Design/Whiteboards/LibreOffice Initial Icons

As this page doesn't only show the basic information about the design but contains links to the present state of our work, everybody is invited to join our effort:

Subscribe to the design mailing list, comment presented proposals and pick an icon that still needs to be worked on. If you are interested in collaborative work and integration in a common design idea, your help is highly appreciated!

Goals and Timeline
The goal is to create an initial icon set for the LibreOffice 3.3 release. Rationale:


 * The visual identity of LibreOffice changed according to the LibreOffice Initial Branding.
 * The Galaxy style icon set which is currently used features both Sun and OpenOffice.org visual identity elements.
 * The ODF style icons set, which is currently used within OpenOffice.org, has been criticized to be visually indistinguishable due to e.g. missing colors for the applications.

A release of LibreOffice 3.3 is expected from mid December to mid January ... the icons have to be provided at least approx. 5 days in advance.

Requirements and References
Note: Due to the time constraints, the requirements do only cover the most important points.

Requirements

 * The following icons must at least be provided: LibreOffice main application icon, LibreOffice application icons (most used applications), LibreOffice MIME type icons (most used file types and template types).
 * The icons should match the LibreOffice initial branding.
 * The icons should be usable on all platforms that are supported by LibreOffice.
 * High contrast versions have to be made available.

Resources

 * OpenOffice.org Visual Design Galaxy MimeType Icons Style (by Sun/Oracle): Color language and symbolism of the Galaxy MIME type icons.
 * OpenOffice.org Visual Design Galaxy MimeType Icons Overview (by Sun/Oracle): Lists the most common "user visible" MIME type icons featuring the Galaxy style.
 * OpenOffice.org Unified ODF Icons - Project Home Page (by Sun/Oracle): Lists information on the initial ODF icons development. Provides overviews of required icons, e.g. a list of system file types.
 * OpenOffice.org ODF Toolkit Project (by Sun/Oracle): Lists the ODF style initial icons, their revisions and also the high contrast versions.
 * Rework of the Unified ODF Icons (OpenOffice.org): Rework of the ODF style icons to make them more distinguishable. Work in progress.
 * Tango OpenOffice.org 2.0 icons (by Jacub Steiner): Icons created by Jacub Steiner for OpenOffice.org 2.0 according the guidelines of the Tango Desktop Project. There, you'll also find some MIME type icons. The site mentions that the icons are not public domain.

Alternatives for New / Improved Icons
From the options given above, the Steering Committee decided to go for the "Complete New Icon Set" (see Steering Committee Meeting, 2010-12-11).

Decision List
The discussion concerning the icons takes place on the Design Team mailing list. The following table is an extract of some of the discussed issues.

Document Symbolism
Note: Basic symbolism will be used for 16px and (partly) 32 px icons. If the icons are larger, then decoration elements can be added to make them more pleasing.

Source Code Integration

 * See mail stating the target names in the source code
 * See for integration status
 * See Design Tools "Support, Documentation and Development" for the "SVG Icon / Graphics Workflow" and the "Git Version Control System"

Present State of the Icon Design


The present version of the icons has been released with LibreOffice 3.3.1.

Thanks to everybody having helped to make this happen!

Please update the table if you uploaded the icons. Thanks!

The source file contains the present version of all the icons - alternative proposals as different layers. (If the combined file can't be merged, when several people worked on different icons, we'll go back to individual files)

Earlier Proposals
Proposals by Bernhard

present version: [[Media:LibreOffice Initial Icons Bernhard draft 0-1.svg]]

previous versions (and mails)


 * File:LibO icons draft.png
 * Mail by Bernhard, first draft: File:Template icon draft.svg
 * Mail by Bernhard, second draft File:Draft1 2.png
 * Mail by Bernhard: Bernhard's Wiki User Page (Drafts)

Proposals by Ivan


 * Mail by Ivan: [[Media:IvanIconDraftReference.png]]

Proposals by Christoph


 * Current version: Writer Icons Blog Posting, Calc Icons Blog Posting, and the source file [[Media:LibreOffice Initial Icons-Christoph.svg]]

Previous Versions:


 * More structured approach based on Bernhard's last (and fine) work: Preview, and the source file [[Media:LibreOffice Initial Icons-Christoph.svg]]


 * Mail by Christoph: File:ChristophIconDraft.svg

Proposals by Jaron


 * 1st Draft: Jaron's Proposal
 * 2nd Draft, Macro Icon: Macro Proposal
 * Gear svg file for Macro Icon in case someone wants to play around with it: Gear

Proposals by Paulo José


 * 256px icons for Writer, Calc, Press, Draw, Base and Math based on Christoph proposal: Paulo's proposal.
 * Some details and alternartive versions of all 128px icons are also included.

Proposals by Different Authors


 * Branding/Mimetype Icons
 * Branding/Mimetype Icons/Proposals