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Icons are little miracle workers. They circumvent language obstacles, give concise warnings and directions, convey our moods and show which buttons to press. Anyone needing to find a toilet in an unfamiliar country has been thankful for the familiar sign that not only shows where it is, but which one to use. The rise of desktop computers, and better and better mobile devices has extended icon use even further, with an abundance of applications requiring icons to differentiate between them and navigate their interfaces.
[...]... brought up — as I’m sure you were — with icons all around me, especially in the home The stereo and TV had them, the labels in my clothes had them, and so did the machine that washed them Whenever we travelled in the car, I would record the road signs I saw in my iSpy book, and see what landmarks were near us on an Ordnance Survey map with the aid of the key The difference between ‘Church with Tower’... icons with the common toolset found in most of them, so you can be more versatile Before we go any further though, there’s something we need to clear up… xiv What is an icon? Leaving aside the religious connotations of the term, the word icon today covers a wide range of image types, from monochrome play and pause buttons to the highly detailed, full-colour icons used to identify an application They... leaf with veins and droplets of water, but they all live under the broad umbrella of icons One distinction we need to draw early on is that between an icon and a logo Logos are unique identifiers that work best when they stand out among other logos Icons, on the other hand, generally don’t communicate a corporate identity; rather, they inform, translate and warn They tell us which route to take, which... refer to ‘a 32-pixel squared icon or ‘a 128×128pixel squared icon Where the dimensions aren’t squared, such as the iPhone4’s document icons, these will be written as ‘44×58px’ And although icons for Apple's Retina display require their areas to be squared, to avoid confusion I'll stick to established convention and say they're twice the size, since their dimensions are doubled The structure of this book... between With the ever-growing production rate of apps, the variety of popular devices and platforms these apps are consumed on and the increasing resolutions that need to be created now, this type of icon is important Application icons are discussed in chapter 7 Before we go too deep into the detail of the various types, their uses and how to draw them, it would be best to start with the story of icons and... http://kyletezak.com/portfolio /the- four-iconchallenge/ xviii Table of Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 A Potted History How we use icons Favicons of Icons page 23 page 59 page 1 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 The Metaphor Drawing Icons Icon formats and page 89 page 117 deployment page 173 Chapter 7 Application Icons Appendix page 213 page 279 1 Chapter 1 A potted history of icons Let's start the journey from the very... arbitrary icons The kind of icons used in websites and user interfaces are often either a picture of something (pictograms), an idea of something (ideograms) or an invention (arbitrary) Often just monochrome, these icons help us find our way and make actions and functions clearer We’ll look at them in chapter 5 Application icons Mostly photorealistic, these blur the distinction between logos and icons,... ‘Church with Spire’ is forever etched into my consciousness xi xii xiii My father was a keen meteorologist, so the first time I was particularly aware of icons was through the daily routine of BBC weather reports Michael Fish would slap them on to the map, where they would stick 90% of the time Icons are little miracle workers They circumvent language obstacles, give concise warnings and directions, convey... you through the creation of various different types of icons, building up the skills as we go xv xvi xvii Favicons Unlike other icons, favicons will almost always be a smaller version of a website logo Originally used in a browser’s address bar and bookmarks views, they’re now used in a much wider variety of contexts Their simplicity makes them a great starting point for our journey Favicons are covered... Hit the road - quick! arning sign today From the 1880s until the 1940s, hobos who rode the rails across the United States Owner is in would leave cryptic symbols on fences, footpaths, street signs and railway stops to help This is the place Dangerous Neighbourhood Dangerous drinking water Kind lady lives here Nothing here Owner is in Owner is out H other hobos find their w it the road - quick! ay These . Hicks Published in 2011 by Five Simple Steps Studio Two, The Coach House Stanwell Road Penarth CF64 3EU United Kingdom On the web: www.fivesimplesteps.com Please. web: www.fivesimplesteps.com Please send errors to errata@fivesimplesteps.com Publisher: Five Simple Steps Editor: Chris Mills Tech Editors: Gedeon Maheux,