Genericons

An Automattic 20% project of mine just graduated. Genericons is an icon font with emphasis on blogging. It’s GPL, so you can bundle it with WordPress themes. What makes Genericons special is that, like its inspiration: Githubs Octicons, the font was designed with a precise pixel grid in mind. That means if the icons are shown at appropriate font sizes (in this case, 16px, 32px, and similar multiples), the icons will render perfectly crisply. Thanks to Sheri and Takashi for contributions.

An icon gift to 1Password [Updated]

I’m totally in love with 1Password for managing my password portfolio, but like Garrett Murray, I really loathe the icon Agile Bits chose for their Chrome extension.

So I made a replacement. Here’s before and after:

1password.png

So please, dear Agile Bits (ping @agilebits, @1password), take this icon and run with it (or create your own improved one), I give it to you free of charge:

1password_icon.png

Please use it, and I’ll love your software even more.

[Update]: A beta version of 1Password finally has an improved icon:

new_1password.png

Here’s An Idea: The Icons For Developers Program

Android and iOS devices have exploded in app usage over the last few years. Both of these operating systems bring app icons front and center. Large finger-friendly icons invite us to start a phone call, play a game or jot down a note. It’s all very polished and pretty.

Android_icons.png

Well it’s not all polished and pretty. Some apps, while they may be superbly built and infinitely useful, their icons aren’t very pretty. Perhaps the developers simply didn’t find the icon important, perhaps they lacked the resources to give an icon the attention it deserves. The result may be an app that doesn’t look as pretty as it is useful.

Here’s an idea: those of you who possess the time and skills to build a proper icon for your aesthetically orphaned but still favourite app — why not actually make that icon and offer it to the developer for free? In fact, why not have a central website, called “The Icons For Developers Program”, where designers can submit icon replacements to developers? Hell, why not let developers put out their own requests for icons? It should all be free in the name of pretty.

Has this already been done? Could it be useful, or would it simply fullfill a niche desire? Your thoughts are welcome.

New Opera Icon [Update]

New_Opera_icon.png
According to Jon Hicks, the Opera browser is set to get a new icon, designed by Oleg Melnychuk. It’s a little happy guy in a red jumpsuit, sporting the a capital O on his tummy. Certainly an improvement over the old one, while still not redoing the entire logo (which I’m sure the darkly suited guys at Opera must’ve opposed because they’re scared of a re-brand).

[Update]: It’s not a happy little guy in a jumpsuit. It’s still a red, capital O. It’s just a tweaked O. Pity. (Thanks Alexander).

Real_new_Opera_icon.png

Silk Icons

The free Silk icon set looks to be in the wild, I have seen it on more sites than I can count now. No wonder, the set is beautiful, and best of all completely free. My kudos to the author on a beautiful set, and bold move to make them free.

It’s hard to criticize a free meal that’s 99% delicous, unfair even, but there’s one tiny thing that bugs me. Although beautiful, the feed icon (Feed) lacks the bottom left dot that’s part of the now standardized feed icon. Does this bother anyone else? Does it even matter? Creative mandate, or style over usability?