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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: [KMAIL ICON]
From:       Dave Leigh <dave.leigh () cratchit ! org>
Date:       2001-12-10 0:22:19
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On Sunday 09 December 2001 18:47, Edoardo Causarano wrote:

> I'm fine with the orange E but on some list somebody griped about his
> girlfriend not realizing what that big E stood for. So I thought... until
> M$ attempts to substiture the @ in email adrresses with some 'innovative'
> new symbol (say & ;-) all emails in the world have that. As far as acqua is
> concerned I just say phong's tutorials only show how to do a 'plastic
> letter' ;-) Ok, let's make it orange (to keep with the tradition ;-)
>
> Seriously, E stands for email and in Italy people are finally starting to
> say email instead of 'posta elettronica' but then... what's more
> inequivocable than an '@' ?
>
> Just my 2c...

I think your intentions are good /in principle/, but I'm using Mandrake and 
in the menus I see the '@' icon assigned to no fewer than 3 packages... 
exmh, fetchmailconf, and mutt. 

I think kmail deserves something a bit more distinctive; otherwise it's 
simply lost in the crowd of similar icons. That is, of course, your 
challenge: to make it distinctive and uniquely "kmail" while incorporating 
the '@' you desire.  Good luck.

One aside about icon design in general... I agree that icons should be 
language and culture independent to the extent possible. A good icon (or 
logo) doesn't need to convey more than the barest hint of the program's 
function (if any) so long as it's easily recognised and readily identified 
with the program, and I suppose the "Big E" serves the purpose well enough. 
However, it is visually uninspiring when scaled up. I believe that the same 
design should be used for the icon and (scaled up, with greater detail) for 
the fancy mail headers so as to increase the identification of the app with 
the logo. For this reason I'm interested in seeing some alternatives to the 
"Big E."

-- 
dave.leigh@cratchit.org
http://www.cratchit.org

I don't remember it, but I have it written down.

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