New Icon

[kornelski]

ImageOptim icon is ugly. No doubt about it :)

However, despite the uglyness it does have two properties of a good icon: distinct shape and distinct color. The black splattered nobody-knows-what symbol clearly stands out in the sea of shiny silverish-with-hint-of-color tilted-rectangle icons.

I'd love to see a better-looking icon that still stands out (rather than being e.g. some variation of Preview.app's icon).

Also, I may need ability to migrate to the new icon gradually. The old one has been used for so long that's all over the web and people are used to it (call it Stockholm Syndrome if you like ;) I don't want to suddenly auto-update everybody's ImageOptim one day and have them wonder "where's ImageOptim gone!?!" (e.g. I could first make old icon with shade/color of the new one, then use new one, but maybe with darker outline, etc.)

The current crush-warning-sign symbol is obscure, so doesn't need to be kept.

I was thinking about icon with thick black scissors (to keep feel black X that current icon has) trimming away white border from a photo.

Alternative idea is a thick bundle of images squeezed in the middle with measuring tape (that could have KB symbols instead of cm/inch :)

[mathiasbynens]

Get @riddle on this, stat!

Cool icon idea: lots of compression artifacts.

[kornelski]

I've added defaults write net.pornel.imageoptim BounceDock -bool false especially for @riddle :)

[kornelski]

Until #17 is solved ImageOptim will be lossless and not create any compression artifacts, so maybe better keep icon imply it's lossless.

[visualpharm]

We'll do that. We are icons8.com and VisualPharm. Give us couple weeks tops.

[kornelski]

@visualpharm 👍

[annakomarova]

Hi, I'm Ivan's colleague. Here we go with the icon sketches.

[mathiasbynens]

This is awesome!

[JamieMason]

boom!

[riddle]

I love the 1st idea.

[pim]

The second and third concepts are going to look great as icons. I’m not sure about the first one – the elements might be indistinguishable at Dock size, even though I like this idea too.

[porada]

This is great.

[ghost]

That's nice but I think the message can be tweaked.

Doesn't feel like they convey the purpose of the app, a) feels like cropping, b) bundling c) compressing yeah but still close to bundling.

3. is the best, but maybe show it compressing just one image, the compressor is highly associated with archiving utilities though, but I guess to the user that's sort of what it feels like.

The removal of the frame, the decoration in a) is a good idea, but maybe the scissors associate it with cropping, maybe replace the paper frame with something else & have the icon depicting its removal though I dunno a scan line, laser, something more digital.

Just dumping ideas :)

[hyperscientist]

Initially, my gut feeling was to go with #1. I actually had no idea initially what is that on #3 (after second or two I could tell obviously). After I read lmjabreu's comment about "cropping" I started to share his opinion, so I started to lean towards #3. But heart still tells me #1 ;) Definitely not #2 though! And last but not last, I love them :)

[visualpharm]

I agree #1 is more about cropping, but why you think #3 should have only one photo? ImageOptim wasn't half that good if didn't do batch processing, did it?

[ghost]

True, I don't want sound like I'm crazy (these design discussions can go a bit crazy heh).

I'm replying via email so I can't remember exactly what I said before, but I think my reasoning was that the combination of a press and a bunch of images feels very close to what you'd do for an archiving app (zip/tar/etc)

"Hi, my main purpose is to accept a bunch of files and compress them into something"

While the core action, the minimum requirement, the atomic action is to optimize a file, yeah you can drag a bunch of them, a folder, but the app will work on them one by one, 20 files in, 20 files out.

But, as I said, I don't wanna sound weird, I might be geeking out a bit :)

This is a really nice icon contribution :)

Luis - @lmjabreu

On 5 Sep 2013, at 18:09, visualpharm notifications@github.com wrote:

I agree #1 is more about cropping, but why you think #3 should have only one photo? ImageOptim wasn't half that good if didn't do batch processing, did it?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[kornelski]

These icons are beautiful!

In my poll on twitter third design was most liked. I think that icon is a great idea and conveys compression well without suggesting cropping or zip archives.

Kudos for that! Let's go with the third design!

[annakomarova]

Thanks for all the comments :) OK, third concept) We'll send the icon ASAP.

[annakomarova]

Here we go with the icon.

[kornelski]

Thank you! It's really nice. I like the reflections, page curl and a bit of magic sparkles :)

I've added it to the build: http://imageoptim.com/ImageOptim1.4.5a1.tar.bz2

I've noticed couple of small issues:

• in smaller sizes top handles blend with rest of the box, so it looks a bit like a TV with V-shaped antenna. Maybe it would be clearer if handles were dark?
• could you supply image with alpha transparency or some other source files? It's hard to cut shadow icon from white background.
• thread on the screw is reversed :) [rotating right should screw it in, so thread should be angled like this: /// rather than \\\]

[annakomarova]

Thanks for your comments. We'll update the icon and send you ICNS and PNG files.

[annakomarova]

Hi!

Here we go with the updated icon + all required formats (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/100790715/ImageOptim.zip). Waiting for your feedback.

[kornelski]

The icons are beautifully pixel-perfect. Thank you, @annakomarova! :)

[I'll prepare new release and update images on the website in the next few days]

[annakomarova]

Great) We're very glad that you like the icon)