An arrow pointing up at a line. Preferably with each being a different colour.
The arrow indicates movement. The line is abstract. But with the colour coding it carries the idea of ‘putting the thing into the other thing’.
The rest is learned pattern recognition. A download is a down arrow in a circle because you are taking the thing from the other thing. So saving is an arrow to a line because you are putting the thing in the other thing.
LibreOffice on Ubuntu has a down-arrow “save” icon, and every time I look at it I think “that’s a download icon”. Up arrow versions of that are upload icons. Neither really conveys “save”.
An arrow pointing up at a line. Preferably with each being a different colour.
The arrow indicates movement. The line is abstract. But with the colour coding it carries the idea of ‘putting the thing into the other thing’.
The rest is learned pattern recognition. A download is a down arrow in a circle because you are taking the thing from the other thing. So saving is an arrow to a line because you are putting the thing in the other thing.
LibreOffice on Ubuntu has a down-arrow “save” icon, and every time I look at it I think “that’s a download icon”. Up arrow versions of that are upload icons. Neither really conveys “save”.