Icon

An icon (from Greek εἰκών eikōn "image") is typically a painting depicting Christ, Mary, saints and/or angels, which is venerated among Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and in certain Catholic Churches.

Icons may also be cast in metal, carved in stone, embroidered on cloth, painted on wood, done in mosaic or fresco work, printed on paper or metal, etc. Icons are often illuminated with a candle or jar of oil with a wick. (Beeswax for candles and olive oil for oil lamps are preferred because they burn very cleanly, although other materials are sometimes used.) The illumination of religious images with lamps or candles is an ancient practice pre-dating Christianity.

Although common in translated works from Greek or Russian, in English iconography does not mean icon painting, and "iconographer" does not mean an artist of icons, which are painted or carved, not "written", as they are in those languages.

Comparable images from Western Christianity are generally not described as "icons", although "iconic" may be used to describe a static style of devotional image.

Icon (computing)

In computing, an icon is a pictogram displayed on a computer screen in order to help the user navigate a computer system or mobile device. The icon itself is a quickly comprehensible symbol of a software tool, function, or a data file, accessible on the system and is more like a traffic sign than a detailed illustration of the actual entity it represents. It can serve as an electronic hyperlink or file shortcut to access the program or data. The user can activate an icon using a mouse, pointer, finger, or recently voice commands. Their placement on the screen, also in relation to other icons, may provide further information to the user about their usage. In activating an icon, the user can move directly into and out of the identified function without knowing anything further about the location or requirements of the file or code.

Icons as parts of the graphical user interface of the computer system, in conjunction with windows, menus and a pointing device (mouse), belong to the much larger topic of the history of the graphical user interface that has largely supplanted the text-based interface for casual use.

Icons (TV series)

Icons was a documentary TV show that aired on G4 from May 1, 2002 to March 4, 2007. It originally focused on significant people, companies, products, history, and milestones in the world of video games.

On May 10, 2006, it was announced that Icons was relaunching on June 3 with an episode focusing on J.J. Abrams. The relaunch was an attempt to feature a broader scope on things and people that "men 18–34 care about, admire and emulate." Recent episodes about George A. Romero, Frank Miller and the history of the King Kong franchise had aired prior to the announcement. The final season focused on pop culture subjects such as Marc Ecko, The Onion, and Family Guy. The classic video game themed episodes continued to air on the network sporadically until 2008, under the new name of Game Makers, unrelated to the G4 series of the same name.

Episodes from Icons

Season one

Season two

Season three

Season four

Season five

Specially released episodes

At least seven of these episodes were put onto versions of the games they were about.