ODF Icons - Icon Style Guides
Contents
Relevant parts of desktop icon style guides for ODF icon creation
Adoption of the ODF icons by the different desktop creating teams depends (not only, but to a certain degree) on their integration in the general desktop design. Several teams have created style guides, that cover desktop icon design, so icon creators can adapt their icons to the general desktop style of the relevant platform. The better our icons comply with the style guides, the more likely is their adoption on the platforms.
This collection should present those parts of the style guides, that are relevant for our icons, describe possible problems and find soultions (if possible). The discussion started in this thread on the discuss@ux.openoffice.org mailing list.
For every platform we have to find out the relevant parts of the style quides:
- Summary of the icon styleguide (incl. link to reference)
- Estimation of general quality / preciseness of the guidelines (based on a commonly shared opinion)
- Content (metaphors, badges, dos and don'ts)
- Attributes / Design Principles
- Graphical Representation (style, perspective, lighting, ...)
- Technical stuff (required sizes, available tooling, validness for certain versions, ...)
- Examples (maybe embedded, if the license is compatible)
Windows
| Links | User Experience - Simplify Recognition with icons |
|---|---|
| Content | Visually distinct content should be represented as thumbnails, symbolic icons should be used, if the content can't be shown in a thumbnail.
Icons should represent the object and be associated with an application or a file type. Text on icons should be avoided, exception for branding and abstract concepts. |
| Problems | adding ODF badge to thumbnails |
| Possible Solutions | Thiumbnail possibilities under investigation... |
Apple Mac OS X Aqua
| Links | Apple Human Interface Guidelines: Icons |
|---|---|
| Content | Treat an identifying badge as an integrated element within the document instead of putting it over the top of the base image and breaking out of the overall document shape.
Document icons should make it obvious which application they are associated with. Mac OS X user application icons should be vibrant and inviting. |
| Problems | ODF symbol is such a badge overlayed and breaking the shape.
Vendor neutral icons hinder association with application. Vibrant icons are nearly the opposite to the colorless ODF icons. |
| Possible Solutions | Create additional Mac icons where the badge is integrated in the document's shape.
Integrate application symbol in icons. Add color to the icons, add more shading, contrast. |
Linux Gnome
| Links | GNOME Human Interface Guidlines 2.2: Icon Types |
|---|---|
| Content | Use symbolized piece of paper only for file types that represent physical sheets.
Use different icon outlines if posssible (they can be easier recognized in small scales). Recommendation on discrimination between different file types (GIF, PNG, JPEG) by color. File format icons should not contain their file extension. Application handling a certain file format should use this file's icon as application icon. |
| Problems | Database files are not paper based (graphics and spreadsheets might be discussed).
Inclusion of "ODF" could be misinterpreted as file extension. App icons and document icons don't share any symbols at the moment. If we use the ODF icons for our applications, OOo branding would be reduced even more. |
| Possible Solutions | Different shape / backgrund for ODB files.
Marketing on ODF as document standard instead of file type. Create document and application icons sharing their symbolic language (and keeping some kind of OOo symbolism). |
Linux KDE
| Links | KDE User Interface Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Content | Colors devide visual space at the earliest stages of visual processing. Use colour to highlight important information, and to group objects of the same type. |
| Problems | ODF icons don't differ in color at all. |
| Possible Solutions | Add (moderate) color for different file types. |
Tango - cross platform, most used independent iconset
| Links | Tango Icon Theme Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Content | Tango color palette contains 27 RGB colors |
| Problems | ODF icon colors as well the Galaxy colors are not part of the Tango palette. |
| Possible Solutions | Modify icon colors to fit with the Tango color palette. |
