303008 - Firefox icon is not based on actual Firefox logo

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Johan Van Gompel]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716 Firefox/1.0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716 Firefox/1.0.6

none required

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. look at current icon
2. note it is not based on actual Firefox logo


Actual Results:  
was annoyed
created new icon based on Firefox SVG logo by Doug Schepers
(http://svg.org/story/2004/10/25/221710/41)

Expected Results:  
change to new and improved icon
enjoy even better browsing experience

icon URL: http://johanvg.cwsurf.de/firefox.ico

Comment 1

[Adam Guthrie]

Sounds like a valid request to me.

Comment 2

[Steve England [:stevee]]

The new 100%-sized icon looks less clear to me.

Comment 3

[shadytrees]

It's a holdover from the logo redesign (http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/
spot-the-difference). Lack of reflection at the top and shape of the ambiguous 
continent are dead giveaways.

The proposed icon (which, I assume is based on the SVG and is the SVG's fault) 
is lacking the drop shadow from the actual logo (see hicksdesign post), which is 
probably causing the loss of clarity.

Comment 4

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

fwiw, I don't like the proposed new icon, though I'm sure someone could do a
good job picking up the tweaks.  Utterly trivial though.

Comment 5

[Johan Van Gompel]

(In reply to comment #3)
[...]
> The proposed icon (which, I assume is based on the SVG and is the SVG's fault) 
> is lacking the drop shadow from the actual logo (see hicksdesign post), which is 
> probably causing the loss of clarity.

Steve and Mike both noted the new icon did not look quite right so I made a new,
somewhat smaller icon based on the actual logo at your website rather than the
SVG. You were right as well: the drop shadow does contribute to the clarity of
the icon. See for yourselves:

http://johanvg.cwsurf.de/firefox_new.ico

Comment 6

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

I would consider this invalid, to my eye it IS the original icon, the resize is
just fuzzier than the one Johan has proposed.  This stands up when comparing the
current icon to the old logo 

http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/spot-the-difference

look at the top of the globe in current icon, in the dark bits of land there is
a lighter patch in the exact same place as in current logo, this lighter patch
is nonexistant in the old logo.

Even if it is based off the old logo, the current icon looks more like the
proposed icon does.

Comment 7

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

ok, mconnor checked lxr and it hasn't been updated, so it isn't based off the
new logo, but I still stand by my opinion that it looks like the new logo.  It
seems to me that the logo and icon designer didn't just shrink the logo anyway,
and would have tweaked it to be icon size, so to get a good icon it's still not
exactly the logo, but I could be wrong about that, too :)

So, to reiterate, I really think the current icon looks enough like the current
logo.

Comment 8

[Johan Van Gompel]

(In reply to comment #7)
[...]
> So, to reiterate, I really think the current icon looks enough like the
> current logo.

firefox_new.ico is basically a tweaked resize of
http://www.mozilla.org/images/product-firefox.png so it is as close to the
current logo as it can possibly get. IMHO this looks better on a Windows desktop
than the current icon which has a somewhat bolder, more cartoony look.

My point was that especially the 32x32 px icon currently used for Firefox looks
distinctly different from the Firefox logo as used throughout mozilla.org. If
_total_ design uniformity is not an issue then by all means please carry on. As
Mike already noted this is rather trivial.

Comment 9

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

I'm using WinXP and I prefer the old one.

Johan you made the proposed icon?

I'll tell you what is off to me about the proposed icon and you can decide if
you agree or disagree and make changes or not if you like.

First of all, resizing is a rendering process, as you know, and different
programs draw resizes differently, so you can't say with certainty that any
resize is the closest you'll get. While it might be a mathematically correct
average of the pixels, it might not translate to the naked eye.

1. The color of the fox is not the same.

In current logo and current icon the fox is the same color, in proposed icon,
the fox is darker.  This is INCREDIBLY obvious.  It can be verified easily with
any color picker.

2. While the lightsource on the top of the globe is contextually accurate, again
it doesn't translate as well to the naked eye. 

I think at it's lightest points it is too light and causes loss of definition to
the land and to the outline at the top of the globe.  The colors are fairly
loyal as verifiable with a color picker, so this one isn't such a big deal to
me, but it still registers to my eye as slightly different than the logo.

3. The ear.

Did you remove a backround most of the way in and trim the pixels by hand?

I like the drop shadow as well but would, personally, be willing to reserve
judgement until after the other things had been changed. Although, looking at my
task bar every icon looks like it's got some sort of shadowing with the
exception of iTunes.

Comment 10

[Johan Van Gompel]

I tried to create a 'best of both worlds' icon. I used the original icon as a
starting point, then added a selection of the continents of the proposed icon,
fixed things using selections of the current icon, etc. A lot of pixeling
followed to make it resemble the current logo a little bit better.

Please have a look at http://johanvg.cwsurf.de/firefox.png and let me know what
you think.

Comment 11

[Johan Van Gompel]

top: current logo
bottom left: current icon
bottom center: proposed icon
bottom right: 'best of both worlds' icon

<g>

Comment 12

[Johan Van Gompel]

Finished the .ico file: http://johanvg.cwsurf.de/firefox4.ico

Comment 13

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

Johan, after mconnor checked lxr to see that it wasn't updated, we shot off an
email to Steven Garrity who was surprised that the icons hadn't been updated. 
He's going to make icons from the current logo.

Comment 14

[Johan Van Gompel]

Ah... So it _is_ a bug and not a feature. ;)

It would have been nice to post a small note regarding the e-mail _before_ I
invested a couple of hours of pixeling yesterday. Do send mr. Garrity the the
URL of the new icon as it might save him some time.

Comment 15

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

I'm taking this bug. I'll have a new .ico soon. Probably too late for 1.5, eh?

Comment 16

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

Attachment: Updated Firefox icon for windows

Here's an updated version of the windows icon. Please test.

Keep in mind that it contains full-color versions, shown when Windows is set to 32bpp color, and lower-color icons for 16bpp and below.

Comment 17

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

So, I'm still somewhat new to all this, and I'm not sure what constitutes a respin vs. no respin, but I'm guessing that it will be considered too late for 1.5rc1 which is just exiting QA now. I'll bring it up at triage today - nominating for blocking just so I don't forget, although it's likely to get minused.

Definitely should block FFx2, though :)

Comment 18

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Steven, approval has been granted so if you could find someone to get this checked in, please?

Comment 19

[Scott MacGregor]

Comment on attachment 201366 [details]
Updated Firefox icon for windows

we decided today that we weren't going to take bugs that we really wouldn't respin for. Since this didn't make it in yesterday I'm going to pull it off the list. Would be a great 1.8.1 candidate for the branch though.

While this ico file looks straightforward, there is some risk here. Including us forgetting to do the right size, not having some of the colors show up right on various displays, etc. etc.

Comment 20

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

I'm assuming we can carry our a=1.5rc2+ over to trunk and land this there, then?

Comment 21

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Someone needs to check this in once the tree reopens.

Comment 22

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

mozilla/other-licenses/branding/firefox/firefox.ico 	1.2.18.1
mozilla/other-licenses/branding/firefox/firefox.ico 	1.3