[Gametes]

So there's lots of webspace devoted to application icons, for end users, but my searching has left me empty-handed over where to get good toolbar icons for my app development. Am I going to have to make them myself? I'm into programming, not photoshop. Are there any sites with these for download?

So many toolbar functions are common or at least metaphorically similar; there should be a standard set of 100 Apple gives out...

[macrophyllum]

I looked around and couldn't find any good resources, so I started using Photoshop.

[mrburri]

I have the same problem. What do you think people reaction would be to taking aka stealing icons from other applications.

As many icons are so generic, and common, like the delete, reload, stop and info icons, or the hard-disk icon. What would be wrong with using them in your own application.

I think you could get the developers permission to use their icons, I would have not objections if asked.

I think the only limit is some kind of icon that is very application specific. Like Chimera toolbar icons.

Do you think it is wrong, to steal take borrow icons?

[Rickster]

I think borrowing of icons is good when you've got a common function that doesn't change from app to app, like Delete or Get Info. (You're welcome to borrow Omni icons in such cases, BTW.)

Be careful, though -- using the same icons for similar-but-not-quite-the-same functions can lead to usability problems. For example, in OmniWeb we use different-looking Back/Forward arrows on the browser and on the preferences window because they work differently: the browser buttons take you back through the history of sites you viewed in whatever order you viewed them, but the ones in preferences flip through the panes in a fixed order, like flipping pages in a book. If we used the same icons for both functions, one might be inclined to think they work the same way.

Also, as mrburri points out, there are a few cases in which toolbar icons are part of the distinctive look or branding of a product. Apple would probably be unhappy if you wrote a mail or mail-like application and used their set of postage-stamp icons for reply, forward, etc. And we'd defend our copyrights if you were to write a browser or browser-like app using our icons for all four main functions (back/forward/reload/stop), because customers come to recognize our product by seeing those icons at the top.

[3R1C]

Originally posted by Rickster:
I think borrowing of icons is good when you've got a common function that doesn't change from app to app, like Delete or Get Info. (You're welcome to borrow Omni icons in such cases, BTW.)

Wow Rick thats totally generous!

Could you point me to the location of the "fonts & colors" icon in omniweb preferences? I see lots of icons in the resources folder of the app bundle, but i cant find hardly any of the preferences icons. i cant even find a nib for it. I even looked through all the frameworks.

[Diggory Laycock]

The Image looks like a composite of two standard NSToolbarItems' icons - specifically the ones identified by NSToolbarShowColorsItemIdentifier and NSToolbarShowFontsItemIdentifier.

[type_r503]

I posted a calling all designers message over in the GUI Customizations forum. I think a repository of standardized app icons would be very helpful to us.

type R

[Rickster]

The Preferences resources in OmniWeb are at Contents/Plugins/Preferences.plugin.

[Adam Ant]

So many toolbar functions are common or at least metaphorically similar; there should be a standard set of 100 Apple gives out...

Precisely. I cannot believe that Apple did not bother to have some icons created for developers general use when their design folks created the Apple-app toolbar icons.

As you can see by the responses to your question, we're pretty much on our own, (read: learn to use Photoshop, as someone said). That sucks, and i also cannot believe that Apple gives developers not a single toolbar icon to use.