ICONS!
Defining icons
by Gifford Cheung

Outlining your icons
By looking closely at icons, you will see that a good icon usually has a black border around it. Why is this? Simple, the author of the icon wants the user to be able to see his masterpiece in the first place. An icon usually is placed in an environment that is either totally white or on a desktop background, where colors can cover the entire spectrum. So, coupled with the fact that icons are designed to get the users attention -- to let them know they can do something here, icons have to stand out. A yellow square against a white background will be virtually invisible, while a square outlined with black will stand out much better.


So, always start by outlining your icons with black. Worry about tweaking the lines later, just concentrate on the basic shape and making the icon stand out.

Fine tuning
Outlining an icon entirely in black can disfigure the icon, making it "look wrong" or leaving the lines too thick. Every pixel counts in a 32x32 grid, and there are two courses of action to take when fixing the misplaced dot.

The first is simply to remove the malignant dot. As long as there are enough bordering black lines to define the icon, that dot will not be missed.

But secondly, if the black dot looks wrong if it is there and wrong if it's missing, resort to "antialiasing." Place a dark grey or light grey dot in its place for an inbetween look.

Email me @ Giff@usa.net
Updated 3/12/97