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Permlink Replies: 13 - Pages: 1 - Last Post: 27 Jul 21, 12:51 Last Post By: davidekholm
JeffTucker

Posts: 8,039
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Webloc icon
Posted: 19 Jul 21, 18:12
 
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Just a random thought, and I wonder what other users think....

I've been rebuilding the icons in my skins using hand-crafted SVG's, which are infinitely more concise and cleaner than what you get by starting with a PNG and then feeding it to an online converter.

In any event, in emails with jimberry, my playmate in this endeavor, the subject of the proper overlay for a webloc thumbnail came up. In jAlbum, there used to be a "globe with continents" overlay, which I've also been using in my skins, but that's hopelessly busy, and tough to see. In current jAlbum, that's been replaced with a simple globe grid overlay.

But to me, a globe icon says, "Click this, and you're getting a map." It doesn't really convey the idea that you're going to another website. Yeah, it's the "world wide web," but it's a stretch.

I've built a new overlay using the "external page" icon from my skins, but the meaning of that is a little vague in this context. Used in a skin to return to the parent site of the album, it's understandable, but for departing the album for an arbitrary remote site, the meaning is less clear.

How about a chain link icon? That gets used all over the place to indicate a hyperlink.
RobM

Posts: 3,815
Registered: 4-Aug-2006
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 19 Jul 21, 18:49   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
 
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I’ve been pondering this too, not yet decided what to use. I have something in place, just for testing, a globe with a grid overlay, a bit naff. A chain link sounds a good idea. I’ll have a ponder over tea.

Naff idea but it shows the image needs to be clear at small sizes.
JeffTucker

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Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 19 Jul 21, 19:08   in response to: RobM in response to: RobM
 
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Yes, that's the problem with a lot of icons. Below a certain size, they turn into indistinct blobs. Gotta keep 'em simple.
RobM

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Registered: 4-Aug-2006
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 19 Jul 21, 19:12   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
 
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JeffTucker wrote:
Yes, that's the problem with a lot of icons. Below a certain size, they turn into indistinct blobs. Gotta keep 'em simple.
Probably why no one has used a child’s bike, with basket, overlaid on a full moon for a ‘Home’ link. ;)
RobM

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Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 19 Jul 21, 19:46   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
 
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I quite like https://www.anyrgb.com/en-clipart-sng2x
Though, I’m tempted to do away with the icon and just prepend/insert ‘https://‘ to the title field.
jimberry

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Registered: 30-Aug-2004
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 20 Jul 21, 02:12   in response to: RobM in response to: RobM
 
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Attachment web.svg (5.9 KB)
How about a globe map with a web overlaid?

Or does that look too much like the North Pole has shifted to New York/NewJersey Bight?

Edited by: jimberry on 20 Jul 2021, 08:21
JeffTucker

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Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 20 Jul 21, 02:17   in response to: jimberry in response to: jimberry
 
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Attachment link2.png (9.6 KB)
Needs to be something punchy, something that is still recognizable when overlaid on a thumbnail image. I'm thinking something more like....
RobM

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Registered: 4-Aug-2006
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 20 Jul 21, 02:22   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
 
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JeffTucker wrote:
Needs to be something punchy, something that is still recognizable when overlaid on a thumbnail image. I'm thinking something more like....
Handcuffs ;)
JeffTucker

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Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 22 Jul 21, 13:08   in response to: RobM in response to: RobM
 
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Attachment overlays.png (36.3 KB)
Over morning coffee.... Video, Audio, Webloc. They'd be semi-opaque, of course.
davidekholm

Posts: 3,442
Registered: 18-Oct-2002
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 23 Jul 21, 11:14   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
 
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Good looking ones. Do you possess such graphical talents?
JeffTucker

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Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 23 Jul 21, 15:03   in response to: davidekholm in response to: davidekholm
 
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Attachment music.png (14.1 KB)
Not really. I poke around in Google Images to find something that looks like what I want. Then I try to figure out how to recreate it in SVG. No drawing app - I just start with a blank document in a text editor.

Just redid all of the icons in my skins that way. I had been using PNG's and letting an online converter produce the SVG's, but that often works poorly, especially if the PNG has been fiddled with. At typical icon display sizes, like 32px, it wasn't detectable, but some of the icons were really ragged. And I knew it.

On the left, a PNG-to-SVG conversion - on the right, similar, but made as an SVG from the get-go.
davidekholm

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Registered: 18-Oct-2002
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 23 Jul 21, 20:06   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
 
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Ah, these PNG-to-SVG converters obviously need a touch of AI :-)
JeffTucker

Posts: 8,039
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 23 Jul 21, 21:43   in response to: davidekholm in response to: davidekholm
 
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Yes, they don't recognize when something is close enough to being a straight line to let it be treated like one, and they certainly can't spot an ellipse when they see one. ;)

I'll mark this thread "answered," since I was just after some opinions. The "chain link" icon is now in all my skins. If you'd like to appropriate it for the webloc thumbnail overlay in the jAlbum UI, have your people contact my people, and they can work out a licensing deal.
davidekholm

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Registered: 18-Oct-2002
Re: Webloc icon
Posted: 27 Jul 21, 12:51   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
 
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Sounds awesome Jeff :-)
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