Linux Icon Poll

[daiyam]

Vote for VSCodium's app icon on Linux!

We would like your feedback about the icon on Linux!

The vote ends the 20th April at midnight.

circle1	macos1	nobg	rect1

If you have suggestions, please add your background template to icons. We might run another vote before the next version/end of month.

[DanielProg39]

I don't know... The good old round icon looks good, but the new transparent one isn't bad either. I like both and for me there's not much difference. Rect1 also looks appealing to me

[geekley]

Here's how they all look in KDE Plasma's default dark and white themes, at 32px:

On default Gnome, nobg might not be an issue, but any theme/DE with similar blue bg/accent color makes it have bad contrast. This isn't a problem with other blue icons because they at least have a second color, even if it's minor.
It's worse in Unity DE, which purposefully uses a BG with the exact same main color of the icon.

This wouldn't happen if nobg had at least some border (though I'll admit it doesn't fit too well with other app icons):

It would be nice if people who use other distros/DEs could post a similar comparison here.

[DanielProg39]

Here's how the current icon looks like on my desktop

[daiyam]

@geekley You are right, they are small. I will fix them...

[daiyam]

The icons have been updated VSCodium/icons@d926d66

[geekley]

Guys, it's important that you vote anything except nobg, here's why:
KDE

Unity

It needs to have 2 distinct colors at a minimum.

[geekley]

I haven't, but replacing just the icon on KDE it would be like this (taskbar, menu):

If you're asking for my opinion, using a blue/black/whatever filling inside would avoid a similar problem if one happens to use a green theme (though it might be unusual?) or uses Unity DE (I don't, so I can't test it, but from what I remember, it would put a green BG because it detects and matches the icon's "major" color). Or you could just have a second color anywhere (e.g. hexagon stroke different than mountains -- note how Thunderbird, Kate and Dolphin aren't an issue with blue because there's a bit of white too); in fact I'm not sold on the green-brownish part at the top, so maybe using black/white for the hex and keep green only in mountain? idk

[daiyam]

Thank you for the feedback!

[daiyam]

There must be a way on Linux to able to a custom icon for an app, no?

[mndscp]

There must be a way on Linux to able to a custom icon for an app, no?

Yes, there is: https://github.com/VSCodium/icons#how-to-use-them
For KDE at least you can simply edit the line that starts with Icon in /usr/share/applications/codium.desktop.

[itkfm]

the invisibly thin nobg version kinda “drowns” in the taskbar

[subcidr]

The benefit of the nobg is that it will fit better on different kinds of backgrounds. Otherwise if people want a transparent background they need to remove the bg themselves... So my vote goes to nobg 💯

[geekley]

Unless background is blue, in which case it's practically invisible, since it has no outline, no border or any second color.
It's already bad enough for me, so it must be even worse for people which need increased contrast accessibility ...
And it's not like blue as an accent/BG color is at all uncommon -- on KDE dark theme blue accent color is the default.

[subcidr]

Hmm you're quite right about that, didn't see your comment above before now. circle1 would be better in that case.

[masakk1]

how many people have a blue taskbar compared to a white/black one though?

[geekley]

It's not just the color of whole taskbar, it's the BG color where the icon appears, which can be blue when app is active and/or hovered. So, at least any KDE users on default dark theme (though contrast is not THAT bad) + any Unity DE (the one Ubuntu used before switching to Gnome) user (where it's pretty much invisible, like shown in the other post above). I couldn't find stats on % of users for each Linux DE, so it's difficult to answer that question, but not all Linux users are Ubuntu and not all Ubuntu users are on Gnome.

But honestly, the mere fact users can customize a theme arbitrarily should be enough for having a guideline where "icons should not be composed of only 1 single color", period. I'm not discussing preference here (I don't care, I'll just make it the way I want anyways), I'm discussing accessibility for others.

[MarkJeronimus]

I'd prefer the circle if it didn't have the shadow that makes it look pseudo-3D

[geekley]

Then you might wanna look at the one I had made there, with a different shadow: #1218 (reply in thread)
Though, tbh I personally prefer this version; my taskbar is at 32px, the shadow/thickness is not even noticeable.
And I kinda like that it's just a bit like a button.

[mndscp]

Actually not bad, thank you. I also like this version without the shadow better.
Thread is full of "My taste is more like ..." :P

[brodysmith8]

What if nobg, but with a white outline? That way, there is built-in contrast to accommodate both lighter backgrounds, and darker backrounds.

Will the macos1 variant be kept for the macOS release, or will macOS also get the Linux icon? macos1 fits in well with the other rounded-square icons in the bottom dock.

[geekley]

Which two?

[daiyam]

nobg/border (the one you've made) vs circle1

[geekley]

Ah, OK. But just to confirm, did you understand my suggestion? There would be 3 options, and votes for nobg (winner here) and votes for border (the one I made) would be added together. In 1 poll you can solve both nobg, border vs circle and nobg vs border (if circle <= 50%).

[daiyam]

I was planning to do 2 polls of 5 days (best 2 and best 1) but I find that nobg/border is superior to nobg and it was kinda something I wanted. And to do 2 polls is too much... 2 votes in 1 poll/question will be confusing, a poll can only ask 1 question...

[geekley]

Ah I see, so by nobg/border you mean what I just called border. So it would be just border vs circle? Well, you decide.
I was just afraid that a significant amount of people may want nobg, but not like border. Because while border is surely superior wrt solving the contrast issue, I also understand that its style is different from all other apps (at least in Linux). So I have no idea if it may have a strong rejection, and if people may feel like it doesn't fit with the other apps (I myself am not too sure 😅). It would be good to have some feedback on this, what do you guys think?

IMO, I don't think it would be confusing to say "since circle was second last poll, it can only win now if it has >50% votes".
But I see what you mean, and I'm fine with whatever you decide 😁

[evur]

Please don't use shadows on the icons.

[daiyam]

I've added a previewer in https://github.com/VSCodium/icons/tree/main/previewer and deployed it at https://vscodium-icons.netlify.app/

[daiyam]

Next stage at Semi-Finale Poll #1488