Splash Screen

As Splash Screen ( German ( infml. ): Start screen ) is defined as a graphical placeholder that appears during loading or starting a computer program. Splash screens usually do not fill the entire screen, but are often displayed in a rectangular area in the center of the screen. However, the splash screen of an operating system usually takes up the entire screen and is called "Boot Screen".

Purpose

A splash screen is mostly used by large computer programs in order to inform the user that the program is being loaded or started. Thus ( for example by clicking on the program icon with the mouse), the user gets immediately after starting the program, a first reaction of the program and does not need to ask if the program starts at all. The splash screen will generally resolve if the main program window appears.

However, more and more small programs make use of splash screens, but mostly with marketingstrategischem background: the product is to produce or arouse associations with a splash screen, in advance by a colored design or technical cliché will be playing him. Users who know, for example, Ubuntu will remember the first thing to brown-orange tones, whereas Microsoft Word or Fedora is perceived as " blue" product.

Although a splash screen is considered by many users and developers rather than a gimmick, is natively supported since version 6.0 of the Java Runtime Environment to display a splash screen so that the user already sees a reaction of the program before the classes loaded for the graphical user interface were that would otherwise be necessary for a splash screen. This underlines the importance of a splash screen for the perceived response time of a program.