Wysiwyg meaning
Short for what you see is what you get. A word-processing or desktop publishing system in which text is displayed on a monitor exactly as it will be printed.
Relating to or being a computer system in which the screen displays text and graphics exactly as they will be printed.
adjective
A computer video screen display that shows data exactly as it will appear in printed form.
noun
(What You See Is What You Get) Pronounced "wiz-ee-wig." It refers to displaying text and graphics on screen the same as they print on paper. The term was popular in the days before graphical user interfaces (GUIs) were the norm, and everything on screen was character based. As monitors changed to graphics rather than lines of text, WYSIWYG became the norm. However, there may always be slight discrepancies between screen and printer, because monitors have less resolution. For example, a monitor might display 10,000 dots per square inch (dpi) compared to a typical printer's 360,000 dpi. See live preview and screen capture.
Pronounced wizzywig. Referring to a program that allows the user to see the document on screen just as it will appear in final form. Working with a word processing program in print view is WYSIWYG. Programming in a markup language such as HTML definitely is not.
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Pronounced “wiz-ee-wig,” it refers to the type of user interface that allows the user to see the results of editing as its occurs. In contrast to more traditional editors that require developers to enter descriptive codes, or markup, but do not allow for an immediate way to view the results of the markup, a WYSIWG editor can display the results immediately. The first WYSIWYG editor to be created was a word processing program called Bravo, invented by Charles Simonyi at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s. Bravo eventually evolved into two other very marketable WYSIWYG applications—Microsoft Word and Excel.
TechTarget. WYSIWYG. [Online, April 11, 2006.] TechTarget Website. http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213392,00.html.
Alternative spelling of WYSIWYG.
acronym
Origin of wysiwyg
- w(hat) y(ou) s(ee) i(s) w(hat) y(ou) g(et)
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition