NEW SET OF ICONS PROPOSAL

[Milou]

Hi !

First of all, sorry for my frenchy english, and thank you very much for your software I now use since many years.

Pop Peeper has become a daily companion and I really appreciate its simplicity and easy to use interface.

But since I started to use it, I wasn't satisfied with the set of icons displayed in the task bar because of their lack of visibility to notify new incoming messages.

I then decided to create a new set that would be more simple and visible to me !

With every release of Pop Peeper, I then replace PopPeeper set of icons with mine using IconWorkshop software.

I then save them within the exe file and replace the original exe file with mine.

You can have a look at this new set of icons in the following animated gif and photoshop file.
You can also download the Poppeeper EXE file with the embeded new set of icons to watch it live.



Animated gif image > http://efranco75.free.fr/Poppeeper/new_icons.gif" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pop Peeper EXE file with embeded set of icons > [moderator: removed]

Photoshop file > http://efranco75.free.fr/Poppeeper/new_icons.psd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Best regards, and thanks again for your work and software

Emile

[Matthew Wai]

I agree that Milou's icons are better than the present ones which are not so noticeable.
And I suggest that the error icon be independent of the new mail icon which takes precedence over the former, which will then become invisible.

I am also sorry for my pidgin English (mixed with Chinese).

[Solid]

I am also using other icons for ages, I took/made them based on the well known Silk Icon Set.
No mail, wating
Checking (made from , and )
Mail in inbox
No auto-check
Error

I like your icons a lot, Milou, especially the check icon. Only the blinking "Mail in inbox" icon is not a good idea because it's too distracting and hectic, IMO.

[Jeff]

Thanks for the ideas. I plan on keeping the design of the current icons because they are distinct, but that doesn't mean that they can't be tweaked. Here are some of the ideas that I got from the icons you guys posted:

1) Should the error icon be red instead of yellow? Yellow is already used for "unread" mail...
2) Should the error icon use a triangle instead of a circle? A triangle has more of a "warning" connotation, but perhaps a red triangle isn't as common so these two ideas may not necessarily work together.
3) Maybe the indicators (specifically, the envelope representing yellow/unread and blue/new) can be made larger.

Let me know what you guys think, and also let me know if you have other ideas to "tweak" the existing icons to be more useful as opposed to replacing them.


Milou -- I removed your link to the modified .exe for several reasons, one of which is for security reasons.

Matthew -- I'm not sure of the exact version that I changed this in (it's probably been a long while), but you're right, the "new" trayicon indicator has precedence over "error." The reasoning for this was that: if you're not interested in opening PP to check on the new email, then you're probably not interested in knowing that there are errors, either. I can see it both ways, really, so I'm open to opinions.

[Milou]

1) Should the error icon be red instead of yellow? Yellow is already used for "unread" mail...
2) Should the error icon use a triangle instead of a circle? A triangle has more of a "warning" connotation, but perhaps a red triangle isn't as common so these two ideas may not necessarily work together.

Hi !

I think you should keep the red circle for warnings (no connexion, bad passwords etc...), the yellow triangle being used for notifications (unread mail etc...)

3) Maybe the indicators (specifically, the envelope representing yellow/unread and blue/new) can be made larger.

The animated mailbox in the original set of icons is funny, but not very noticeable to show new incoming mails, unread mails etc
I think a large envelope would be more noticeable.

let me know if you have other ideas to "tweak" the existing icons to be more useful as opposed to replacing them.

A system to tweak the existing icons would be great, but the user will have to tweak the original set of icons with every release of Pop Peeper.
Replacing the original set of icons would be a better choice to make it more noticeable.
In fact, a combination of both solutions would be great !

Milou -- I removed your link to the modified .exe for several reasons, one of which is for security reasons.

No problem, I understand.

[Milou]

I am also using other icons for ages, I took/made them based on the well known Silk Icon Set.
No mail, wating
Checking (made from , and )
Mail in inbox
No auto-check
Error

Thanks for that inspiring set of icons. The envelope design is interesting : I'll try a mix of my set and animations with your set of icons.

I like your icons a lot, Milou, especially the check icon. Only the blinking "Mail in inbox" icon is not a good idea because it's too distracting and hectic, IMO.

I have to answer many mails a day as fast as possible.
That's why I really wanted the "Mail in inbox" icon to be noticeable without being disturbing like a sound and/or popup notification.

[Matthew Wai]

Replacing the original set of icons would be a better choice to make it more noticeable.

POP Pooper is characterized by the present distinctive and established set of icons which is thus irreplaceable but improvable.

I think a large envelope would be more noticeable.

A small envelope won't be noticeable, but a big envelope may virtually cover the icon behind it. So I suggest that the envelope be independent of the mailbox icon, as the Yahoo Mail icon is all along independent of the Yahoo Messenger icon. Users will not grudge a little more space on the system tray if they value the usefulness of the software. Yet, not all event icons need independence.

[Jeff]

So I suggest that the envelope be independent of the mailbox icon

Now this may be an interesting idea. This could be done via a Notification plugin and I would certainly be more agreeable to allow user-customized icons. The plugin method would use a separate icon, so the original icon would still do its normal thing; also, not all events are accessible to the plugin, so it would likely just allow 2 types of icons: new mail or not-new mail, with an option to be hidden for the latter.

[Milou]

Replacing the original set of icons would be a better choice to make it more noticeable.

POP Pooper is characterized by the present distinctive and established set of icons which is thus irreplaceable but improvable.

OK OK...

I just meant to be constructive.

[Jeff]

Milou -- Matthew was just rewording what I already said, but like he said, there's always room for improvement and your suggestions *have* been constructive and welcome. What do you think of the Notification Plugin idea?

[Matthew Wai]

the blinking "Mail in inbox" icon is not a good idea because it's too distracting and hectic

I really wanted the "Mail in inbox" icon to be noticeable without being disturbing like a sound and/or popup notification.

If the Notification Plugin allows users to choose between blinking and non-blinking, then both will be happy.

[Jeff]

Since the icons would be supplied by the user, they could have it blinking/animated if they wanted, or inanimate if they preferred.

[Matthew Wai]

Besides icons supplied by creative users, will the plugin provide optional default icons so that lazy users (like me) needn't create icons by themselves? Or must a separate icon be self-created?

[Jeff]

The plugin isn't a sure thing yet. I was hoping to get more feedback from the people that have already showed interest and see if other people would be interested. PP v4.0 still has precedence.

As for providing icons: I'm not a graphic artist, so if people wanted to donate their talents that would certainly be welcomed. They would have to be original icons that they created and transfer the copyright to POP Peeper; ie. I probably wouldn't be able to include the icons that Solid posted as they apparently came from a 3rd party (even posting them here could have been a copyright violation that I'd better look into...)

Ok, that was much easier than most copyright things I have to lookup, I didn't even need a lawyer No copyright issues, and they welcome distribution of their icons: http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/

[Matthew Wai]

testing envelope 1.png (301 Bytes) Viewed 17283 times

I myself created this yellow envelope by means of the free editor mentioned in this topic, is it usable or improvable?

[Jeff]

Assuming this is for the "user-customizable plugin," then my first thought is that it's not consistent with the icon that POP Peeper uses for new email, which is the light blue flag. Of course, the point of the plugin would be to have multiple versions of icons for the user to choose from, so it would be easy enough to create several different colors variations of the same basic icon.

[Matthew Wai]

According to this Icon Descriptions page, the flag is red and the envelope is light blue.
Should I add a red flag to a light blue envelope which will then serve as the basic icon?

[blackcrack]

humm.. Icon-Themes ? any user can create his own icontheme for it ..

maby .png support for using icons from kde-look.org
and the iconpack maybe or underfolder like winamp ..
/icons/themename/*.png

therewith it is possible to create an own icontheme or put it easy in a icontheme-folder
and if that not works.. so the possible to create an icl with numbers like totalcommander use the iconlibary ..

best regards
Blacky

[Jeff]

It requires modifying the exe and I don't recommend or encourage it. Especially since v4 uses code-signing and modifying the exe would fail the check.

[rey]

so is there a proper way to customize icons without resource hack? i liked icons from 1st post very much, and i read about some plugin in plans but see no solution it the end.. :[ how about just adding to folder Themes folder Tray(just like with Flags folder), and if folder contains icons program will use those, if not -its internal.