Editing Icon (computing) (section)

{{Short description|Ideogram used in computing}}
{{multiple image
| footer   = [[Computer icon#Desktop metaphor icons|Desktop]] icons for file/data transfer, clock/awaiting, and running a program.
| width    = 100

| image1   = Data-transfer.svg

| image2   = Awaiting.svg

| image3   = Run.svg
}}
In [[computing]], an '''icon''' is a [[pictogram]] or [[ideogram]] displayed on a [[computer screen]] in order to help the user navigate a [[computer system]]. The icon itself is a quickly comprehensible symbol of a [[software]] tool, function, or a [[data file]], accessible on the system and is more like a [[traffic sign]] than a detailed [[illustration]] of the actual entity it represents.<ref name="BusinessWeek">{{cite web |url = http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-07/former-apple-designer-kare-testifies-at-samsung-patent-trial |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120810000453/http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-07/former-apple-designer-kare-testifies-at-samsung-patent-trial |url-status = dead |archive-date = August 10, 2012 |title=Former Apple Designer Kare Testifies at Samsung Patent Trial |first=Joel|last=Rosenblatt |date=August 7, 2012 | work=[[Businessweek]] |publisher=[[Bloomberg LP]]|access-date=August 7, 2012}}</ref> It can serve as an electronic [[hyperlink]] or [[file shortcut]] to access the program or data. The user can activate an icon using a mouse, pointer, finger, or [[voice command]]s. Their placement on the screen, also in relation to other icons, may provide further information to the user about their usage.<ref name="ICT Pictograms, Icons and Symbols"/> In activating an icon, the user can move directly into and out of the identified function without knowing anything further about the location or requirements of the file or code.

Icons as parts of the [[graphical user interface]] of a computer system, in conjunction with [[window (computing)|windows]], [[Menu (computing)|menus]] and a [[pointing device]] (mouse), belong to the much larger topic of the [[history of the graphical user interface]] that has largely supplanted the [[text-based interface]] for casual use.