Editing Command key (section)

== History ==
{{See also|Fonts on Macintosh#Apple logo}}

Apple's computers up through the 1979 [[Apple II Plus]] did not have a command key. The first model on which it appeared was the 1980 [[Apple III]], where there are two monochrome Apple keys, both to the left of the space bar on the lowest row of the keyboard. Two other early Apple computers, the 1982 [[Apple IIe]] and the 1984 [[Apple IIc]], also had two such keys, one to the left and one to the right of the space bar; in these models, they mapped to the first two fire buttons of an attached [[joystick]]. This allowed for flexible combinations of a modifier key and base key (such as Open-Apple with C for Copy) with just a few extra wires and no ROM changes, since the Apple II could only register one key press at a time (Shift and Control keys were handled in the keyboard encoding hardware which generated ASCII codes). In all these cases, the left Apple key had an outlined "open" Apple logo, and the one on the right had an opaque, "closed" or "solid" Apple logo key. The [[Apple Lisa]] had only the closed Apple logo.

When the [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] was introduced in 1984, the keyboard had a single command key with a [[looped square]] symbol (⌘, [[Unicode|U]]+2318), because Steve Jobs said that showing the Apple logo throughout the menus as a keyboard shortcut was "taking [it] in vain".<ref name="logo_in_vain">{{ cite web | url = http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Swedish_Campground.txt | title = Swedish Campground | access-date = December 23, 2006 | last = Hertzfeld | first = Andy | work = Folklore.org: Macintosh Stories | quote = 'There are too many Apples on the screen! It's ridiculous! We're taking the Apple logo in vain! We've got to stop doing that!' }}</ref> Thus, the ⌘ symbol appears in the Macintosh menus as the primary modifier key symbol. The original Macintosh also had an Option key, which was used primarily for entering extended characters.

In 1986, the [[Apple IIGS|Apple II<small>GS</small>]] was introduced. Like the newer Macintosh computers to come, such as the [[Macintosh SE]], it used the [[Apple Desktop Bus]] for its keyboard and mouse. However, it was still an Apple II. Apple changed the keys on the II<small>GS</small>'s keyboard to Command and [[Option key|Option]], as on Mac keyboards, but added an open-Apple to the Command key, for consistency with applications for previous Apple II generations. (The Option key did not have a closed-Apple, probably because Apple II applications used the closed-Apple key much more rarely than the open-Apple key; thus there was less need to keep it around.) Because any ADB keyboard could be used with the II<small>GS</small>, all of Apple's ADB keyboards—even those intended for the Mac—also required the open-Apple, and it stuck for more than twenty years, causing confusion long after the Apple II series went out of production.

The Apple symbol was removed in the keyboard's 2007 redesign, making room for the key's name to appear—the word "command" is now printed on the key.<ref name="open_apple_closed_apple">{{ cite web | url = https://www.macworld.com/article/224807/think-retro-open-apple-closed-apple.html | title = Think Retro: Open Apple, closed Apple | access-date = September 30, 2022 | last = Phin | first = Christopher | work = MacWorld | quote = 'in 2007 Jobs’ vision was finally realized and the Apple symbol was removed for good. In its place, on U.S. keyboards, the word Command joins the ⌘, while in Europe it’s Cmd.' }}</ref>