Refreshing your filesystem
Oxygen folders have changed already 3 times since I first started the project back to 2005. That’s because “folders” are really important, and together with “file sheet” and basic actions, they really define the look and feel of the desktop.
First Oxygen folders (the 2 on top of the screenshot below) were really far from what I now consider functional design. They were already very nice icons but the perspective was making them look odd already at 64×64 size. They also lacked some realism in lighting and details.
About vertical folders
I also would like to spend two words about the few asking for vertical folders.
I have nothing against, I think they look cool on Vistaâ„¢, but I would like KDE to have it’s own look and feel, and making an icon theme with vertical icons just after Vistaâ„¢ has been released would be a bad move. It’s already plenty of free icon themes imitating or really carbon copying Vistaâ„¢. With Oxygen you already get your unique appealing desktop environment.
png image of the folder icon can be downloaded here
http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdelibs/pics/oxygen/128×128/mimetypes/inode-directory.png?view=markup
to use the new icon , choose properties of a folder, edit file type, click the icon, and set the image..
Cheers
Edited: url
Well spoken :)
I really like the old folder icon at first sight. But I take your world on it it’s different when you’re actually using the folder icons. I’m really looking forward to Oxygen, thanks for all your work!
I really like the old frontal view folder, and i think that it is easier to recognize as folder because it has a sheet in it.
I believe you when you say the new one is really light, and i also think that it works good if you already have seen many folder icons, but for computer newbies i think it is really difficult to tell that this icon should resemble a folder (in real life). What about putting the sheet back in?
Hmm i’m sorry but i really think the new folder is hard to rec. I sent it to 3 friends and none of them guessed what it was at first sight…
[...] A me queste appena presentate piacciono molto più delle attuali icone Tango per GNOME (sorpresa!) e sicuramente più delle vecche icone Oxygen che David include nel suo post come paragone: [...]
I agree.
Actually I liked your second try most - it was similar to the current crystal-icon (which I really like) but looks cooler, more elegant.
I agree that the icon with the sheet inside is easier to reognize than the last one. Maybe it has to do with the cutted edge in the front and the shadows.
How about having 2 foldericons: with and without sheet? The sheet would indicate, that the folder is not empty, making it a lot easier to get an overview (especially if you want to remove empty folders or you ale looking for something): if the icon contains no sheet, its not worth clicking into it…
nice work! I think you really have to try it out to appreciate the new one.
Uhm, I must admit some of the lighting, specially on the flap on the back, looks a bit confusing.
But again, I suggest to try them on Konqueror or better with Dolphin on kde 4.
@ Danniel, Joe
Probably with a sheet inside they may had recognized it, but in general, apart of Vista, none of the folders from most famous icon themes really look like real folders. Even Aqua folders from Mac OS X.
@ Heiko
That’s exactly why we had the sheet in the previous folder. If I’ll put the sheet back we probably will have an “empty version”.
About the second try, I always liked it big, but at small size was really, really bad, and it was hard to make look sharp as SVG, because of the dirthering.
Hey Davigno,
I really appreciate the re-working you are doing on these icons. That new design is fresh and light, like you say. Your not wanting to follow in Vista’s footsteps is a major plus as well. Sometimes I feel like people in the KDE project want to be like OSX or Windows. While there are some great innovations going on in those camps, I still prefer KDE because of its innovations. It seems like some people tend to forget that.
I for one will be proud to be sporting this on my laptop when 4 officially hits the streets!
Dunno but I think you should think about removing the transparency from the foremost lash… Or what about putting a sheet back in? At least for folders which have contents…
I have to say I prefer the old look but the new file size is great.
hi, nice work :)
is it possible to have more differents colors for the folders than in the current KDE icon set (like a black one, an orange one…) or is it limited by some specifications ?
Is that recognizable enough for new users? The old design with a sheet of paper was more intuitive. Could you try introducing a sheet in the new design as well?
Apart from that, the new folder is unique thanks to its lightness, Keep impressing us with beautiful icons.
While I appreciate the efforts of the author to create a new folder icon with a light footprint (both in terms of size and appearance), I feel like the new design does not convey the meaning of a folder. I agree that a folder icon does not have to look like a real folder, but still, it should represent a document container and not appear like an assembly of transparent rectangles.
All those folders share one misfeature. They’re too wide opened.
Mhmmhmh… I really prefer the old version from the look point of view…
Maybe you should add a paper also inside the newer one…
Outstanding! I very much like the reasoning behind the work you’ve created and think that the ‘light’ look is way to go. Providing a unique look for KDE is especially important as Linux continues to move forward and convince more users that it’s not just a ‘rehash’ of Vista/OSX.
I like the old frontal view better. It’s more obvious it’s a folder. The new one has less contrast and is there not as clear. :)
David, I definitely prefer the second 2005 approach, but since you are heading towards this frontal approach, please add a little more contrast to your last SVG, because in a 16×16 view is going to be really but really blurred (I mean, a bluish square more or less)
Is the second version of 2005 available somewhere? I love it. And isn’t it possible to include more than one folder icon with the newest being the standard and perhaps the second version of 2005 available as an option? PLEASE! It looks so much better…
@Vide @Francesco
2nd 2005 folder was indeed nice. But only at 128×128 size. At smaller size the icons were scaling down really bad and also looking cartoonish.
That icon is not availble right now, but stay tuned, in the future I think it will be released as a folder set.
I really like the new icon; the one thing I “hated” about oxygen was the old folder icons, and I’m glad to see you’ve changed it for the better :)
[...] About « Refreshing your filesystem [...]
I really like the new iconset but please make a version with a sheet inside too.Thanks for your great work!
Sorry to say that, but this folder icon appears more like a transparent buck with something inside. Is too dull, boring, there is no detail and the angle is wrong (and the front part is missing the “flap” of the previous versions).
Please don’t repeat the Keramik fiasco again. A end user interact with the UI, and don’t matter if KDE 4 have lots of wonderful technologies under the hood, if it’s look bad a lot of people will not use it.
Please don’t bash me, I’m just worried about the directions you are taking.
@eu.mesmo
I can just say that you must try the icon theme.
Hmm… david. I feel very mixed feelings about this.
And not because I don’t like the new approach. Because I enjoy the older ones so much!
In my opinion, latter from 2005 and former from 2006 are the best. Really. Let me try to explain why:
1) I don’t care if it’s frontal or not. I judge the style, the recognition. It could be even flipped downside if it’ll suite my needs :)
2) The former 2006 looks extremely polished, stylish, it was amazingly easy to read what’s inside - almost perfect :)
You put three points for the new one:
1) It’s easier to read when it’s small. So F* what? I know that designers tends to think that smaller is always better, but users not. Look at the Dolphin, Vista, Mac OS X. Part of the “coolness” effect is because there are BIG icons that looks GOOD. I will see the small icons a lot of times, agree, but I’ll also sometimes see it as 64×64 or 128×128. What then? The new approach doesn’t look that good in big scale. Sorry. Maybe you should think about LOD (level of details)? In small mode present simplified icon, in big mode more detailed, polished one (with blends, shadows, sheet of paper inside, etc.)?
2) It’s light - I, as a user, really don’t care if it’s 206 kb or 20 kb. Please, don’t use it as a pros ;p
3) You must take a look at it in real life. I did. It’s ok. But it doesn’t solve any of concerns I brought.
Another thing is that I really would love to be sure that the new icon will change depending on the content of the folder. It should have picture if it’s a folder with pics, it should contain video if the folder does, it should contain docs if the folder does.
It would be extremely sweet if it could contain more sheets if the folder contains a lot of documents, and just a single if there’s less than 10 documents inside (to indicate if the folder is stuffed or not). In case it has mixed content it could indicate it by small boxes of types of documents that are inside flowing inside the icon.
I really dream of the dynamic icons worls where the icon can represent a lot more data about what’s inside the dir, or what’s the status of the document (opened, playable, progress of download, etc.) and I think that your new icons has potential, but doesn’t exploit it to the end.
Constructive ideas:
1) Maybe make the back of the folder less curved. It doesn’t look that natural
2) Consider re-adding the cut on the top-left corner of the front. It made it easier for me to recognize that it’s a folder. As many others I can say that IMHO it doesn’t look like a folder for newbies. More - it doesn’t look like anything.
3) Please, rethink the idea of adding back the sheet. Or keep it like that for an empty folder, and add a sheet if there are docs inside. That would be actually best for me :D
The problem with transparent folders is that they can become confusing in showing either being empty when a directory actually contains items, or full of documents when the dir is empty.
the old frontal-view folder looks better for sure…
by the way….. the shadow of the new folder icon is strange too imho
I personally REALLY like the new style. It is so clean and lightweight.
I agree with others who say that the first 2006 try is nice as well, but I think, if you compare the two, the second try is much more stylish and modern.
I think it is worth it to have the other try as a folder set as well, but as default in an Desktop Environment there should be a professional icon theme.
So David, just continue your great work.
I dont think it’s up to you, but having folders who display the type of content in it - like documents or a photograph - would be really cool, and would increase usability a lot.
The only problem I see is about the scaling…
It would be really hard to make it good-looking at all sizes.
I really like the new style. It looks really clean and interesting.
However, I find it ironic that recently, Apple chose to make the new folder icons in OS X 10.5 Leopard with the frontal approach as well and Apple has been notorious about complaining about other people copying them.
Well, I have been amazed by Oxygen since the Oxygen website and its previews went online. I greatly look forward to the release of Oxygen and KDE4.
Keep up the great work!