Splash screen

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A splash screen in Inkscape with the logo and version information

Splash screen is a term used to describe an image that appears while a computer program is loading. It may also be used to describe an introduction page on a website. Splash screens sometimes do not cover the entire screen, but only a rectangle near the center. The splash screens of operating systems and some applications that expect to be run full-screen usually cover the entire screen.

Purpose

Splash screens are typically used by especially large applications to notify the user that the program is in the process of loading. In other words, they provide feedback that a sometimes lengthy process is under way. Occasionally, a progress bar within the splash screen indicates the loading progress. A splash screen disappears when the application's main window appears.

Splash screens typically serve to enhance the look and feel of an application or web site, and hence are often visually appealing, and may also have animations, graphics and sound.

On the Internet, a splash screen or splash page is a page of a web site that is a sort of pre-home page front page. Designers may use splash pages:

• to restrict access to content such as pornography, alcohol advertising or sales, or gambling (as is required by law in many countries, including the United States and Canada);
• to direct users to the appropriate website for their country or language;
• to direct users to a low-bandwidth site or one more accessible to disabled users;
• as an aesthetic compliment to the main page;
• as an additional form of advertising.

Since splash screens often increase the distance to the desired content and may take a long time to load, they are not universally liked by users. Web splash screens are especially inconvenient for users with slow internet connections as the first page may take longer to load or if the user has turned off rich content (such as images, Flash or Shockwave), the splash page may not load at all. Splash pages created in Flash (and the associated main pages) often cannot be accessed by search engines or handled by text readers for the blind.

Splash screens can also be created in HTML and CSS if they are designed for a purpose other then as a loading screen and instead used for another purpose, such as giving the option to pick the language.

See also

• Splash page - comic book terminology
• bootsplash - splash displayed while booting up the computer.
• loading screen
• Proxy pattern

External links

• Splash screens - Information on how to remove various splash screens.
• Digitalis SplashKiller - Program that removes the majority of splash screens on Windows.
• GUIde Book Gallery of splash screens - Screenshots of many different applications' splash screens, including previous versions.
• PHP GTK Splash screens - Information on how to programming splash screens on a José Franco's article
• Dinosaur Sightings: Windows splash screens from 1.01 to Vista - A collection of Microsoft Windows splash screens since version 1.01