WYSIWYG

what you see is what you get

There are no hidden or unknown features, traits, characteristics, etc., beyond what is immediately apparent in a given person or thing. A: "Wow, that's pretty steep for a desktop PC. Are there any other add-ons or accessories that come with it?" B: "No, what you see is what you get." I try to live my life free of pretense, illusions, or exaggeration. With me, what you see is what you get.
See also: get, see, what

WYSIWYG

An abbreviation of "what you see is what you get." Pronounced /'w?z.?.w?g/ ("wiz-eh-wig") or /'w?z.i.w?g/ ("wiz-ee-wig"), especially in the second usage.
1. There are no hidden or unknown features, traits, characteristics, etc., beyond what is immediately apparent in a given person or thing. A: "Wow, that's pretty expensive for a desktop PC. Are there any other add-ons or accessories that come with it?" B: "Nope, WYSIWYG." I try to live my life free of pretense, illusions, or exaggeration. With me, WYSIWYG.
2. Describing a computer editing program that allows the developer to see how the product will look to the end user while the content is being written or changed. In this usage, the abbreviation can also be used as a modifier before a noun. I've been using this great WYSIWYG lately. It's so much easier to create these graphics mockups when I know exactly how they'll look after I print them. They're developing a new WYSIWYG HTML editor for people who are new to the field of web design.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

What you see is what you get.

The product you are looking at is exactly what you get if you buy it. It comes just like this. What you see is what you get. What you see is what you get. The ones in the box are just like this one.
See also: get, see, what
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

What you see is what you get

1. sent. The product you are looking at is exactly what you get if you buy it. What you see is what you get. The ones in the box are just like this one.
2. and WYSIWYG (ˈwɪsi wɪg) phr. What you see on the screen is what will print on the printer. (Computers. Acronym.) I need something that’s WYSIWYG. I have no imagination.
See also: get, see, what

WYSIWYG

verb
See What you see is what you get
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

what you see is what you get

What’s on the table or who’s present is all there is. This expression, often used humorously or ironically, may have originated in Australia, according to Eric Partridge. Possibly it alludes to what a salesperson explains to a customer (as in, “No, this model doesn’t have four-wheel drive—what you see is what you get”). It gained currency in the United States with The Flip Wilson Show in the early 1970s, in which the comedian dressed in women’s clothes as the character Geraldine and declared “What you see is what you get.” This writer used it on being introduced to her daughter’s future in-laws, who asked about other relatives in our family. Pointing to her husband and herself, she declared, “What you see is what you get.” The Australian novelist Jon Cleary used it in Dilemma (1999), “Yet there was no mystery to her, something else he always looked for in a woman . . . What you saw was what you got had never interested him as an attraction.”
See also: get, see, what
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • what you see is what you get
  • the same as (someone or something)
  • same as
  • out of keeping
  • out of keeping with (something)
  • (straight) from central casting
  • (straight) out of central casting
  • have all the hallmarks of (someone or something)
  • have all the hallmarks of somebody/something
  • show signs of
References in periodicals archive
wysiwyg Lighting Design software continues to improve its ease to use workflow and features, some of the new functionalities are a first in the industry giving users significant commercial and creative advantage in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
WYSIWYG Web Builder is an extremely complete program for anyone seriously interested in web design.
If you have any doubt as to the subtle power of WYSIWYG as a market force, consider Bordeaux's struggles in the U.S.
WYSIWYG launched in March with only two people and now employs eight designers and programmers working on the design and maintenance of web sites, software and general IT solutions for the SME market.
WYSIWYG: Pronounced "wissy wig" for "What you see is what you get"
Adobe PDF files are a nice WYSIWYG way to create pages, and only require word processing experience.
Power On Software's ACTION WYSIWYG offers an improved way to view and use fonts.
This latest version offers a variety of new capabilities for more efficient web site management, intuitive wizards for quick web site creation, visual WYSIWYG editing for easy manipulation of text and graphics, and enhanced page layout features with hundreds of backgrounds, templates and additional multimedia elements supported.
Some are graphical, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors while others are code-based authoring tools.
There is a WYSIWYG editor that lets you edit your site through a browser.
The windows version (which I've been using) offers more than the one for DOS, including WYSIWYG display and production features like the automatic generation of A and B pages.
This edition includes several high-technology neologisms such as multimedia, CD-ROM, and WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get"--as in desktop publishing).
The new 6.0 WYSIWYG display is fantastic, but the old key stroke sequences are all expanded with another two or three levels, i.e., there is a whole (or more precisely half a) new learning experience ahead.
* a flexible WYSIWYG financial report generator; and
WYSIWYG: WYSIWYG (pronounced "wizzy-wig") is an acronym for "What You See Is What You Get." It is descriptive of a program's ability to display information on the computer screen in exactly the same way it will be printed.