On and Off
By glazou on Friday 19 December 2003, 21:03 - General - Permalink
Maria and I were just wondering who designed the on/off logo we see so often. And why this partial circle and short line represent on/off...
Next events
- 9-11 may-2012, CSS WG meeting, Hamburg, Germany
- 29 oct-2 nov 2012, W3C Technical Plenary Meeting, Lyon, France
Comments
Maybe the meaning is that the line can be rotated to make a whole circle?
As in hitting a switch and allowing the electric current to power something?
Maybe the question is : why did he design it like that?
Une explication que je ne me hazarderai pas à exprimer en anglais :
Le trait pourrait représenter le doigt de l'utlisateur en train d'appuyer sur le bouton poussoir on/off, le cercle. Le tout stylisé en relief, très, très stylisé (le cercle non fermé au niveau du doigt).
I'm pretty sure its the a 0 and a 1, the zero meaning off and the one meaning on. Old computers with switches on the back have a 1 and a zero instead of the universal power icon. That's just what I've always assumed.
It looks like stylized old switches like this one www.capdesh.com/bases/ele... .
Is think too that it means the 0 and 1... But this is not the on/off symbol, this is the deactivation symbol ;-). In the on/off symbol, the circle is closed, and the short line is inside.
I assume that it was decided that the sleep logo will be a partial on/off logo, so the line has been placed a litte upper so the circle would be broken.
PS: Congratulations for your new blog
bonjour
j'ai toujours compris ce dessin comme une transposition d'un interupteur mécanique rotatif (qui ressemblerait a celui de votre plaque electrique) en 2D... ?!? pourquoi pas...
en ce sens, je voterais pour la solution de Bob
bonne continuation
looks like how a knob would work to me... turn it all the way and you break the current flow.....
Ca ressemble assez au schéma des interrupteurs à deux positions que je faisais au lycée. On bascule à droite ou à gauche.
Ceci dit je ne suis pas sûr du tout que c'est censé représenter quelque chose
I have always assumed this logo represented a 0 and a 1. I have not even wondered it could be something else...
If you want to know more than you ever wanted to know on the subject, plus read some interesting observations, and learn that everyone else is confused too, see this:
www.sims.berkeley.edu/cou...