IC/Discussion on beige set

[Muirium]

Yes!

I'll see what I can do to help you out with a good set of stylish symbols. Because I will take both!

By the way: those arrow keys. If it's not too much of a stretch, could we could go with two styles? I really like chevrons like those, but I also like IBM style black headed arrows, or indeed black triangles.

[7bit]

If done right (no too thin), the symbols of Round 4 look much better!

[matt3o]

By the way: those arrow keys. If it's not too much of a stretch, could we could go with two styles? I really like chevrons like those, but I also like IBM style black headed arrows, or indeed black triangles.

I'd say chevron on symbols-only and UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT on text-only?

If done right (no too thin), the symbols of Round 4 look much better!

are those cherry-ish style? Are they available somewhere? Actually... I think I should have them already...

[Muirium]

The Round 4 SPH arrows are a bit thin for my preference. I use UP DOWN etc. instead. But IBM arrows and filled triangles are a whole other story…

[7bit]

This is precicely what I said: "If done right (no too thin)"


They did them not right.

[matt3o]

well, you know we are sublimating, so we can have them right. The only problem is the time needed to make the final design. I really have a lot of work to do for this set.

[Muirium]

Indeed.

UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT on text-only is a good safe option, if text arrows are popular enough with everyone. I think they're okay, but not brilliant. I'd rather filled triangles or chevrons and arrows of IBM or 7bit's advised style.

This is precicely what I said: "If done right (no too thin)"


They did them not right.

Oh, right. I read it as a warning, not an apology…

[matt3o]

Working on the icon set, there's really a lot of work to do. Some are too thick other too thin, some rounded other squared... gosh

[Muirium]

I'll have a go. You want an .svg you said?

[woody]

okay, now, for the mods:

FULL CAPS
Camel Case
lowercase
only symbols
symbol + text

?!

Being like originally suggested was almost perfect.
My personal preference is against symbols, arrows excluded.
I'd like to see a consistent approach - either all labels are abbreviated in a common way ("CTRL"), or they stay full ("CONTROL"). This is where "INS" and "PAGE UP" clash a bit.

[matt3o]

I prefer consistency in font size/spacing.

@muirium, yes SVG

[stoic-lemon]

I like what you've done with the symbols, and I'll add my support to having all symbols. I'm not against text, and I also prefer consistent font size and spacing.

[matt3o]

A more rational icon kit

[Muirium]

Improved. Caps Lock especially. I still want chevrons for Control, but you've almost got it now.

(And I failed to find anything with .svg output I could use yesterday, but will look again.)

[matt3o]

if you have high res images I can try to trace them

[7bit]

What is the old-school STOP sign doing (top right)?

[matt3o]

According to this http://xahlee.info/comp/unicode_computing_symbols.html it's a "break key". I like the mug better, but it looks a bit out of place

[jdeblese]

Chevron as in caret, right? Isn't that a bit too similar to the caret key? I didn't like the ctrl symbol in my image from earlier, but the one above is not bad - clean and minimal.

Matt3o, are you planning to offer all mod keys in a symbol version, or just those from the base set?

[Muirium]

Mug and Keyboard Runner can go in the fluff kit, as usual…

[matt3o]

Matt3o, are you planning to offer all mod keys in a symbol version, or just those from the base set?

yes, almost all mods will be available in icon version.

[jdeblese]

Awesome, thanks!

[Muirium]

So, the symbols. I've rendered OS X's set. I'm not demanding that this GB be entirely in the Apple style, but there's a good full set here for us to cherry pick.

Waging battle with Adobe Illustrator (CS1, the version that I have, on my old G4 iMac) I made an .svg file that's attached to this post; in zip form thanks to allowed formats. Doubt it's too useful, as I couldn't convince Illustrator not to embed the fonts themselves.

So here's a high res image version of the symbols, as seen in Lucida Grande: OS X's one and only menu font, where they all so often appear:

Symbolic Legends.png (172.49 KiB) Viewed 3831 times

I can make it bigger, much bigger, if required. Helvetica Neue is just to show that, actually, these symbols are Lucida Grande exclusives. They're passed right on over.

The order of symbols in that image is:

ABC (just for alignment comparison) Control, Option, Command, Escape, Shift, Caps Lock, Delete, Clear, Backspace, Enter, two versions of Return, Tab, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, Left, Up, Right, Down, and alternate arrows.

Clear is the key that Macs have instead of Num Lock. It's yet another kind of Delete. I think the official Return symbol on the Mac is in fact the curly arrow, but I prefer the right angled one. And those dotted arrows are the ones Apple put on its keyboards for a while:


Crap keyboard, but lots of symbols. Don't know why they're italic, though…

These days, Macs have solid triangle arrow keys:


Symbolic mods and Arabic.

[DanielT]

For the Nerdom kit there should be also a Vim key

[matt3o]

well, actually the symbols I made are very close to the ones you posted Muir. Which one do you suggest to use?

My set is pretty rational. I started from the arrow cluster and built all the other symbols starting from the chevron. Same line width, same angle. Of course I can't use the up arrow for control.

Remember that Gotham is rounded, so the symbols are rounded as well. I also like the filled arrow, but having 2 sets of symbols for arrows seems a bit overkill

[DanielT]

I meant something like this :

vim_large.jpg (20.07 KiB) Viewed 3807 times

[matt3o]

yes, I evaluated the Vim key. I'm going to review the nerdom kit a bit. If I can find a spot for Vim I'll add it

[Muirium]

well, actually the symbols I made are very close to the ones you posted Muir. Which one do you suggest to use?

My set is pretty rational. I started from the arrow cluster and built all the other symbols starting from the chevron. Same line width, same angle. Of course I can't use the up arrow for control.

Remember that Gotham is rounded, so the symbols are rounded as well. I also like the filled arrow, but having 2 sets of symbols for arrows seems a bit overkill

Indeed. Could you post your .svg instead so I can compare here? I'm into details now.

A compromise on chevrons would be to go for the classic arrow shape on the cursor keys and use chevron on Control. Whereby "compromise" I mean exactly what I want! Your chevrons are nice, but given the clash I think arrows are better.

Who else prefers arrows over chevrons for cursor keys?

[fart_toast]

100% arrows with text mods.

For the symbol mods being canvassed here I think the chevrons kind of go with the symbols....but gave it another 5 minutes thought. Joining team arrows again .

[imbattable]

Chevrons with icons, arrows with text, sounds good to me.

[matt3o]

Slightly revised version based on recent inputs.

icons.png (47.53 KiB) Viewed 3836 times

Attached the SVG. I kinda like them. I might try a different style, but it's not vital for the sake of the quote from SP.