[ubuntu-art] [Breathe] Folder icon

[tonic]

2009/7/4 Nicolò Chieffo <nicolo.chieffo at gmail.com>:
> mac_v: the icon looks good! but I would prefer the folder a bit more wide
>
> Then I have a request to make a little change to the folder icon, and
> I would like to discuss it with you.
> The request comes from the difficulty to draw XDG folder icons (which
> michote submitted today here [1]).
>
> As you can see, it's hard to distinguish what's drawn inside small icons:
> if the folder contains an "emblem" which is only based upon one single
> object (such as music, pictures, videos, publicshare1) it's easier to
> see the icon in 32x32, but for other icons (documents, downloads,
> templates, publicshare2) only 48x48 are ok.
> So the first thing I did was asking michote is to base the "emblems"
> only on one single object (even in the 48x48 or scalable icon):
> - downloads: only the down arrow
> - documents: only one sheet with writings
> - templates: only one sheet with a '+' inside
> This would fix icons up to 32x32, so no additional "fix" is needed in
> the folder icon.
>
> BUT if you look at smaller than 24x24 icons, it's really impossible to
> see what's inside the folder: the problem is because there's not
> enough orange space (in height) to put "emblems" in.
> In my opinion only 2 fixes are possible:
> - move the "S" [2] a lot more to the left (starting from the biggest
> icon), to gain enough vertical space without quitting the curved shape
> of the front side
> - remove the "S" starting only from 24x24 icons, so the top of the
> front side will become straight to fit a bigger emblem
>

Instead of changing the icon for all sizes. Why don't you do a level
of detail change for the smaller icons. Simplify the art where needed
to make sure the key concepts come across. That way we can keep the
nice looking larger icons and still have usable small icons. If the
correct concepts are preserved the viewer will be likely not realise
the icon is actually different in the smaller size.

Tonic