Feed Icons Saved Me Lots of Work

The redesign of TidBITS is now live, and we’ll be writing more about the experience soon, but I wanted to note something quickly that saved me a bunch of work. In the upper-left corner, at the top of the navigation bar, you’ll see icons for RSS and Podcast links. Initially, I made my own icons and, well, they were terrible.

Most people probably aren’t aware that designing icons well is really hard work, especially tiny icons. In this case, I needed to create something that has become familiar to most Web viewers. A quick Google search pulled up the answer to my problem: Feed Icons, which includes a free bundle of icons bearing the orange broadcast image that was created by the Mozilla foundation and adopted by Microsoft.

The best part is that the download includes all a Web designer would ever want: GIF, JPEG, and PNG files in multiple resolutions (such as 10 x 10 pixels, 16 x 16 pixels, and so on); Adobe Illustrator source files; and layered Photoshop files, with instructions on how to easily create versions of the logo with colors other than those provided (our Podcast icon is a custom purple that I made). The site also includes code snippets for incorporating the logo in various ways on a Web page and guidelines for properly using the logo.

Thank you, Matt Brett! You made my life easier late one night when I really needed it.