Thelogo of theonline encyclopedia known asWikipedia depicts a white, incomplete globe-shapedjigsaw puzzle, each jigsaw piece inscribed with aglyph from a differentwriting system. As displayed on the web pages ofthe English-language edition of the project, there is the wordmark "WIKIPEDIA" (styled asWikipediA (in small caps, with the leading W and trailing A taller than the other letters)) beside the globe, and below that, the text "The Free Encyclopedia" in theopen-sourceLinux Libertine font.[2][3]
The unfinished puzzle symbolizes the project's state as a perpetual work in progress.
In January 2001,Jimmy Wales used theflag of the United States as a placeholder logo for Wikipedia'sUseModWiki instance.[4] Wikipedia's first true logo was an image originally submitted by Bjørn Smestad – under the usernameBjornsm – for aNupedia logo competition which took place in 2000.[5] It was used provisionally as Wikipedia's logo until the end of 2001.[6]
The logo included a quote from thepreface of the 1879 bookEuclid and his Modern Rivals byLewis Carroll. It utilized thefisheye effect to make the text appear to be wrapped onto a sphere, leaving only part of it readable. The used text was (visible text inbold):[6]
In one respect this book is an experiment, and may chance toprove a failure: I mean that I have not thought it necessary to maintain throughout the gravity of style whichscientific writers usuallyaffect, and which has somehowcome to be regarded as an'inseparable accident' of scientific teaching. I never could quite see the reasonableness of this immemorial law:subjects there are, no doubt, which are in their essencetoo serious to admit of anylightness of treatment – butI cannot recognise Geometry as one of them. Nevertheless it will, I trust, be found that I have permitted myself a glimpse of the comic sideof things only at fitting seasons, when the tired reader might wellcrave a moment's breathing-space, and not on any occasion where it could endanger the continuity of the line of argument.
The second Wikipedia logo
In November 2001, Wikipedia users began suggesting new logos for the website. A list of 24 leading candidates was chosen in the contest, which took place from November to December 2001. The winner was the last logo (#24), contributed by the userThe Cunctator.[6]
The logo included the quote, taken fromThomas Hobbes's 1651 bookLeviathan, from chapter VI of part I, placed within the circle and distorted by thefisheye effect. Underneath it was written "Wikipedia" in the capital letters, with W and A being slightly taller than the others. Beneath that was placed the motto of Wikipedia:The Free Encyclopedia.[6] The text used for the logo was (visible text inbold):
Desire to know why, and how, curiosity; such as is in no living creature but man: so thatman is distinguished, not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion from other animals;in whom the appetite of food, and other pleasures of sense, by predominance, take away the care of knowing causes;which is a lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.
As the logo utilized text inEnglish language, its usage was not favored by other-language versions of Wikipedia. Some websites used similar designs with texts in their own languages. For example,Dutch Wikipedia used text fromMultatuli's 1860Max Havelaar classic book.[7] Other websites used the logo with English text, painted in the colours of the national flags. Such design was used for example byDanish andSwedish versions, using the flags ofDenmark andSweden, respectively.[8][9] The other option used by some versions of Wikipedia was to design their own distinct logos, for example theFrench Wikipedia, which used the green circle with a white dove on it, as its logo.[10] Additionally, some websites used a logo with English text in it, with the motto "The Free Encyclopedia" translated to their languages. It was done, for example, by theGerman Wikipedia.[11]
In 2003, following a suggestion byErik Möller, known under the usernameEloquence, an international logo contest was conducted to find a new logo that was suitable for all language versions of Wikipedia.[12][13] After a two-stage voting process, a design by Paul Stansifer, at the time known under usernamePaullusmagnus, won with considerable support. His project depicted an unfinished globe constructed of puzzle pieces, of multiple colors. It was covered by text with links in various languages and writing systems, to symbolize the continuous construction and development of the project. It was made inPOV-Ray, using a puzzle image wrapped around a sphere.[13]
A ratification vote was held soon after, to confirm community consensus. As a result, twelve direct adaptations of the design were created by members of the community. One of the propositions made by David Friedland, known under usernameNohat, was chosen. Friedland removed the color and changed the overlaid text into one letter or symbol per puzzle piece. His design included various characters from various writing systems. The writing in the logo usedHoefler Text font.
Before being officially released, the logo slightly lightened up and had replaced nearly obsoletekanawi (ヰ) fromkatakana script with modern kanawa (ワ) and smalli (ィ). Asmooth breathing mark before the Greekomega (Ω) was deleted and RussianShort I (Й) replaced by RussianI (И). It was adopted by theEnglish Wikipedia on 26 September 2003.[13]
The logo included 16 characters from 16 different writing scripts, many of which, but not all, chosen to represent due to their similarity to the letterW from theEnglish language, as in the name Wikipedia. The alphabets represented were as follows:[13]
The logo included several mistakes. Due to a formatting error:
lettersva + i (वि) fromDevanagari script were rendered incorrectly, being reversed in the process, showing as (वि).
In the combined lettersva + i (ವಿ) fromKannada script, thediacritic was attached to the wrong place.
In the case of theJapanesekatakana, a wrongkana was used:wa (ワ) was mistakenly used instead of kanau (ウ), formingwai (ワィ), instead ofwi (ウィ), which is present in the Japanese name of the website,Wikipedia (ウィキペディア).[13]
Nimish Gautam of the Wikimedia Foundation in 2012 explains design changes to the Wikipedia puzzle globe that were developed.Redesigned Wikipedia logo (2010)The 3D Wikipedia puzzle ball rotating along its axis (GIF version)The Wikipedia puzzle ball being displayed in the Mediawiki 3D viewer
Wikipedia logos used on the mobile application and website
In late 2009, theWikimedia Foundation undertook the efforts to fix the errors and generally update the puzzle globe logo. Among other concerns, the original logo did not scale well and some letters appeared distorted.[14] For the new logo, the Wikimedia Foundation defined which characters appear on the "hidden" puzzle pieces, and had a three-dimensional computer model of the globe created to allow the generation of other views.[15]
The new design was published in May 2010. It features the new 3D rendering of the puzzle globe, as well as correct versions of previously wrong characters, including fixed versions of letters from Kannada and Devanagari, and usage of correct Japanese katakana characters. Additionally, several letters had been replaced by others. It included:[16][2]
letter lo (ល) being replaced with combined letters vo and i (វិ), both originating from theKhmer script;
combined letters wa and i (ཝི) fromTibetan script being replaced by short u (উ) letter fromBengali–Assamese script, while Tibetan character was moved elsewhere;
letteryodh (ي) being replaced by letterwaw (و), both originating from theArabic script;
letter cho (ฉ) being replaced by combined letters wo waen and sara i (วิ), both originating from theThai script.
Thewordmark has been modified from theHoefler Text font to the open-sourceLinux Libertine font, and the subtitle was no longer italicized. The "W" character, which was used in various other places in Wikipedia, such as thefavicon, and was seen as a distinctive part of the Wikipedia brand, was stylized as crossed V's in the original logo, while the W in Linux Libertine was rendered with a single line. To provide the traditional appearance of the Wikipedia "W", a "crossed" W was added as anOpenType variant to the Linux Libertine font.[2]
For the new logo, the entire surface of its globe was designed, including puzzle pieces hidden on the non-visible parts of the logo. In total, there were designed 51 puzzle pieces, of which 18 were visible in the logo. There were 21 empty spaces left, for the missing puzzle pieces.
in the leftmost column, from the top down: capital lettervev (Վ, transcription:v) from theArmenian alphabet, combined letters vo and i (វិ, transcription:vi) from theKhmer script, letter short u (উ, transcription:u) from theBengali alphabet, combined letters va and i (वि, transcription:vi) fromDevanagari script, lettervini (ვ, transcription:v) fromGeorgian Mkhedruli script;
in the middle-right column, from the top down: kanasu and smalli (ウィ, romanization:wi) from thekatakana script, capital letterW from theLatin script, capital letteri (И, transcription:i) from theCyrillic script, letterwaw (ו, transcription:v) from theHebrew alphabet, combined letters va and i (வி, transcription:vi) from theTamil script;
in the rightmost column, from the top down: letter wə (ው, transcription:wə) from theGeʽez script, isolated letterwaw (و, transcription:w) from theArabic alphabet, combined lettersieung,u andi (위, transcription:wi) from theHangul/Chosongul script, combined letters wo waen and sara i (วิ, transcription:vi) from theThai script.
The puzzle pieces from the not visible portion of the logo are:[13][17]
in the central left column, from the top down: capital letterV from theLatin script, combined lettersyodh andaleph (يا, transcription:yā) from theArabic alphabet;
in the first row to the left from the central left column, from the top down: capital letter wi (Ꮻ, transcription:wi) from theCherokee syllabary, letter wa (ᥝ, transcription:v) from theTai Le script, capital letterpi (Π, transcription:p) from theGreek alphabet;
in the second row to the left from the central left column, from the top down: combined letters va and i (వి, transcription:vi) from theTelugu script, capital letterE-acute (É) from theLatin script, combined letters v and i (ဝီ, transcription:vi) from theMon–Burmese script, letter o (ᐅ, transcription:o) from theCanadian Aboriginal syllabics, combined letters wa and i (ᤘᤡ) from theLimbu script;
in the third row to the left from the central left column, from the top down: letter uuinne (𐍅, transcription:w) from theGothic alphabet, letter wi (ୱି, transcription:wi) from theOdia script, combined letters va and i (വി, transcription:vi) from theMalayalam script, letterwa (ᠸ, transcription:w) from theMongolian script;
in the fourth row to the left from the central left column, from the top down: combined letters va and i (વિ, transcription:vi) from theGujarati script, combined letters wa and i (ᨓᨗ, transcription:wi) from theLontara script, letter vedi (Ⰲ, transcription:vi) from theGlagolitic script, capital letterU from theLatin script;
in the central right column, from the top down: capital letterde (Д, transcription:d) from theCyrillic script, capitaldotted I (İ) from theLatin script;
in the first row to the right from the central right column: combined letters va and i (වි, transcription:vi) from theSinhala script;
in the second row to the right from the central right column, from the top down: combined letters vava and sihari (ਵਿ, transcription:vi) from the Gurmukhi script, combined letters vaavu and i (ވި, transcription:vi) from theThaana script, capital letterH from theLatin script, capital letterA-umlaut (Ä) from theLatin script;
in the third row to the right from the central right column, from the top down: capital letterya (Я, transcription:ya), combined letters w and i (ວິ, transcription:vi) from theLao script, capital letteru (У, transcription:u) from theCyrillic script,radical 12 with additional 6 strokes (典,pinyin:diǎn) from theTraditional Chinese script;
in the fourth row to the right from the central right column, from the top down: combined letters wa and i (ꦮꦶ, transcription:wi) from theJavanese script, isolated letterwaw (ܘ, transcription:w) from theSyriac alphabet, capital letterve (В, transcription:v) from theCyrillic script, letter wi (ᜏᜒ, transcription:wi) from theBaybayin script.
Tenth anniversary logo, which replaced the puzzle ball logo across Wikipedia on January 15, 2011
On 15 January 2011, a special logo replaced the standard globe on theEnglish Wikipedia in order to mark the tenth anniversary of Wikipedia's founding. The logo depicts a single black jigsaw piece, representing the addition of another piece to the puzzle. On it is written "10 years".[18]
First logo for the twentieth anniversary of Wikipedia
Second logo for the twentieth anniversary of Wikipedia
On 14 January 2021, a four-sectioned logo was used instead of the puzzle globe on theEnglish Wikipedia, in order to mark the 20thanniversary of Wikipedia. The four sections, depict, in clockwise order, starting from the top-left:
yellow background, a woman in ahijab reading a book with the letter "W" on the cover, signifying Wikipedia;
blue background, a computer showing a blue screen with the letter "W" on it, signifying Wikipedia;
green background, the normal Wikipedia globe, in blue, but with most letters aside from the "W" being replaced with various other objects and symbols.
red background, a phone showing a blue screen with the letter "W" on it, signifying Wikipedia.[19][20]
On 22 January 2021, the previous anniversary logo was replaced with a less striking version, consisting of the normative Wikipedia globe above the text "20 years of Wikipedia – Over One Billion Edits"[21] to commemorate the concurrent milestone of reachingone billion recorded edits to the English Wikipedia.
In 2009, the Wikimedia Foundation put a3D printedsign depicting half of the Wikipedia globe in its headquarters inSan Francisco,California,United States. It was made by Because We Can, a design firm based inOakland, California.[22] It is based on the redesigned logo.
On 29 September 2017, the sculpture of the logo of Wikipedia was submerged to the bottom ofLake Sevan inArmenia, to form anartificial reef. It was done thanks to the joint efforts of the Wikimedia Armenia community and ArmDiving divers' club. The 2 metre-wide and 2 metre-high (6 ft 7 in by 6 ft 7 in) sculpture (the largest depiction of Wikipedia logo in the world) was made in Armenia for the annual meeting of the Central and Eastern Europe Wikimedia affiliates, Wikimedia CEE Meeting that the country hosted in August 2016 inDilijan.[27]
The 2010 logo is registered with theMadrid system under registration numbers 1221024,[28] 1221826,[29] and 1238122.[30]
In the United States, the 2003 and 2010 logos are registered trademarks under registration numbers 3594356 and 4710546, respectively.
The 2003 and 2010 logos are registered as aCommunity Trade Mark of theEuropean Union by the Wikimedia Foundation. The 2003 logo bears a filing date of 31 January 2008 and a registration date of 20 January 2009.[31][32] The 2010 logo bears a filing date of 28 March 2014 and a registration date of 22 August 2014.[33]
Turkish Wikipedia logo displayed after the second anniversary of the ban, with the message "2 yıldır özlüyoruz" (English: "missing you for two years") (2019)
Turkish Wikipedia logo following the lifting of the block of the website in Turkey with the message "kavuştuk" (English: "reunited") (2020)
Arabic Wikipedia logo displayed in solidarity with theGaza Strip during the ongoingGaza war (2023–present)
Additional logo displayed on Arabic Wikipedia in solidarity with the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Gaza war, showing the puzzle ball alongside aPalestiniankeffiyeh (2023–present)
Egyptian Wikipedia logo in solidarity with the campaign to revive Egyptian identity and prove Egyptian heritage.
^"Main Page".en.wikipedia.org. 15 January 2021. Archived fromthe original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved28 December 2022.
^"Main Page".en.wikipedia.org. 23 January 2021. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved28 December 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
.png)
.png){kind=logo}
.png){kind=logo}
Armenianini(Ի, transcription:i)
Khmerlo(ល, transcription:lɔɔ)
JapaneseKatakanawa + smalli(ワィ)
Klingonr(, transcription:r).svg)
Tibetanwa + i(ཝི, transcription:wi)
Greek capitalomega(Ω, transcription:o)
Latin capitalW
Arabic isolatedyodh(ي, transcription:y)
Devanagariva + i(वि, transcription:vi)
Simplified Chineseradical 145+5 strokes(袓,pinyin:jù,jiē)
Cyrillic capitalI(И, transcription:i)
Hangul/Chosongulwicombined lettersieung,u andi(위, transcription:wi)
MongolianTodo I (rotated 90 degrees)(ᡅ, transcription:i)
Kannadava + i(ವಿ)
Hebrewresh(ר, transcription:r)
Thaichà(ฉ, transcription:ch)
Armenianvev(Վ).svg)
Teluguva +(i)(వి)
Khmervo +i(វិ)
Katakanau +small i(ウィ)
Gəʿəzwə(ው)
Javanesewa +i(ꦮꦶ)
Gujarativa +i(વિ)
Gothicwinja(𐍅)
LatinE-acute(É)
Bengalishort u(উ)
Greekomega(Ω)
Arabicwaw(و)
Gurmukhīvava +sihari(ਵਿ)![the last letter of names of most Wikipedias using the Cyrillic Alphabet[citation needed]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aCyrillic_%25D0%25AF.svg)
Cyrillicya(Я)
Syriacwāw(ܘ)
Lontaraw +i(ᨓᨗ)
Oriyaw + i(ୱି)
Burmese scriptv +i(ဝီ)
Devanagariva +i(वि)
Traditional Chinese維
Cyrillici(И)
Hangul/Chosongulwi(위)
Tānavaavu +(i)(ވި)
Laotianw +i(ວິ)
Cyrillicve(В)
Glagoliticvědě(Ⰲ)
Malayalamva +short i(വി)
Inuktitutshort u(ᐅ)
Georgianvini(ვ).svg)
Kannadava +(i)(ವಿ)
Hebrewvav(ו)
Thaiwo waen +sara i(วิ)
LatinH
Cyrillicu(У)
TagalogBaybayinwi(ᜏᜒ)
LatinU
Mongolianwa(ᠸ)
Limbuwa +i(ᤘᤡ)
Cherokeewi(Ꮻ).svg)
Tamilva +(i)(வி)
Sinhalava +i(වි)
LatinA-umlaut(Ä)
Chinese character典
Tai Lewa(ᥝ)
LatinV
Cyrillicde(Д)
Greekpi(Π)
Arabicyāʾ +ʾalif(يا)
Latindotted I(İ)
.png)
.png)
.svg)
.svg){kind=logo}
.svg){kind=logo}
.svg){kind=logo}
.svg){kind=logo}
_%25D0%2592%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BF%25D0%25B5%25D0%25B4%25D0%25B8%25D0%25B8_%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B0_%25D0%259D%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B2%25D1%258B%25D0%25B9_%25D0%2593%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B4.png)
_v1.svg){kind=logo}
.svg){kind=logo}
