Computing changed forever in December 1968, when Douglas Engelbart delivered 'The Mother of All Demos' with an introduction to the roots of the graphical interface and, of course, the public presentation of the mouse. Yet between those two milestones, the pointer or cursor was also born—one that changed its shape and gained resolution over the years, but still lives on all our desktops...
So, how did it evolve? What turned a simple vertical arrow into the slightly tilted version we know today? There's actually a great deal of creative freedom, but designers not only faced serious technical limitations; they also carried the challenge of making the environment less intimidating or 'more human', if you will.
The history of the pointer, through Apple and Microsoft
The mouse pointer proved to work so well that Microsoft didn't change it for several generations. Only in Windows 95 did it receive an update, with a sharper profile and two fewer pixels.
The video published by Posy shares other very interesting details about Microsoft's pointer, especially from Windows Vista onward. We all know Redmond changed too many things (for the worse) in its operating system, and the cursor was no exception, with a certain blue tint on its edge and several levels of transparency.
Apple's later adjustments were tied to the introduction of the Retina display. With an average of four new pixels for each original pixel, its pointer didn't change the overall shape, but became much more defined.
The rest of the video gives us ideas for creating our own pointers, reveals the problems that designs have in Windows 10, and presents a new set that—I must admit—looks very good.
https://old.neoteo.com/open-cursor-library-descarga-punteros-para-mouse-raton/
