6 ms·

I miss color icons, but the Tango-style icons look dated in modern apps, and unfortunately DPI scaling arguably smudges colored icons more than line-based icons

I miss color icons, but the Tango-style icons look dated in modern apps, and unfortunately DPI scaling arguably smudges colored icons more than line-based icons (even if both are vectors).

layer8 4y ago
Yeah, I’m missing icon libraries that actually look good on lower-DPI screens. 10-15 years ago was peak good-looking icon.
- aorth 4y ago
  KDE's Breeze icons are SVG and look great on high DPI screens. I've used them in web projects a few times. https://github.com/KDE/breeze-icons https://github.com/KDE/breeze-icons
  - nyanpasu64 4y ago
    layer8 was asking for icons that look good on low DPI screens. Breeze'a toolbar icons are mostly monochrome, which works but IMO is missing the charm of 98's colorized icons through Vista/7's 3D icons.
3dGrabber 4y ago
It’s like the whole web has come to the conclusion that icons have to be monochrome and boring. Why? What is this group-think? Why do other styles of icons “look dated”? I have nothing against the “metro” or “modern” (by m$) style per se. Like all designs it has its strengths and weaknesses. But I miss variety, Icon-sets (or websites for that matter) with personality. “metro” used to have personality, but has long since lost it because everything looks the same. Anyone here remember the silk icons? [1] I’m not arguing they are superior. But moar variety please: “silk icons”, “flat icons”, “silly icons”, “school icons”, “cartoon icons”… </rant> [1]: http://famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/preview.php http://famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/preview.php
- nyanpasu64 4y ago
  I remember the Silk icons, I still have a soft spot for them. I even tried using them in an app, but they upscale very poorly even with xBRZ (IIRC I used something like https://sourceforge.net/projects/xbrz/files/ScalerTest_1.1.zip https://sourceforge.net/projects/xbrz/files/ScalerTest_1.1.z...). Similarly, Visual Studio actually comes with an icon library at https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/17794.visual-studio-how-to-get-high-quality-icons-using-image-library.aspx https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/..., though 2012 sadly switched from 3D icons (a mixed bag, some beautiful ones and then some awful ones like a downscaled yellow-shaded XP-era exclamation point triangle) to flat line art indistinguishable from today's icon style except in having backgrounds. You can find "totally legal" offline downloads of VS2010 on archive.org (the online installer is down).
  - 3dGrabber 4y ago
    > I even tried using them in an app, but they upscale very poorly Someone made the effort and ported them to .svg [1] Donationware [1]: https://codefisher.org/pastel-svg/ https://codefisher.org/pastel-svg/
    - nyanpasu64 4y ago
      Interesting icon set. I love the idea behind it, but looking at their icon preview at https://i0.wp.com/codefisher.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/preview.png?w=336&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/codefisher.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/..., I noticed that some images look great at higher resolutions (the star), while others look like a bad hqx/xbrz job, with a mix of curved, pixel-aligned (lock, book, anchor, monitor stand), and blurred features (book stripes), with inconsistent line widths (the house's roof and bushes, the computer stand and anchor).

I miss color icons, but the Tango-style icons look dated in modern apps, and unfortunately DPI scaling arguably smudges colored icons more than line-based icons (even if both are vectors).

layer8 4y ago

Yeah, I’m missing icon libraries that actually look good on lower-DPI screens. 10-15 years ago was peak good-looking icon.

aorth 4y ago
KDE's Breeze icons are SVG and look great on high DPI screens. I've used them in web projects a few times. https://github.com/KDE/breeze-icons https://github.com/KDE/breeze-icons
- nyanpasu64 4y ago
  layer8 was asking for icons that look good on low DPI screens. Breeze'a toolbar icons are mostly monochrome, which works but IMO is missing the charm of 98's colorized icons through Vista/7's 3D icons.

3dGrabber 4y ago

It’s like the whole web has come to the conclusion that icons have to be monochrome and boring. Why? What is this group-think? Why do other styles of icons “look dated”? I have nothing against the “metro” or “modern” (by m$) style per se. Like all designs it has its strengths and weaknesses. But I miss variety, Icon-sets (or websites for that matter) with personality. “metro” used to have personality, but has long since lost it because everything looks the same. Anyone here remember the silk icons? [1] I’m not arguing they are superior. But moar variety please: “silk icons”, “flat icons”, “silly icons”, “school icons”, “cartoon icons”… </rant> [1]: http://famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/preview.php http://famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/preview.php

nyanpasu64 4y ago
I remember the Silk icons, I still have a soft spot for them. I even tried using them in an app, but they upscale very poorly even with xBRZ (IIRC I used something like https://sourceforge.net/projects/xbrz/files/ScalerTest_1.1.zip https://sourceforge.net/projects/xbrz/files/ScalerTest_1.1.z...). Similarly, Visual Studio actually comes with an icon library at https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/17794.visual-studio-how-to-get-high-quality-icons-using-image-library.aspx https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/..., though 2012 sadly switched from 3D icons (a mixed bag, some beautiful ones and then some awful ones like a downscaled yellow-shaded XP-era exclamation point triangle) to flat line art indistinguishable from today's icon style except in having backgrounds. You can find "totally legal" offline downloads of VS2010 on archive.org (the online installer is down).
- 3dGrabber 4y ago
  > I even tried using them in an app, but they upscale very poorly Someone made the effort and ported them to .svg [1] Donationware [1]: https://codefisher.org/pastel-svg/ https://codefisher.org/pastel-svg/
  - nyanpasu64 4y ago
    Interesting icon set. I love the idea behind it, but looking at their icon preview at https://i0.wp.com/codefisher.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/preview.png?w=336&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/codefisher.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/..., I noticed that some images look great at higher resolutions (the star), while others look like a bad hqx/xbrz job, with a mix of curved, pixel-aligned (lock, book, anchor, monitor stand), and blurred features (book stripes), with inconsistent line widths (the house's roof and bushes, the computer stand and anchor).