All graphical user interfaces make use of graphics on a bitmapped video display. Graphics provides better utilization of screen real estate, a visually rich environment for conveying information, and the possibility of a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) video display of graphics and formatted text prepared for a printed document.
In earlier days, the video display was used solely to echo text that the user typed using the keyboard. In a graphical user interface, the video display itself becomes a source of user input. The video display shows various graphical objects in the form of icons and input devices such as buttons and scroll bars. Using the keyboard (or, more directly, a pointing device such as a mouse), the user can directly manipulate these objects on the screen. Graphics objects can be dragged, buttons can be pushed, and scroll bars can be scrolled.
The interaction between the user and a program thus becomes more intimate. Rather than the one-way cycle of information from the keyboard to the program to the video display, the user directly interacts with the objects on the display.