Key symbols we lost to time, pt. 1: The PC side

✍️ About the Author

This piece is written by Marcin Wichary, a seasoned professional who has navigated the intersections of UX design, typography, and management at industry giants like Figma, Medium, and Google. Beyond his corporate experience, he is a published essayist on technology and the author of a specialized book focusing on the art of typing and keyboards.

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The Evolution of the Keyboard Interface

Historically, the keyboards of early computing—think Commodore, Atari, Amiga, and the early iterations of Apple—were often branded with company logos or featured eccentric, obscure keys.

Recently, Apple has begun shifting its American keyboard layouts to align more closely with European standards by integrating more iconography. This trend prompted a reflection on the symbols we've lost—not just the obscure ones, but those that were once standard on the platforms we still utilize today.

While this is a two-part series, we begin with the PC side, as its history of symbolic evolution started earlier.

The Great Divide: Words vs. Icons

For much of the 20th century, a philosophical battle existed between the use of text and the use of imagery. This tension was first evident in road signage:

United States: Preferred explicit words.
Europe: Relied heavily on iconography.

This wasn't merely a stylistic choice. Because Europe is a multilingual continent, a universal visual language was essential for cross-border travel. This logic eventually permeated consumer electronics and computing. By using icons, manufacturers could produce a single hardware version for the entire European market, avoiding the need for multiple $\text{SKUs}$ (Stock Keeping Units) with translated text strings.

Historical Examples from IBM

The shift is visible in IBM's hardware history:

The Selectric Typewriter (1970s): The US version used words, while the European version used symbols.
- Express: A high-speed version of Backspace.
- Index: A key to move the page downward (early precursors to arrow keys).
The IBM 1130 (1965): Featured a highly unconventional symbol to represent the Space bar.

While some scientific and laboratory computers in the 70s and 80s leaned further into iconography, these symbols were eventually discarded because office workers found them confusing.

The Survivors and the Departed

As keyboards evolved into the standard Windows/PC layouts we use today, the "war" ended with a small group of victors.

🏆 The Surviving Symbols

Only four primary icons achieved universal acceptance:

Key	Symbol	Function
`Shift`	$\text{⇧}$	Capitalization/Secondary characters
`Enter`	$\text{↵}$	Carriage return/Execution
`Tab`	$\text{⇥}$	Indentation/Navigation
`Backspace`	$\leftarrow$	Deleting previous character

📉 The Lost Symbols

Many other evocative symbols vanished. Here is a checklist of the "forgotten" icons:

Print Screen: Depicted a CRT monitor transforming into a sheet of paper.
Key Beep: A symbol used to provide auditory feedback as users transitioned from noisy typewriters to silent keys.
Reverse Tab: A now-extinct function.
Home: Historically meant "return to the top-left corner" or sometimes $\text{clear screen}$ .
Insert: ~~Now gone~~ (inspired by old proofreader marks).
Delete: Still exists, but its original proofreader-style icon is gone.

Visualizing the Transition

A Final Note on Aesthetics

The author notes that the symbols for Insert and Delete were particularly charming because they mirrored the marks used by professional proofreaders, giving the digital interface a wonderful, "old-timey" connection to the world of print.

// Conceptual representation of the "Proofreader" influence:
[ Insert ]  -->  (Symbol suggesting addition)
[ Delete ]  -->  (Symbol suggesting removal)

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we explore the Mac side of the story.