Hi all,
I made a couple of videos explaining more updates for Breeze icons. Enjoy!
Two Breeze Icon Updates
Published
Thoughts and Proposals on KDE and Plasma Desing and Much More
Thoughts and Proposals on KDE and Plasma Desing and Much More
Hi all,
I made a couple of videos explaining more updates for Breeze icons. Enjoy!
KDE and Plasma Design 
Lasso tool looks like a temporary diamond. Just draw a lasso with a dotted path as a result
Left right icons should be replaced. If this is back/forward then make them arrows. A smart person said that things should be as simple as possible but not simpler than that. This is way oversimplified
While you are going the right direction, I would suggest to do more changes.
Entity icon looks like an icon for ER diagram which would be used in Data modelling.
Those are good suggestions. The left right icons are “not” direction icons. They are usually undo and redo. The direction icons are chevrons instead. Thanks for the follow up.
The icons left/right I referenced look like less-than and more-then math symbols (cannot write those symbols here for some reason). Those should be redesigned and made into an arrow.
The same oversimplified problem is on minimize, maximize window icons (just rotated).
Redo / undo are usually curved arrows (roughly described as half circle with an arrow on one end) – and these ones are fine the way you did them.
The old icons are beyond bad. For me in top 3 worst KDE things. I’m really happy this is being reworked, just please change more things. Switching plasma to papirus improves UI significantly, so maybe take some inspiration there.
Also, I mentioned in another post that testing what an icon means should be done with 0 context – just give an icon and ask the random people what it means. This would be a benchmark.
In general I think these action icons are a great improvement! I love the thicker lines and rounded corners. The project is really coming along.
I do share dns’s concern about the new lasso icon. Our existing icon is not great, but I don’t think the proposed new one hits the mark. I’d also recommend just drawing an old-west-style rope lasso shape and be done with it. đŸ™‚
I was watching these videos next to my wife (who’s an artist) and she commented that the new edit-clear icon looks like a piece of cheese being squeezed, and otherwise more like a paintbrush than a broom. I tend to agree; I think the old icon connoted “broom/cleaning” better than the new icon. I’d refocus on making it look more like a broom.
A minor nitpick about the new edit-cut icon: the proportions of the scissors are wrong; the hinge is too far up towards where the blades would be. The hinge needs to be closer to the handles. The old icon had more appropriate proportions.
For all the “copy” style icons that have two offset and overlapped pieces of paper, I notice that the background page is larger than the foreground one. To me it breaks the illusion that one is a copy of the other. Also some of those icons use a badge in the corner to show a specific type of copying, while others use a symbol in the center of the foreground page. I think it would be good to unify these.
The pen and paintbrush icons look a bit too similar to me at a glance; only their tips differ and those elements are quite small. I think you could improve contrast by making the pen’s shaft straight like that of the pencil, rather than rounded like the paintbrush’s shaft. I also think the new pencil icon is a bit too thin and loses some of its pencil-ness; maybe thicken it by 1px so that it can regain some of its pencil-ness such as the dark tip and the squiggly line.
The new earthquake icon reminds me more of something to do with audio than an earthquake, but to be fair this is an issue inherited from the old icon too. Maybe a building cracking and falling would be more representational?
Thank you for the feedback. I will consider the comments.