Re: [odf-adoption] standardizing odf icons?

[Erwin Tenhumberg <Erwin.Tenhumberg@Sun.COM>]

Hi Louis,

Thanks for bringing the topic to our attention again!

Yes, I also believe that it would be useful to have an ODF icon
that could be recognized across platforms and applications.
An example for an ODF icon can be found here:

    http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/resource/ODF_glassy_100-n.png

Since many OpenOffice.org/KOffice/etc. users still don't know
very much about file formats in general and ODF in particular,
it also would be necessary to have the different applications
mark/brand the ODF icon in a way that users can find their
OpenOffice.org/KOffice/etc. files. An example of a branded
ODF icon, i.e. OpenOffice.org, can be found here:

    http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/resource/ODF_glassy_100.png

Obviously, KOffice would not use the OpenOffice.org gulls in
the icon. Thus, KOffice would use a version of the icon that
showed the KDE-typical gear wheel plus the "K" instead of the
gulls.

Thus, all ODF files would have a similar look and feel, i.e.
the same ODF branding element, across platforms and applications,
but at the same time users still would be able to associate
their document files with the right application.

Thoughts?


Best regards,
Erwin




Louis Suarez-Potts wrote:
> I've been in communication with a friend interested in standardizing the 
> icons for ODF files. It's also something, I believe, the ODF Fellowship 
> is interested in.  I'm not sure how logistically feasible this would be 
> and have my doubts about its general desirability. Applications (or 
> rather their makers) tend to determine the icon set used, and in FOSS, 
> that means just about any distributor/implementor can do what it wants, 
> including ignoring what others want, unless there are legal constraints.
> 
> However, there may be a reasonable compromise: a default set that may be 
> used. It would probably have to be trademarked, but by whom? Oasis, I'd 
> imagine.  And who would police it? More generally, would it even be 
> considered worth it?  The point of this is marketing: to build brand 
> awareness, and given the touted intra-implementation interoperability of 
> the format, I can see that advantage. But then, we should be focusing 
> not on simply creating icons for the format but encouraging (and 
> trademarking a logo) for implementations to use that brands them as 
> implementing ODF.
> 
> 
> 
> best
> louis