FileZilla Icon Set, by Brian Lukis (v2.0)
Icon set ("theme") designed for the open source FTP client, FileZilla, at 16-pixels.
Design Considerations
My main considerations when designing this set were:
- Icons should visually demonstrate their concept in as complete and simple a way as possible.
- All design elements should be clear and legibile at 16 pixels. Designs should look good at larger scales, but should focus on the 16px format.
- Should have a uniform look & feel, across the set.
Here are the larger versions of the set:
48px
32px
Conventions
A few key designing conventions came about as this icon set evolved. (Happily [and independently], a lot of these conventions coincide with Tango Desktop Project, another open source icon project.)
- Icons are designed in SVG format, for easy scalability.
- The SVGs have a "48x48 pixel" viewport. Outlines are 1 pixel wide. (I found guidelines at 1-pixel spacing [and major lines every 3x3 - indicating pixels at 16x16 px] to be helpful, aligning to these guides where possible.)
- Some reflections & shadows, partly for the sake of the larger sizes.
- 32px & 48px icons are direct SVG renders. 16px versions are hand-edited by pixel, so outlines remain clear. (At 16px, outlines still have a 1-pixel width.)
Other project notes:
- This theme is included in the FileZilla program, but you have to select it, to use it. [Edit > Settings > Interface > Themes > "Blukis"].
- The theme went through a number of iterations before becoming what it is today. To see a bit of the progression of how this set came about see version 0.5 (2007), and version 1.0 (2008). (v0.5 had an additional restriction that no variable transparency was allowed. So the 48px versions wound up looking a little jittery.)
SVG @ 16px (works in Chrome, Safari, Opera)
SVG @ 48px (works in Chrome, Safari, Opera)