Shipping larger application icons in Fedora 22

In GNOME 3.14 we show any valid application in the software center with an application icon of 32×32 or larger. Currently a 32×32 icon has to be padded with 16 pixels of whitespace on all 4 edges, and also has to be scaled x2 to match other UI elements on HiDPI screens. This looks very fuzzy and out of place and lowers the quality of an otherwise beautiful installing experience.

For GNOME 3.16 (Fedora 22) we are planning to increase the minimum icon size to 48×48, with recommended installed sizes of 16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48 and 256×256 (or SVG in some cases). Modern desktop applications typically ship multiple sizes of icons in known locations, and it’s very much the minority of applications that only ship one small icon.

Soon I’m going to start nagging upstream maintainers to install larger icons than 32×32. If you’re re-doing the icon, please generate a 256×256 or 64×64 icon with alpha channel, as the latter will probably be the minimum size for F23 and beyond.

At the end of November I’ll change the minimum icon size in the AppStream generator used for Fedora so that applications not fixed will be dropped from the metadata. You can of course install the applications manually on the command line, but they won’t be visible in the software center until they are installed.

If you’re unclear on what needs to be done in order to be listed in the AppStream metadata, refer to the guidelines or send me email.

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hughsie

Richard has over 10 years of experience developing open source software. He is the maintainer of GNOME Software, PackageKit, GNOME Packagekit, GNOME Power Manager, GNOME Color Manager, colord, and UPower and also contributes to many other projects and opensource standards. Richard has three main areas of interest on the free desktop, color management, package management, and power management. Richard graduated a few years ago from the University of Surrey with a Masters in Electronics Engineering. He now works for Red Hat in the desktop group, and also manages a company selling open source calibration equipment. Richard's outside interests include taking photos and eating good food.

8 thoughts on “Shipping larger application icons in Fedora 22”

  1. Thanks, this will impove Gnome’s awesome look even further!

    On an unrelated note: do you plan for backporting Gnome 3.14 to F-20 (like with 3.12)?

  2. Why we don’t have scaleable vector icons like at 1K resolution and can be scaleable based on demand of application.

    There might be reason for avoding that and that might be novice question but I have just asked because of wondering.

    1. Why do you need HTTPS to submit a reply to a public forum with an account that requires no authentication? It isn’t a problem.

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