications, WYSIWYG means that the display
simulates the appearance and precisely represents the effect of fonts and line breaks on the final
pagination using a specific printer configuration, so that a citation on page 1 of a 500-page document
can accurately refer to a reference three hundred pages later. [1]
 WYSIWYG also describes ways to manipulate 3D models in stereochemistry, computer-aided
design, 3D computer graphics and is the brand name of CAST Software's lighting design tool used in
the theatre industry for pre-visualisation of shows.

The program on the left uses a WYSIWYG editor to produce a Lorem Ipsum document. The program on the right
contains LaTeX code, which when compiled will produce a document that will look very similar to the document on the left.
Compilation of formatting code is not a WYSIWYG process.

Modern software does a good job of optimizing the screen display for a particular type of output. For
example, a word processor is optimized for output to a typical printer. The software often emulates the
resolution of the printer in order to get as close as possible to WYSIWYG. However, that is not the main
attraction of WYSIWYG, which is the ability of the user to be able to visualize what he or she is producing.
In many situations, the subtle differences between what the user sees and what the user gets are
unimportant. In fact, applications may offer multiple WYSIWYG modes with different levels of "realism,"
including

 A composition mode, in which the user sees something somewhat similar to the end result, but
with additional information useful while composing, such as section breaks and non-printing
characters, and uses a layout that is more conducive to composing than to layout.
 A layout mode, in which the user sees something very similar to the end result, but with some
additional information useful in ensuring that elements are properly aligned and spaced, such as
margin lines.
 A preview mode, in which the application attempts to present a representation that is as close to
the final result as possible.

Applications may deliberately deviate or offer alternative composing layouts from a WYSIWYG because
of overhead or the user's preference to enter commands or code directly.

[edit]Historical notes

Compound document displayed on Xerox 8010 Star system

Before the adoption of WYSIWYG techniques, text appeared in editors using the system
standard typeface and style with little indication of layout (margins, spacing, et cetera). 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, italics, or a different typeface or size.

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 so disrupt the desired layout and flow.

Bravo, a document preparation program for the Alto produced at Xerox PARC by Butler Lampson,
Charles Simonyi and colleagues in 1974, is generally considered the first program to incorporate
WYSIWYG technology, displaying text with formatting (e.g. with justification, fonts, and proportional
spacing of characters). The Alto monitor (72 pixels per inch) was designed so that one full page of text
could be seen and then printed on the first laser printers. When the text was laid out on the screen 72 PPI
font metric files were used, but when printed 300 PPI files were used — thus one would occasionally find
characters and words slightly off, a problem that continues to this day. (72 PPI came from a new measure
of 72 "PostScript points" per inch. Prior to this, the standard measure of 72.27 points per inch was used in
typeface design, graphic design, typesetting and printing.)

Bravo was never released commercially, but the software eventually included in the Xerox Star can be
seen as a direct descendant of it.[2]

In parallel with but independent of the work at Xerox PARC, Hewlett Packard developed and released in
late 1978 the first commercial WYSIWYG software application for producing overhead slides or what
today are called presentation graphics. The first release, named BRUNO (after an HP sales training
puppet), ran on the HP 1000 minicomputer taking advantage of HP's first bitmapped computer terminal
the HP 2640. BRUNO was then ported to the HP-3000 and re-released as "HP Draw".

In the 1970s and early 1980s, most popular home computers 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. Towards the mid 1980s, however, things began to change.
Improving technology allowed the production of cheaper bitmapped displays, and WYSIWYG software
started to appear for more popular computers, including LisaWrite for the Apple Lisa, released in 1983,
and MacWrite for the Apple Macintosh, released in 1984.

The Apple Macintosh system was originally designed so that the screen resolution and the resolution of
the ImageWriter dot-matrix printers sold by Apple were easily scaled: 72 PPI for the screen and
144 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 a higher 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 72dpi. These resolutions often differed from the
VGA-standard resolutions common in the PC world at the time. Thus, while a Macintosh 14" monitor had
the same 640x480 resolution as a PC, a 16" screen would be fixed at 832x624 rather than the 800x600
resolution used by PCs. With the introduction of third-party dot-matrix printers as well as laser
printers and multisync monitors, resolutions deviated from even multiples of the screen resolution, making
true WYSIWYG harder to achieve.

[edit]Etymology

Origination of this phrase from one of the engineers (Larry Sinclair) at Triple I (Information International)
to express the idea that what the user sees on the screen is what the user gets on the printer on the
"Page Layout System" a pre-press typesetting system at the time called the Automated Information
Documentation System (AIDS) first prototype shown at ANPS in Las Vegas and bought right off the
showroom floor by the Pasadena Star News that year. [when?]

The phrase was originated by a newsletter published by Arlene and Jose Ramos, called WYSIWYG. It
was created for the emerging Pre-Press industry going electronic in the late 1970s. After three years of
publishing, the newsletter was sold to employees at the Stanford Research Institute in California.

Seybold and the researchers at PARC were simply reappropriating a popular catch phrase of the time
originated by "Geraldine", Flip Wilson's drag persona from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in the late 60s and
then on The Flip Wilson Show (1970–1974).[3][4]