Hi, On 31.07.2012 04:26, Disreali wrote:
I don't care for all fonts having the same icon with an overlay. I just booted a old PC with BeOS R5 to see how it dealt with font icons. Truetype fonts had the TT icon, but PostScript ones had an "A". (This is also how font icons are done in Windows.) I really like that setup because it is much easier to tell what type of font you are dealing with with out having to strain to read an overlay flag. For OpenType fonts simply use a capital "O".
I would prefer one base icon for font files that makes it clear that the file is a document, not an application, and what kind of document it is, i.e. a font file. The exact type of file, i.e. OpenType, TrueType, PostScript, is really pretty irrelevant for the absolute majority of users.
This is what's important: Users download a font or get it from somewhere. They need to know what to expect when they double click the file, i.e. that it is a font file and they get a preview of the font and can install it into their system from that window. The type of file is meaningless as long as they don't mistake it for an application and expect a "font" inside.
Therefor I propose to make the icon a sheet of paper (makes it clear it's a document) with a capital "A" or "Aa" or the like. And *maybe* add an overlay label like we do for archive file types.
The movable type is a nice idea, but I think it has the problem of being mistaken for an application.
In Ubuntu btw, font files also get the document paper sheet base icon, and then an "Aa" in the actual font. If you look at a folder with lots of fonts, that can actually be helpful. Or at least lets say it's as helpful as an icon can be in terms of previewing the font. But that feature may be out of scope, since it requires work on many levels.
Best regards, -Stephan
