Where lies the origin of the common media buttons, play, stop, pause,… ?

1. Where did the play and pause buttons come from?
2. Where did the play symbol come from?
3. Who designed the play and pause buttons?
4. What does the play pause button mean?

Where did the play and pause buttons come from?

On reel-to-reel cassette machines originating first in the 1920's, transport controls used either identical-looking buttons with the appropriate words written directly beneath (PLAY — PAUSE — STOP etc…), or a small dial which was physically turned to point at the appropriate word and engage the function.

Where did the play symbol come from?

Where Play Came From. The short answer is no one really knows. Gizmodo says that it's from the 1960s when audiovisual was still reel-to-reel. The idea back then was that the triangle actually was an arrow, indicating which way the reel went, but this is pretty much just speculation.

Who designed the play and pause buttons?

Reportedly introduced in the 1960s by Swedish engineer Philip Olsson the play arrow was first designed to indicate the direction where the tape would go when reading on reel-to-reel tape players. Since then, we switched from cassettes to CDs, from the iPod to Spotify, but the media controls icons remain the same.

What does the play pause button mean?

a button on a video or music player which can be pressed to temporarily stop the playing of the recording.