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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Matt said 1:43PM on 12-21-2006
This gives new meaning to the name "Photoshop Elements"
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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.
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Jack Beckman said 1:48PM on 12-21-2006
Tomas,
My thoughts exactly. I was *sure* those were just placeholder icons. Ugh.
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Adam Rice said 1:49PM on 12-21-2006
Nothing says "phoned in" like a couple of letters against a square color swatch.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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dzd said 2:13PM on 12-21-2006
It's interesting, but I wouldn't want to be the poor bastard with Fh, Rh, Fw, and Pm all next to each other in the Dock.
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MacCrazy said 2:13PM on 12-21-2006
These are an improvement in identifying which application you are selecting. The old icons were dreadful. I do admit they are a bit dull though. Professional application icons don't need to be exciting though, look at Aperture compared to iPhoto.
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Jason said 2:22PM on 12-21-2006
Something to represent the individuality of each component while still maintaining a cohesive theme would be great. As it is, these seem like placeholders or a bad concept by amateur typographers.
I truly hope this is a poor prediction and not the way Adobe is going. I think Iiro Jäppinen is moving the right direction, depending on the look of 10.5. Simple, streamlined, elegant. Perhaps less saturation and gloss, but still individually recognizable standard shapes, like the feather.
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Roberto Felgueiras said 2:23PM on 12-21-2006
I love it. It's simple, direct and minimalist. They look like all the swatches in a swatch palette when they are all in a row. I don't know about you, but I don't look for inspiration from my apps, they are tools, like a hammer or a brush. As tools, they rest in my toolbox (dock) they need to be easily identifiable for when I need to work and since I never leave my dock showing, I hardly see them.
The two things I do notice is:
1. Is that Page Maker in the furthest most Yellow area? If so, why? I thought it was dead.
2. Notice how Dreamweaver and GoLive are on opposite sides of the "spectrum"? I wonder if that is a tell about how they view the two products?
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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.
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