Filed under: Software, Odds and ends
Adobe CS3 icons revealed
The recent beta of Adobe Photoshop CS 3 included a brand new icon, based on color and typography. It would seem that this is the direction that Adobe is doing to for all their icons, at least according to this post by John Nack. He points to the image above (larger version here) which shows the new icons for Adobe's products.
Looks like it'll be different colored boxes with letters in them, say goodbye to those spherical icons of yore.
What do you think of the new icons?

![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Marco F. said 1:12PM on 12-21-2006
I like them, they resemble the periodic system a lot, very nice.
Reply
James Whited said 1:22PM on 12-21-2006
Ah, they are ok, but where the hell is Image Ready, or has it been rolled into Photoshop for CS3.
Reply
Dave Barnes said 1:25PM on 12-21-2006
Boring.
I like the feather for Photoshop CS and don't like the Ps for Photoshop CS3.
Reply
Patrick said 1:47PM on 12-21-2006
I think they are lame. What are they going to do about language localizations? Also I think the "Print Shop" already has the PS icon.
Reply
dalas v said 2:27PM on 12-21-2006
Gross. I replaced the CS3 icon with the old CS2 icon. It just looks completely out of place in the dock.
Reply
Scoo said 1:32PM on 12-21-2006
I can't fathom how the world's most important vendor of creative software can't do better than application name initials. It's just embarrassing.
Reply
Matt said 1:43PM on 12-21-2006
This gives new meaning to the name "Photoshop Elements"
Reply
Tomas said 1:38PM on 12-21-2006
For a package called the creative suite, these aren't very creative. When I got the CS3 beta of Photoshop, the first thing I said to myself was "I hope that icon is just because it's beta." Needless to say, I am disappointed.
Reply
Ryan Meyers said 2:31PM on 12-21-2006
This is quite a bit different than past Icons, but I think what they were going for is a Uniform look across all their apps, and geez does Adobe have a lot of apps (especially since purchase of Macromedia) . This design treatment allows for a uniform look that can be used over many, many times. Notice the colors used for most the apps remain the same to what they are now.
This seems like such a simple design and concept, but hey isn't that still creativity?
To James: Indesign is in the pink area - "Id".
Reply
chris said 2:53PM on 12-21-2006
I like them. I loved all the old photoshop icons but I think it's a pretty cool change. And it's pretty noticeable in the dock switching between apps.
Reply
Justin said 1:51PM on 12-21-2006
I heard a rumor Adobe asked their accounting department to design the icons. I didn't believe it until I saw this...
Reply
Jack Beckman said 1:48PM on 12-21-2006
Tomas,
My thoughts exactly. I was *sure* those were just placeholder icons. Ugh.
Reply
Liquidmark said 1:49PM on 12-21-2006
http://www.artofadambetts.com/weblog/?p=169
I just switched my Icon.
I'm not letting Adobe give me a box with letters in it. no way.
Reply
Adam Rice said 1:49PM on 12-21-2006
Nothing says "phoned in" like a couple of letters against a square color swatch.
Reply
Chris F. said 1:58PM on 12-21-2006
I can't decide whether or not I like these. They look very clean, and it is an interesting approach to an extensive Icon Set, but when I add these to my dock, I know I am going to confuse similarly colored icon pairs as well as similar pairs of initials.
Reply
Scott F said 2:00PM on 12-21-2006
Terrible. I never expected them to be worse than the last batch, but there you have it. Adobe is leaking brains faster than GWB.
Reply
Daniel said 2:06PM on 12-21-2006
I like the direction the new icons are going in. To me it looks like an attempt to unify Adobe branding across the board and I wouldn't be surprised if, over time, these icons become more detailed.
At the moment I'm happy to see that less is still more in some circles.
Reply
Kyle Nilson said 2:06PM on 12-21-2006
I personally greatly prefer Iiro Jäppinen's CS3 feathers. I can only hope he and other artists make complete replacement sets.
http://www.macthemesforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=16778591
Reply
Tom von Schwerdtner said 2:25PM on 12-21-2006
I wasn't sure at first, but the more I use the Ps and Fw betas, the more I like it. I also think it does a good job of unifying the branding with the Macromedia family.
There are some very nice alternatives over at macthemeforums.net though, if anyone is looking around.
Reply
Nathan said 7:09PM on 12-21-2006
Personally I like the look and feel of the icons BUT on a practical level they are a nightmare. They are not very distinguishable at a quick glance which you want icons to be. Especially the ones that are in the same colour family. I think they should atleast put the graphical typeface identities into the squares like they did with the one Flash icon.
Reply