Java Glossary : icons

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icons

Small bit-map pictures, in Java, in the form of *.gif files, in Windows, in the form of *.ico files. Java does not directly support animated gifs, though some people have written animated gif viewer code.

Programs should be designed with user-configurable icons the way Opera is. There should be a central library of icons that artists can contribute to. There needs to be a tool where you can specify the icons you need and it finds some icon sets that cover them. Eventually icons may become an international language that could be used to communicate anything visually much the way Ameslan can be used by deaf speakers to communicate internationally. Icons need to be treated more like fonts, where the user's preference is paramount. Home stereo equipment is easier to use because of icon standarisation. The same needs to happen for computer programs. However, computers also offer user configurability, so that the user can decide what icon he wants to use for what function in all applications. This requires standard icon names.

With the advent of hover help (aka tooltips), it is much less important that you can glean the secret meaning of an icon just by looking at it. What is more important is that you can tell it apart from the other icons with just a glance. Icons should be bold and clear, not fussy little portrait miniatures. People with less acute eyesight need simpler icons. An example of poor icons is Funduc Search/Replace where every icon looks like pair of binoculars unless you stare at it closely. For examples of good icons look at some of the award-winning Opera button sets.

The other problem with icons is aesthetic. If you design icons in isolation, then lump them together on the screen, they will look like the equivalent of a ransom note. They need some unifying themes. Professional artists know how to get the right balance.

Most icons are only 32x32 bits. You must use a considerable amount of anti-aliasing in your designs to get clear looking images.

I am quite astonished that very few companies have created a corporate icon to represent themselves compactly in web references on other peoples's sites. I suggest that every company should create a corporate icon, in 16x16, 32x32, 64x64 and 128x128 format, a corporate logo in 128x48, 256x48 and 384x48 format, and a corporate banner in 400x40 and 468x60 format, and post them on their website for others to use in sending them business. By providing icons in these standard sizes, the logos of other companies will nicely line up when displayed with the logos of other companies. There is less need to standardize on formats or colour depth. It is easy enough to convert the logos to the same colour depth and recording format. Now where is that round TUIT in need to create such logos for myself?

There also needs to be a scheme to automatically propagate new versions of the logos.

To get the ball rolling, if you want to create logos for your own or any other company please email them to me, and I will post them here.

There are three theories of icon design:

They are miniature realistic pictures from which you should be able to distinguish completely the meaning without any hoverhelp or documentation.
They are buttons that can have totally abstract symbols on them. Their main function is to provide functionality in minimal screen real estate. You mainly want them easily distinguishable without close study. You should be able to hit them almost with peripheral vision. colour-coded blobs would do just fine.
They are artistic decoration for the application.

Now with PLAF it should be possible to ship apps configurable to optimise for any combination of the three design concerns.

You can test your icon designs for the visually challenged by seeing if you can tell them apart reading them from across the room. They can contain detail, but the detail must not be significant. Such icons are more efficient for people with normal vision too, though they may not look quite as elegant.

I find grouping icons helps a lot rather than just placing them in long rows or blocks.

Editing Icons

*.ico files in Windows have a peculiar format that allows you to pack several variants of the icon in the same file. You need specialised editor programs to edit them. One comes bundled with Microsoft Visual C, but it comes without instructions. It keep changing colours on you unexpectedly, with no easy way to control transparency.

automatic update ¤ banner ¤ clipart ¤ IconPainter a icon drawing program hobbled until you pay ¤ Paint Shop Pro ¤ Sourceforge icon collection ¤ Sun's icon collection ¤ TuCows (lists an assortment of editors) ¤ Xmian open office collection

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