Drupal Needs GPL Icons!
FactoryJoe@civi... - December 5, 2004 - 03:00
| Project: | User experience |
| Component: | other |
| Category: | task |
| Priority: | normal |
| Assigned: | Unassigned |
| Status: | active |
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Description
Drupal needs to offer a standard set of icons in its theme repository that can easily be replaced by themes. Using words like "Edit" or "Delete" is, like, so 1994.
I think we should either find some nice GPL icons of commission someone to develop a default set and then make it easy to replace them at the theme level.
Any takers? I'll probably be doing my own for CivicSpace, but it would be nice if there were an easy way to insert them into the proper places, like on the tracker and content admin pages.
#1
The Tango project has a good set of icons which we might be able to use.
More importantly, they also have a standardized icon naming system, so even if we design our own we can keep things easily interchangeable.
#2
Unfortunately, Tango icons are not GPLed and can't be distributed with Drupal or any contrib modules.
#3
We've recently created a set of Drupal-centric GPL icons:
http://www.lullabot.com/articles/free_gpl_icons_lullacons_pack_1
#4
I swear I've seen this issue elsewhere before. I note that it has been a year since the last update. Is this still an issue? Should this be triaged to drupal's theming system?
#5
morten.dk har a some strong suggestions for icons on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mortendk/sets/72157600058455386/
You also have the lovely Silk icons, without the naming scheme and open source spirit of Tango.
I think if Drupal were to use icons (which it should, at least as a contrib module), it shouldn't sprinkle them around like sugar on an apple pie. Too many icons will work against its purpose and only cause confusion. Like with everything else in Drupal, we want to avoid crust.. ehm, i mean cruft.
#6
Note the silk icons (and any other famfamfam ones) are also not GPLed and can't be included in any contributed modules.
Has Morten licensed his under the GPL? I downloaded the archive and couldn't find license information.
#7
First task is probably to decide what we actually need. I agree with ximo that we don't want to over do things. So every addition should be reasoned.
So what I can think of:
GENERAL
I think having an icon for help (probably a question mark) will help bring attention to the in built help files. Help is something people specifically scan for and an icon will help them find it where it exists. However, again, if there are other icons on the screen the help icon will become harder to find.
The RSS icon we already have is almost certainly good enough.
- rss feed
- help
- throbber
FORUMS
We have these in core already. However, they are far from being distinctive enough. Also, while it is a common metaphor in online forums, I don't get the use of an envelope as a representation of a forum thread at all. We should scrap the envelop unless someone can explain why it makes sense. :)
These icons, btw, are a great example of a good use of icons. They allow readers of forums to scan lists of threads and pick out the ones that they haven't read. For this reason it is worth pointing out that all 'unread post' icons should stand out as a group of icons. I guess the easiest way to do this is with colour, but we should remember the colour blind always.
- sticky thread
- default post icon (already read etc)
- unread post
- thread closed
- hot thread
- unread post in hot thread
OPERATIONS
Arrows are universally recognisable symbols.
The delete is a bit more difficult (personally I favour the 'x' over a bin as it is much clearer).
- move to top arrow
- up arrow
- move to bottom arrow
- down arrow
- left arrow
- right arrow
- delete
WATCHDOG
I'm not sure. I guess the icons bring more attention to the field when it appears. Still I can't decide if they are necessary.
- ok
- warning
- error
Anything else? Morten had icons for almost everything (http://morten.dk/blog/mortendk/icons-drupal-late-night-note-collection), but that is not necessary (and counter productive to usability). Are there any lists, for example, where a visual scan for certain icons will help spot relevant columns (like in the forums)?
We also need to think about what size we need these in. Do we need 16x16 and 32x32. Or does this depend on the specific icon?
Also what do we need for the GPL? All source files? What formats? Can we get the source files in an open format like SVG?
#8
I opened up an issue for the forum icons here:
http://drupal.org/node/190773
I think the forum icons would be a nice start for defining a drupal icon style.
There's some other icons I've been doing for Views and Panels here:
Views: http://drupal.org/node/179845
Panels: http://drupal.org/node/179690 <-- these might actually be overdoing things, too many, too small…
Also:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/6422 , a call for icons for g.d.o content-types, this is where forumicons refresh originated and it has some images of basic icons based on a similar list as yours:
http://www.yoroy.com/elders/drupal/icons/icon-sheet-blackwhite.jpg
I agree that first question should always be "but, does it need an icon at all?" :-)