The original design was more consistent with the usual style for text characters used in Breeze icons, but I think using actual LaTeX fonts in this context works just as well or better for LaTeX users.

+1

Hey, thanks for working on this.

I don't mind the change in font style.

However, do you think it's possible to add "Kile" somewhere onto the icon as well, preferably quite largely. With this icon, I always find it hard to locate Kile in the task manager.

Thats rather difficult. Adding it to the proposed design looks quite cramped:

The only good way to fit "Kile" into that shape is vertical, which looks weird and is not very legible:

A more elegant way would be just the letter K:

I would not recommend embedding the app name into the icon itself. The text isn't localizable, the icon would become really cramped, and in any event it would look weird since no other app does this.

For those reasons, our HIG specifically recommends against this: https://hig.kde.org/style/icon.html?highlight=icons#general-guidelines

In D17310#370758, @ngraham wrote:

I would not recommend embedding the app name into the icon itself. The text isn't localizable, the icon would become really cramped, and in any event it would look weird since no other app does this.

For those reasons, our HIG specifically recommends against this: https://hig.kde.org/style/icon.html?highlight=icons#general-guidelines

Well, it's not really arbitrary text, but the name of the application, so I it wouldn't be localized much. Besides, Kile's official icons have contained the character "K" or the string "Kile" for over 15 years.

Off the top of my head, another example of such an icon design is the one of Evince, which contains a stylized letter 'e' - I know it's from the competition ;)

Or to some extent, the icon of kcharselect, which I really like.

The biggest issue that I have with the square root icon is that it doesn't symbolize enough that it's the icon of an application. To me, it just looks like the application of a file type. Some dynamic element is missing, like a pencil, for example, to indicate that it's an application for editing such files.

Yeah, a stylized "K" on its own might work.

What if instead of using 'a' as a variable in the equation, we used 'k'?

With a small "k" in the equation:

With a capital "K":

What do you think?

In D17310#371697, @trickyricky26 wrote:

With a small "k" in the equation:

With a capital "K":

What do you think?

Can you show it at 100% size? You should generally show icons at 100% size so that they can be seen the way the user will see them.

The proposed icons in my dock:

In D17310#370842, @mludwig wrote:

The biggest issue that I have with the square root icon is that it doesn't symbolize enough that it's the icon of an application. To me, it just looks like the application of a file type. Some dynamic element is missing, like a pencil, for example, to indicate that it's an application for editing such files.

I have experimented with adding a black pen to the icon:

In D17310#372711, @trickyricky26 wrote:

The proposed icons in my dock:

In D17310#370842, @mludwig wrote:

The biggest issue that I have with the square root icon is that it doesn't symbolize enough that it's the icon of an application. To me, it just looks like the application of a file type. Some dynamic element is missing, like a pencil, for example, to indicate that it's an application for editing such files.

I have experimented with adding a black pen to the icon:

Do you think this looks more like an application? It could be added to all of the proposed designs.

The uppercase 'K' is crisper at 100% size, so I think that's better than the lowercase 'k'. The lowercase 'a' still looks the best because of the empty space around it.

The idea with the pen is interesting, but there needs to be something to fill up that empty space.

I have made the root a and root capital K design with the pen added:

At 100% scaling:

I think the root "K" is clearer, but looks a bit more cramped.

I have made another design based on @ndavis feedback:

For me is these root sign nondescript. When the orig old blue symbol is not desired, how about to freshen it up? How? I don't know.
Perhaps Black & White just as all your other offers on these rectangular sheet of paper?
Furthermore exist these splash-screen. So maybe in yellow on these fuzzy gray paper?

In D17310#377145, @loh.tar wrote:

For me is these root sign nondescript. When the orig old blue symbol is not desired, how about to freshen it up? How? I don't know.
Perhaps Black & White just as all your other offers on these rectangular sheet of paper?

This icon is supposed to fit that style.
However, instead of black lines on a white background which looks more like simple text editing, this uses a mathematical formula which is one thing LaTeX handles wonderfully and is often used for.
The pen shows this is an application for editing/generating such files.
I can't think of a better symbol for LaTeX other than it's "Logo" which is just the Text LaTeX.

Furthermore exist these splash-screen. So maybe in yellow on these fuzzy gray paper?

This would not work at a small size and imo isn't very visually appealing.

The used traffic cone by VLC is for me also nondescript, but that's their icon and therefore we know it.
My point is only that your new icon should be somehow similar to the stuff used by Kile, and not to try to describe what we can do with Kile.

Should I miss that your new icon will be the new Kile icon, I'm sorry for the noise :-)

Kile folks, are you good with this now? If we don't hear back in a week or two, we'll have to assume yes. :)

In D17310#383350, @ngraham wrote:

Kile folks, are you good with this now? If we don't hear back in a week or two, we'll have to assume yes. :)

Sorry, but I'm still not a fan of this icon.

Moreover, as you pointed out in https://phabricator.kde.org/T10243, the "Don't destroy the app's existing branding" recommendation in the HIG has actually been violated by the previous version of this icon already.

In D17310#384720, @mludwig wrote:

Moreover, as you pointed out in https://phabricator.kde.org/T10243, the "Don't destroy the app's existing branding" recommendation in the HIG has actually been violated by the previous version of this icon already.

I have to agree with you here. Do you think a version of the icon with identical Text as the original Kile icon (big, horizontal "K", smaller, vertical "ile") with the notepad as the background would be enough to not differ from the existing branding too much?
I would like for some of the aspects of the current proposal (notepad, pen) to stay as the plain blue circle from the original icon does not integrate too well with the Breeze style.

I will update the revision with a version described above (original letters, notepad background)

Here are some designs that are more faithful to the original:

@mludwig
What do you think of these designs? Are they close enough to the original to be recognizable?

In D17310#385180, @trickyricky26 wrote:

Here are some designs that are more faithful to the original:

This has almost the same letter design as the original. I adjusted it a bit to fit onto the notepad.

@mludwig
What do you think of these designs? Are they close enough to the original to be recognizable?

Yes, I like this version better, thanks. What about giving a blue foreground to the notebook and use white for the text?

In D17310#387363, @mludwig wrote:

Yes, I like this version better, thanks. What about giving a blue foreground to the notebook and use white for the text?

That is a great suggestion: Not only will this be closer to the original and therefore more recognizable, it even makes more sense semantically as the cover of the notebook will say "Kile" instead of the content of one page.

I will work on this and update the revision.

I'm the author of this one:

That has been in Breeze for years. Please next time don't wait so much to complain about an icon that being the app launcher one can be easily noticed when updated.

In D17310#387633, @alex-l wrote:

I'm the author of this one:

That has been in Breeze for years. Please next time don't wait so much to complain about an icon that being the app launcher one can be easily noticed when updated.

Please don't override the icons of applications without asking whether the developers are ok with it!

In D17310#387589, @trickyricky26 wrote:

• Make Kile letters a lighter color

Yep, thanks. That's a great icon now - I like it a lot!

Yes looks nice.
Would be good as icon for the Kile Handbook, for the application I would omit/avoid the "Notebook" look.

In D17310#387641, @loh.tar wrote:

Would be good as icon for the Kile Handbook, for the application I would omit/avoid the "Notebook" look.

Then we're just left with a blue surface and the letters "Kile" on it, which does not give any more information about the app than that it's called "Kile".
The icons should have at least some amount of meaningful symbolism related to the application on them.

The notebook shows that the application is used for interacting with text (as opposed to a book which can only be read, not modified).