New App Icon for macOS

[alemohamad]

I’d like to propose a new app icon design for macOS. The current Sigil logo looks strange without the expected rounded square. I’ll create a new PR in the GitHub project with the new app icon design. You can review and merge it if you approve the new design. Please let me know your thoughts. If you think I should discuss this with a designer in the team before proceeding, let me know. Thanks, and I hope this message gets a quick response.

[alemohamad]

I’ve attached the icon that I think will work best with the macOS style.



I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[KevinH]

Frankly, I am not a big fan of following the constantly changing icon fads that Apple pushes. And before we could even think of adopting any icon, a clear license must exist and clear ownership proven, and it must exist in svg format.

Sorry but I have been a Mac user since the very first SE/30 and have just seen too many meaningless icon fads being pushed by Apple to care. As far as I am concerned Sigil is a cross-platform App that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux without any need to follow the ever changing Mac interface nonsense.

Hell many Mac users do not even understand a right mouse button click to generate context sensitive pop up menus. And without that ui concept, most of Sigil's ui is unreachable.

[alemohamad]

Thanks for your response.

My proposal was based on the fact that this exact functionality was already implemented for Calibre. Therefore, I thought it should be applied to Sigil as well. This icon format has been in existence since macOS Big Sur, which was released in 2020. Considering that I believe this format will remain in use for some time, we should adhere to this structure to ensure that the icon is displayed in the same style as my attachment. If necessary, we can convert it to SVG format.

Regarding your question about a “clear license must exist and clear ownership proven,” I am not sure what you mean.

Attached are the current and desired designs to demonstrate that this isn’t just an icon fad. If we want to maintain the brand and ownership, I can modify the design to incorporate the current bevel.





And here are the other conversations about Calibre:
- MacOS icon
- icon for macOS

[KevinH]

What brand? There is no brand. Please stop using silly arguments. We do not sell Sigil we give it away. We do not even accept donations.

If you actually read those calibre mac icon threads you can see that I already brought up the fact there was no clear licence or ownership.

Clear licence means the clearly written licence to use the icon in our software. You can *not* just grab artwork willy-nilly off the internet and use it. That licence must also be compatible with our Sigil GPL software license. Typically the copyright owner and/or creator of the icon must create the license and make that licence known.

As for what calibre is doing or has done with icons is not our concern.

Sorry but not interested. You can always build Sigil on your own for MacOS and use it privately but I am not interested in change just for the sake of change.

[KevinH]

And here is Kovid's commit comment about that change made 3 months ago in calibre:

macOS: Put the application icons in a frame
Bloody waste of time. In a few years somebody at Apple will decide
they like triangular icons or 3D icons or God knows what and I will have
to waste a few more hours of my life on their idiocy.

And I couldn't agree more with him! So no, this is not happening.

[alemohamad]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my proposal. We can close this thread.

[democrite]

That someone doesn't attempt to always and under all circumstances be kind, courteous, and professional, I just don't know what to think of such.

That I can recall, icon style has changed only once in the history of macOS. That is too much? Now with Tahoe, such is similar yet it seems the icon file format also stores variants for dark mode, and other (monochrome?).

To not follow guidelines, whether one agrees with them or not to me I think it just shows some sign of non-conformance which some users may interpret as something. When the time comes, I'd be willing to make an icon set or try.

Whether one agrees or not, perhaps all is done with purpose. For example I may not design but for sometime I have thought the flat design of macOS, iOS, iPadOS is not ideal. Looking into it, there are people concerned with accessibility issues such as under varying lighting conditions or those with visual impairment. The new Liquid Glass may not be ideal in its form so far but I see it as an attempt to address such. Whatever design change is made for something, whether it is ideal or not at the time, I see such as attempting to address some design problem.

[KevinH]

Sorry but still not interested in an icon change to make only some users on only one of 3 platforms happy.

And no one has shown me any licence file or author ownership provenance so this point is moot. I am never using artwork or icons unless they are directly donated to Sigil by their designer or that they have a clearly stated licence that is compatible with Sigil's GPL licence.

Stealing artwork you find on the internet is not a good thing. Pushing for it is not acceptable.