CHAPTER 5
Icons
5-4 Designing Effective Icons
that display only black and white (no shades of gray or colors), particularly
in the smaller icon sizes.
Newton icons do not have drop shadows. There is no assumed light source
to create an artificial shadow.
Avoid Text in Icons 5
Avoid using text in your icons whenever possible. Text in icons can be
confusing, and it’s hard to localize for other regions, languages, or countries.
It’s appropriate to use text with icons, but not within icons. Figure 5-2 shows
an example of icons with text in them and icons that convey the idea much
better without text.
Figure 5-2 Avoid text in icons
Make All Sizes of an Icon Look Alike 5
If you make an icon in more than one size, maintain a close visual relationship
among all sizes. Design the large icon first, and then adapt the design to the
small icon. You can leave out inessential details in the small version of your
icon, but it shouldn’t look significantly different from the large version.
Figure 5-3 shows examples of small and large icons.
You can’t design each variation of an icon in isolation. The large and small
variants are incarnations of the same icon, so the basic design must work for
all of them. Be flexible in adapting your design to all sizes. Icon design is an
iterative process. During the design process, you may need to redesign one
version of an icon when you find it doesn’t translate well to another version.
Don’t use
text in icons
Keep icons
pictorial