Clarus the dogcow has been reborn in an iPhone keyboard easter egg

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iOS
Apple has hidden an Easter egg in its iPhone keyboard that references Clarus the dogcow, whose origins date back to nearly the dawn of the Macintosh.

A hidden Easter egg references Clarus the dogcow in the iOS keyboard
A hidden Easter egg references Clarus the dogcow in the iOS keyboard


A Twitter user named Jason Robinson discovered a hidden easter egg that appears when a user references an old piece of Apple history, Clarus. She is a dogcow that says "moof," of course.

When you type either "Clarus" or "moof" into the iOS keyboard, two emojis will appear in the suggestions -- the cow and the dog. Some may complain this isn't in the right order, but it is a clear reference to the dogcow's origins.

Super fans will know that Susan Kare developed several fonts for the original Macintosh, and one was the font called "Cairo." This font would evolve into the whimsical Dingbat font, but the all-important character attached to the "Z" key was Clarus herself.

Cracking up at this deep-cut iOS Easter egg I just stumbled across.

Who would appreciate this?

Maybe @gruber would appreciate this. pic.twitter.com/BOZ3GTsG2t

-- Jason Robinson (@VafeR)


Clarus was later shown in the operating system when users would preview their LaserWriter printer options. The dogcow could be seen in the preview window to give users an idea of which orientation their page was printing.

Later, Clarus was prominent in QuickTime sample projects, document previews, and other places in the operating system. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in the late 1990s, Clarus faded from the operating system. However, it seems fans of the dogcow have snuck one little easter egg into the software keyboard.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    skippingrockskippingrock Posts: 187member
    Moof! We love Clarus!
    randominternetpersonmac daddy zeecarstenl.watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 12
    hmlongcohmlongco Posts: 537member
    One of my prize possessions....

    bakerzdosenrandominternetpersonmobirdOctoMonkeymac daddy zeekayessDogpersonwatto_cobracornchip
    Moof.jpg 169.9K
  • Reply 3 of 12
    michaelx74michaelx74 Posts: 11member
    This has been in existence since at least December 21st, 2021 when I shared an iMessage with a friend on it after reading an Insider article that showed the Park room dedicated to fonts and it prominently featured Clarus on the wall in the middle of a huge selection of characters/fonts.

    Credit please. =P
    bloggerblogwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 12
    michaelx74michaelx74 Posts: 11member
    Dunno if  Insider had linked to it, but that photo I was referencing was from a story on their font team in this publication:
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 12
    randominternetpersonrandominternetperson Posts: 3,089member
    Fun article about Clarus here:  https://512pixels.net/dogcow/


    ravnorodomwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 12
    sbdudesbdude Posts: 261member
    Be even better if there was an actual emoji for Clarus. Certainly better than the "pregnant man" (or "beer belly man", depending on who you ask).
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 12
    macseekermacseeker Posts: 545member
    YAY!  Moof lives!  A warm fuzzy feeling is coming.
    carstenl.watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 12
    dope_ahminedope_ahmine Posts: 253member
    I spent half a week vectorizing Clarus (in 1988, I think). First thing people did was complain that she was too smooth. Her every pixel is sacred.
     :D 
    ravnorodomwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 12
    mattinozmattinoz Posts: 2,322member
    OpenDoc where art thou....
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 12
    hucom2000hucom2000 Posts: 149member
    How do I get this to work? Does it need to be an external keyboard?

    I was hoping I can do this on my iPhone, not gonna buy a keyboard just for that…
  • Reply 11 of 12
    jony0jony0 Posts: 378member
    I just get a cow and a brown dog as suggestions, the same as Jason Robinson.
    It's not Clarus, just another cow … complete with udder.
  • Reply 12 of 12
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    I get nothing. Doesn’t mean anything to me anyway.
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