Google translate of the official sign definition:
"sign 718 "Sight" refers to the location of tourist objects (sights of interest to tourists, heritage conservation, nature conservation or other objects);"
If I had to guess, I'd guess Henry Dreyfuss's Symbol Sourcebook. It was published in 1972, and it seems plausibly the sort of book someone like Susan Kate might have had to hand in the early '80s. https://www.societyofsigns.com/projects/symbol-sourcebook
Symbol Sourcebook would’ve been my first guess, too, but I just glanced through my copy (7th printing, 1977) and didn’t see the ⌘ symbol. The closest thing in the Graphic Form Section is a symbol for “Atomic d orbital,” but it’s clearly not the same one that inspired Susan Kare.
"Seværdigheds knappen" (The attraction button) as a former co-workers calls it.
The "control" button is slightly weirder. Why is that a ^ on some of Apples keyboards, while only having the text "ctrl" on others. The "control" vs. ctrl isn't related to space, the laptop keyboard have "control", but my full size wired Apple keyboard just have "ctrl" despite the button being physically bigger.
Ah, the Saint Hannes cross, or sankthanskors in Sweden, or hannunvaakuna in Finland. It's not so much related to campgrounds, but to mark sightseeing spots in general.
No, it's used for "ancient monument", fornminne. It might be a early modern ruin or something that isn't ancient in some scientific sense but still is a place of historical or archaeological interest, while properly old remains, at least pre-reformatory ones, i.e. older than early 1500s, are often marked with a futhark 'r'/'ᚱ'.
It's older than castles and occurs in some of the oldest scandinavian stone carvings. In the middle ages it was associated with John the baptist in Scandinavian christianity.
The use discussed here is established from the 1950s onwards, first suggested by a local history society in Finland.
Never used MacDraw, but I remember installing and using ClarisWorks in middle/high school, I never did actual programming at that age, but I loved playing around with the Mac's word processing, drawing, painting programs, making little art layouts, outlines for class notes, stuff that that.
This road sign sign means castle or other point of historic interest in Sweden.
Campgrounds have a normal descriptive “tent” symbol road sign in Sweden https://korkortonline.se/en/theory/road-signs/direction-sign...
FTA: “Finally she came across a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground”
⇒ the article likely is wrong by adding “in a campground”, but it doesn’t say it means campground; it’s ‘only’ its title that does so.
It doesn't have to be historic interest actually, it just means national heritage or place of interest (sign H22).
More like, a place "worth seeing".
The sign is also used in Estonia.
Officially defined in https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/126112024009?leiaKehtiv -> https://www.riigiteataja.ee/aktilisa/1261/1202/4009/MKM_2901... -> sign no 718.
Google translate of the official sign definition: "sign 718 "Sight" refers to the location of tourist objects (sights of interest to tourists, heritage conservation, nature conservation or other objects);"
I've definitely seem them in Norway as well.
I'm so surprised the button comes from that.
Also known as the looped square (commonly used as the place of interest sign):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looped_square
Saw one in Sweden a few months back. Had to snap a photo: https://imgur.com/a/RAseomC
"Brunnsmiljö" refers to "area with baths" (i.e. the old fashioned spa kind). The symbols under refer to restaurant, hotel, and camping cottages.
Does anyone what the "international symbol dictionary" Susan Kare used was?
I don't know, and I'd love to.
If I had to guess, I'd guess Henry Dreyfuss's Symbol Sourcebook. It was published in 1972, and it seems plausibly the sort of book someone like Susan Kate might have had to hand in the early '80s. https://www.societyofsigns.com/projects/symbol-sourcebook
Symbol Sourcebook would’ve been my first guess, too, but I just glanced through my copy (7th printing, 1977) and didn’t see the ⌘ symbol. The closest thing in the Graphic Form Section is a symbol for “Atomic d orbital,” but it’s clearly not the same one that inspired Susan Kare.
Does anybody know of a modern day equivalent in the form of a searchable symbol database maybe even with a "freehand drawn" image search?
Unicode does not quite cover it because it lacks context and meaning of combined codepoints.
(This isn't the title)
Previously:
2013 (111 points, 49 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5988557
2011 (177 points, 22 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2643611
"Seværdigheds knappen" (The attraction button) as a former co-workers calls it.
The "control" button is slightly weirder. Why is that a ^ on some of Apples keyboards, while only having the text "ctrl" on others. The "control" vs. ctrl isn't related to space, the laptop keyboard have "control", but my full size wired Apple keyboard just have "ctrl" despite the button being physically bigger.
Ah, the Saint Hannes cross, or sankthanskors in Sweden, or hannunvaakuna in Finland. It's not so much related to campgrounds, but to mark sightseeing spots in general.
No, it's used for "ancient monument", fornminne. It might be a early modern ruin or something that isn't ancient in some scientific sense but still is a place of historical or archaeological interest, while properly old remains, at least pre-reformatory ones, i.e. older than early 1500s, are often marked with a futhark 'r'/'ᚱ'.
Reading this I assumed the symbol referred to a castle with a turret in each corner
It's older than castles and occurs in some of the oldest scandinavian stone carvings. In the middle ages it was associated with John the baptist in Scandinavian christianity.
The use discussed here is established from the 1950s onwards, first suggested by a local history society in Finland.
The same sign is used in Finland. I was puzzled why Apple computers used it but I thought it was just a coincidence...!
Norway too.
Kare really is a genius isn't she?
Never used MacDraw, but I remember installing and using ClarisWorks in middle/high school, I never did actual programming at that age, but I loved playing around with the Mac's word processing, drawing, painting programs, making little art layouts, outlines for class notes, stuff that that.
Sadly, programming wasn't really feasible on the Mac per se due to Bill Gates' manipulations:
https://www.folklore.org/MacBasic.html
Eventually we got HyperCard:
https://www.folklore.org/Joining_Apple_Computer.html
Wow, somehow I had never heard the sad story of MacBasic. It's such a perfect example of why people don't trust Microsoft.