Customize poznote logo #1336
Replies: 3 comments 4 replies
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As much as I like the idea of being able to white-label open-source applications, I also think this is one of the rare features that is truly optional and can directly remove visibility from the project itself. It’s already difficult enough for open-source developers to make their work financially sustainable. I understand Tim isn’t building this purely for money, but in an ideal world, he should still be able to make a living from a project he’s passionate about. I think white-labeling is one of the few features that makes sense to reserve for a paid, more business-oriented tier. For example, let’s say I rename the app to Freeman Notes and replace the icon with my own. That’s really cool for me, but now imagine my family uses it at school or work and someone asks:
Their answer would probably be something like:
And that’s where the conversation ends. The original project gets no recognition, nobody knows what Poznote is, and a potential word-of-mouth recommendation is completely lost. Nobody is prevented from using Poznote because they can’t completely rebrand it. And technically, since it’s open source, you can already modify the code and compile your own white-labeled version if that’s important to you. The difference is simply that upstream developers shouldn’t necessarily have to maintain and support that use case for everyone. For things like an OIDC portal, a Gatus status page, internal dashboards, and similar tools, it makes perfect sense because those aren’t really products that regular users are going to discover and then search for on their phone or app store. If someone sees Poznote being used and likes it, they might look it up, install it themselves, and eventually even become a paying user. That creates a small but real path from visibility to adoption, and from adoption to revenue. More revenue means the developer has more incentive and more ability to keep improving Poznote, which ultimately benefits everyone using it. It’s obviously a long chain and not every recommendation turns into a paid customer, but that kind of word-of-mouth visibility does matter. White-labeling can quietly remove that path entirely. That said, I do agree that the current logo could be improved. I really don’t want this to sound like a personal attack on whoever designed it. Design is subjective, everyone has different tastes, and that’s completely fine. But personally, I don’t think it stands out very much, and it reminds me of a fairly generic Google-style icon from around 2010. There’s also a practical issue: it isn’t an SVG, so I can’t easily adapt its color to a custom theme. In my case, I actually have to hide it with CSS because its current color clashes with my theme. Just to be clear, I’m not a maintainer of this project. This is simply my opinion as a user. |
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Ouh, so sorry, i didnt understand that change the logo in my own instance of poznote was a way of belittling Tim's work. For me, its a customization at the same level as my own domain for access to the app, or the change or the title page. In any case, i understand your point of view and its ok if the ticket is cancelled. Best regards |
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@osmollo No need to apologise at all, your request was perfectly reasonable and I didn't take it badly. But I agree with @gravelfreeman on this one (thanks!). It is what I pretty much felt when read your suggestion. It was like "Oh do I really want to do that, it is like removing a part of me! 😅". Poznote is free and self-hostable, and people discovering it on someone else's screen is pretty much the only way it gets known. So I'd rather not make full rebranding an official feature. I do agree the logo could be better though, and the SVG point is a good one. Right now it's a PNG, so it can't follow your theme colour. That I'd like to fix. I just need to create a nice logo but isn't it too risky now that people now my logo? Thanks both for the discussion! ❤️ |
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Companies constantly rebrand and people get used to it. Poznote is still early and it’s to be expected and happens a lot on selfhosted apps that gets more popular. I see 2 options at this time :
One takes time, the other one takes money. Pick your poison! In the meantime I would vectorize/trace the current logo and export to SVG. Make the brand/white/black variant colors. I’d do it but I kind of raged quit Windows for now and all of my computers are on Linux. I might get a partition to spin Adobe suite at some point. ChatGPT 6.0 model apparently does 3D modeling now so I guess it can also do this. |
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@gravelfreeman I'm actually really into the contest idea, that's the one I want to do. No rush at all on my side. I love this idea! "Pick your poison!" -> you are so funny! 😂 In the meantime, the vector part is done. The mark inside the app has been a CSS mask since 6.81.2, so it takes the theme accent colour and you shouldn't need to hide it anymore. Next release adds an SVG favicon and the welcome modal uses the mask too. The If you're up for it, I'd be happy to have your input on the contest rules when we get there. Thanks again for the thoughtful take on this! ❤️ |
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You can probably find the Immich contest which I think was great. On their Discord and GitHub. I recall the Discord was active at the time they did it. But at the same time they were solving a bigger issue in the selfhosted space by replacing Google Photos. I don’t think Poznote can get the same popularity and traction in such a short amount of time like they got. They deserve all of it, it’s a very great piece of software and it’s free! |
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I'm really considering to move to it. |
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Hi!
Would it be possible to customize the poznote icon? Uploading an image file that automatically generates different sizes and/or versions for the favicon. Or allowing the user to upload different versions for various logo formats depending on where they will be used
Regards
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