new python icons for windows

[Istvan Albert]

I've been using the new python icons for windows for about two weeks
now and I must say they've turned out to be far less functional than I
thought. From purely visual standpoint the new icons look better, the
old ones had a certain level of 'cuteness' associated to them .. I
could see why that might have been a turnoff for some.

But these new icons are too large, too blocky and too pastel. On my
laptop time and again I found myself squinting trying to figure out
just what the actual icon is. For example it resembles the icon for
text files. It always feels like I need to make a small mental effort
of first recognizing then mapping the icon to python. I can recall ever
having this problem with the old icons ... or windows icons in general
for that matter.

Just an opinion.

Istvan

PS can someone point me to a page/link that contains the old icons?

[and-g...@doxdesk.com]

Istvan Albert wrote:

> But these new icons are too large, too blocky and too pastel.

Hooray! Glad to see *someone* doesn't like 'em, I'll expect a few more
when b1 hits. :-)

Although I can't really see 'large', 'blocky' or 'pastel'... they're
the same size and shape as other Windows document icons, and I
personally find the Python logo colours quite striking. If it's the
new-fangled shadey gradienty kind of nonsense you don't like, you could
also try the low-colour versions. eg. ICOs compiled with only 16-colour
and 16/32 sizes:

http://doxdesk.com/file/software/py/pyicons-tiny.zip

> For example it resembles the icon for text files.

This is intentional: to make it obvious that .py files are the
readable, editable scripts, contrasting with .pyc's binary gunk -
something that wasn't 100% clear before. With the obviousness of the
Python-plus and the strong difference between the white and black base
document icons, squinting shouldn't really be necessary IMO.

> can someone point me to a page/link that contains the old icons?

Sure,

http://svn.python.org/view/python/branches/release24-maint/PC/py.ico
http://svn.python.org/view/python/branches/release24-maint/PC/pyc.ico

http://svn.python.org/view/python/branches/release24-maint/PC/pycon.ico

--
And Clover
mailto:a...@doxdesk.com
http://www.doxdesk.com/

[Istvan Albert]

and-g...@doxdesk.com wrote:

> > For example it resembles the icon for text files.
>
> This is intentional: to make it obvious that .py files are the
> readable, editable scripts, contrasting with .pyc's binary gunk -

I think this is a mistake, it does not seem obious, all it does is just
blends in and does not separate the python files from regular text
files.

As I said before I think your icons are neat, the design is clean and
it looks very professional. Unfortunately, in my experience, this
design did not allow me to easily pick out the python files from the
text files. Also the black icons for pyc files are far more visible and
stand out much more than the white ones. If anything I wish the pyc had
no icons at all or was invisible, I mean how often do you need to do
any work with pyc files...

[chow...@gmail.com]

Istvan Albert wrote:
> and-g...@doxdesk.com wrote:
>
> > > For example it resembles the icon for text files.
> >
> > This is intentional: to make it obvious that .py files are the
> > readable, editable scripts, contrasting with .pyc's binary gunk -
>
> I think this is a mistake, it does not seem obious, all it does is just
> blends in and does not separate the python files from regular text
> files.
>

> Also the black icons for pyc files are far more visible and
> stand out much more than the white ones. If anything I wish the pyc had
> no icons at all or was invisible, I mean how often do you need to do
> any work with pyc files...

I agree with those points after trying out the icons. Something about
the icons seems blurry (perhaps it's the yellow snake with the poorly
visible white eye. Or it could be the paper that doesn't seem to have
enough contrast on the top (I have white background behind them.) To
my eyes, the pyc stick out also. I almost want to swap the two since
the pyc files look so striking.

I do like the egg icons very much.

Good work!
-Kevin Deenanauth