Eclipse Dual-Tone Icon Pack - Project Update & Call for Contributions

[jasmin261098]

This document serves as a project description of the Dual-Tone-Icon Project. It covers where the project started, what has already been built, what still needs to happen, and how you or your organization can help finish it.

Current State

When you open the Eclipse IDE today, you are greeted by icons designed for the screen resolutions and design conventions of a bygone era. While these icons still function, they do not match the modern look and feel of comparable development environments. The community is aware of this situation but has lacked a starting point for realizing a modernization. This project is therefore intended to serve as a launchpad and enable the modernization of Eclipse.

How It Started

In late 2024 @Michael5601 developed a concrete plan, explored different design directions and put the first ideas in front of the community through a poll so you were able to pick the style direction. The winning design became the foundation for the project, and the first icon created from it was the search icon, contributed in October 2025.

After this initial breakthrough @Michael5601 and @jasmin261098 built the official project style guide. This style guide serves as visual language description and rulebook of the icon design concept.

What Has Already Been Built

Since February 2026 @jasmin261098 took the project lead, joined by @BeckerWdf, @DanaStg, and @vogella. In this time that single search icon has grown into a proper icon pack prototype:

• 269 SVG icons covering file operations, Java development, debugging, run/stop controls, views, navigation, search, layout, comparison, import/export, and more.
• 4 Wizard icons: Larger 75×58 px icons for Eclipse wizard dialogs, including first prototypes for "New Class", "New Interface" and the general "New" Wizard.
• 4 OVR icons: Small 7×8 px icons that layer additional context on top of existing icons.

Every icon lives in one of three visual styles:
Neutral gray base icons for the majority of cases, monochromatic colored icons for actions (green for Run, red for Stop) and dual-tone icons where a gray base carries a colored accent element in the corner. All icons share the same strict design rules: 16×16 px canvas, 2 px rounded strokes, 1.5 px spacing, 1 px corner radius.

The System Behind the Project

In addition to the icons themselves, an infrastructure and workflows were established over the course of the project that significantly facilitate the work:

• 15 reusable SVG components: Shared building blocks that make new icons faster to create and visually coherent with everything that already exists.

• Icon Mapping: Maps all icons to their corresponding Eclipse plugin paths. This file is the basis for prototyped automated deployment.

• Semantic Icon Library: Plain english descriptions of what each icon stands for.

• Templates & Checklists: The style guide includes templates and checklists for creating icon designs on your own.

The One Piece Still Missing

The icon pack can only actually be used if the necessary technical implementation is developed. A built-in mechanism is needed to switch between different icon packs, similar to switching between light and dark modes. This is the most critical open task, and the place where a company or experienced platform contributor can have the most impact. Once it exists, the full end-to-end solution is in place: A design system, a growing icon library, and a working mechanism to enable the icon pack use.

Where Your Contribution Fits

For companies building a product based on Eclipse:

• Assigning an engineer to work on the implementation of the icon pack mechanism
• Sponsoring dedicated design or development time
• Reviewing the existing icon set from the perspective of your plugin ecosystem
• Conducting or supporting an accessibility review across display settings and impairment scenarios

For individual developers and designers:

• Working on the implementation of the icon pack mechanism
• Designing icons for Eclipse plugins or UI areas not yet covered according to the Style Guide
• Reviewing existing icons for visual consistency and recognizability

Get involved

Feel free to reach out to us to change the look and feel of the Eclipse IDE together!