[Bill Van Hecke]

Hi,

I have improved the process for going from Photoshop to the icon files we're using in the toolbar. The main problems people were reporting, lack of contrast and washed-out colors, ought to be somewhat ameliorated. Please take another look (at the next sneaky peek), and keep the feedback coming!

Thanks,
Bill

[Handycam]

Nice work! The secondary icons are coming along nicely too.

Any chance you could change the buttons at the top of the drawer?

[Forrest]

A bit better, but not quite. The issue I'm seeing is each icon takes a lot more effort to differentiate it from the others. I know Leopard is doing this too... but there's a difference between trendy and usable. Trends should only be followed if they're usable.



See how easy it is to tell the 5.6 icons apart? When I want to click on one, I don't have to draw my full attention to the icons to figure out which one to click on.

[owuser]

Are there plans to change the icons for things like the bookmark folders or downloads window?

[Jesse the K]

See how easy it is to tell the 5.6 icons apart?

One person's meat is another person's fish. I can't barely discriminate between any of those in your sample.

Here's new vs old:



Given my visual abilities, when icons share a common look they become useless as a UI.

While they may not be aesthetically pleasing in the abstract, the very differences the old icons display -- variations in outline, in placement within the icon frame, in bright colors -- make them easy to use.

I need to literally read the new icons to distinguish between them. If I'm reading, might as well use print, eh?

pleeze permit me to continue to use the old icon set!

[Schlaefer]

Originally Posted by Jesse the K

variations in outline

There are to many icons with a nearly rectangle shape. Maybe we can avoid that if possible. For example the download window:



Or would that be to confusing with the "to download something"?

[Jesse the K]

Yes, that's exactly the sort of outline difference that's easy to see!

For the "high contrast" icon set, distinctive color would be even better



As is probably painfully obvious, that's the first icon I've ever created.

I've downloaded and have been using OmniWeb v. 5.7 Sneaky Peek 1 (v615.0.95737) and have noticed that the Show History toolbar icon has changed to that of a calendar. Some other more subtle and color-oriented toolbar icon changes have been added as well such as the Show Bookmarks and Show Tabs toolbar icons. However, these icon changes haven't been updated in the Preferences pane. I don't know if this is intended, or if the icons are still undergoing changes and they haven't bothered to implement them in the Preferences window. But, I thought I'd mention it in the slim chance it's gone unnoticed.

I'd also like to add my opinion, which has already been mentioned several times within this thread, that the Favorites Bar still maintains the OS X v. 10.4.x background window color and really clashes with the toolbar in Leopard.

Lastly, I'm not a huge fan of OmniWeb's icon set (purple? yuck), and would add my voice to some of the others here that the icons are rather plain and if anything detract from an aesthetically pleasing user interface. I would suggest an icon overhaul perhaps for a 6.0 release. Just my two cents...

[hardcoreUFO]

I concur -- these icons are terrible. Hire Jon Hicks and get it done right.

[Handycam]

Originally Posted by hardcoreUFO

I concur -- these icons are terrible. Hire Jon Hicks and get it done right.

Indeed. I've gone back to using Jon's excellent icon set.