From Flying Toasters to the latest in push technology data feeds, the humble screensaver is growing in importance. But what has made it so popular?
How do screensaver offerings like Natascha's Bikini and the adventures of Wallace and Gromit stack up against password protected screensavers shouting the latest stock market figures and updated while you watch?
In the early days of computing it was no great surprise to come across a damaged monitor with an image burned on to the screen.
This was the result of leaving the monitor switched on and the brightness of the on-screen image damaging the cathode ray tube (CRT).
Screensavers were developed to keep the screen image changing constantly and so remove the potential for a permanently etched image on the CRT.
It seems incongruous that a software tool designed to protect a monitor could now be attracting the attention of marketing and advertising people, especially when developments in monitor technology means that it would now take many hours to burn an image on to a modern colour monitor.
Digital graphic design specialist Tim Croft, of Partridge Green-based Tic Design, who has personally created screensavers for several blue chip companies, explained the beginnings of screensaver technology:
He said: "The first screensavers were very simple affairs. The screensaver itself was just a background image linked to a moving overlay.
"If the mouse and keyboard were not touched for a pre-determined period of time, a software element would put the background image on the screen and the moving overlay, such as a bouncing ball, would move around the screen making sure that no part showed the same image for any length of time."
Nowadays that simplicity of presentation has been replaced by sophisticated animations that are getting more and more like on screen video clips.
Mr Croft said: "The first animated screensaver was the famous Microsoft Starfield, which is still distributed with all versions of MS Windows, but this basic concept has been developed and expanded to include clips from cartoon feature films and excerpts from popular TV programs."
With industry capitalising on the entertainment and advertising value of an attractive screensaver and the computer literate public jumping at the chance to have the latest offering on their desktops, the genre has become increasingly popular.
Collections of screensavers are now being taken seriously and some of the rarer titles on their original floppy disks are making substantial sums of money.
Last year, an early version of the goldfish bowl saver that transformed the user's monitor into an ever-changing fish tank was sold privately, complete with documentation and original diskettes, for more than £100.
The demands of the collector are now being taken to heart by corporates, with several producing limited edition software as carriers for advertising.
Many companies which have a www site would find it remarkably inexpensive to have a simple screensaver made from their existing digital artwork that could be distributed to their customers, or even their suppliers, to promote new or existing products.
Anyone wanting to make their own screensaver is best advised to purchase or download one of the many creation packages available.
For further information, look at the following sites:
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article