The drag queen catchphrase that revolutionized how we edit documents
In short: Before the 1970s, computer users had to memorize complex codes to format text, like typing commands for bold or italics. WYSIWYG changed everything by letting users see the final layout on screen. But the phrase itself didn't start in a lab; it began as a statement of personal identity.
The term "what you see is what you get" was first popularized in September 1969 by Flip Wilson's drag persona, Geraldine. In that context, it was a demand for the acceptance of her entire personality and appearance, rather than a technical description of software.
The transition into computing happened in the mid-1970s. In 1974, the Xerox Alto featured a program called Bravo, which is widely considered the first to incorporate WYSIWYG technology. It displayed text with justification and proportional spacing, allowing users to manipulate layouts directly without memorizing commands. By 1978, Hewlett-Packard released BRUNO, the first commercial WYSIWYG application for overhead slides, running on the HP 1000 minicomputer.
Despite its common use today, the phrase's origin in tech is contested. One account attributes the coining to Bill Tunnicliffe during a 1978 committee meeting involving the Graphic Communications Association. Another suggests engineers at Xerox appropriated the phrase after a technophobe wife commented on the Alto's Bravo software around 1974.
While WYSIWYG made computing accessible, it also created technical hurdles. Early Macintosh systems achieved "true" WYSIWYG by scaling screen resolution (72 PPI) to match printer resolution (144 DPI). However, as hardware became more diverse with third-party printers and multisync monitors, maintaining a perfect 1:1 visual match between screen and paper became increasingly difficult.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: WYSIWYG
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