FreeOrion

Well there's a big difference between logos that are just symbols, like the HL2 one, and logos that are actually sylized words. The former need not be readable, as it's not meant to be read or there isn't anything to read in the first place... The latter should actually resemble what it's supposed to say (which the FO one does), but also should be uniformly (un)readable (which the FO one is not, due to the vague is-it-or-isn't-it a letter O) so that it's not interpreted to be a different word that what you were meaning to convey...

Of course there are degrees of vagueness and it will vary from person to person and between those who already know what it's supposed to say and those who don't, and you don't want to be limited to boring generic text... but tweaks to "encourage" the "correct" interpretation are probably a good idea in this case...


Sounds worth a try...

We need to see a version of the logo with the O joined at the top left, to form a full circle.

There already was one earlier in this thread, which I suggested be altered to disconnect the top left ends of the crescent...

http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtopi ... 8356#18356

Ok, I think the full circle one does look better.

Having noticed this on the wiki page,

I'm wondering if there's any chance we could get a version of the freeOrion logo that would work in a less wide and more tall space? I mean so that it fits in the shape of this image from the wiki layout:

And perhaps also this image from the forum layout:

I'm thinking of something like this, but which doesn't suck:

... Maybe an even bigger O-star thing...? I'm not sure how it should look...

Also, it'd be good to have a 32x32 version of the O-star logo thing (that also scales well to 16x16), for use as the web browser icon for the freeOrion site (in the address bar and for desktop shortcuts):

I mean just this part, not the whole thing (for the icon):

The icon will probably need some tweaking to look good at 16x16... thicker lines / curves and such...

i've send this logo to tyreth yesterday to display it either where the phpbb logo is, or to replace the headline(FreeOrion).
we may want to give credit to phpbb, wherefor i favour the second.


sure, this is for the wiki.


i don't like the idea of breaking the logo, as you did. imo it only works if we keep it as it is to remain the balance.

i did come up with 2 .icos a white and a black one. have a look:

download white version
download black version

the 16x16 version is really tough. maybe the logo is too complex to work on this resolution. i failed at creating it first. but i'll try again and paint it pixel by pixel.

last but not least there is the full color version, which will be used in-game. it works best on dark backgrounds.
.

I've added that logo to the wiki. I like the look of those icons. The only problem I have is that the folded corner makes it look like a document type icon rather than an application icon. Applications tend to be standalone images, so it needs to be a backdrop that is part of the image somehow. Unfortunately I can't think of any ideas to make it better.

yep, you are right. those can be used later for savegames or something don't know, i'll make a third one for the application itself.

Im gonna try and come up something... thought today might not be ideal, sick and all.

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Hrm... it's kind of... flat looking. Could you do it up all metallic and highlighted on the crescent part, and glowy on the cross part like in this one:

Which is quite good?


Nor do I, hence my saying that my demo sucked... I'm just hoping a similar looking logo that does work in a less wide space can be made. I have no idea how it should look though...


I'm not sure, but I'd suspect that the 16x16 is just a 32x32 icon that's been shrunk automatically...

(momentary pause)

I checked the page source of the FreeCiv site, and found this file in the html:
http://www.freeciv.org/favicon.ico

When downloaded, it's a 32x32 icon, but it shows up as 16x16 in the browser address bar, so it must be being automatically shrunk.

So I suggest making a 32x32 that has the O-star filling up all the space, without the document background thing (as per Tyreth's comments, and more like my 48x48 demo), which hopefully will still look ok scaled to 16x16...

Though I could be wrong... is it possible to make a 16x16 icon, and if so, would it show up unscaled in the address bar?

as i said, the metall like logo only works on dark - preferably black backgrounds. the wiki is pretty light, so i've just used this simple logo and added a little shadow. it's supposed to be simple and i think it's great for the wiki(which is naturally plain looking).


seriously, why do we need a logo with less wide space? because the phpbb logo is less wide? the height-width ratio of our current logo is pretty much fixed due to the length of the word which is displayed and won't change, no matter what we do.


no it isn't. .icos can contain multiple images just like an animated gif. the freeciv icon contains a 16x16/8bit and 32x32/8bit icon.

Unless you chop the word into two halves...

I want a less wide logo because I remember a while ago when Tyreth (I think) tried out some wider logos, it broke the hscroll on the forums:

http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtopi ... 3363#13363

again, why would you do this, since it destroys the logos balance.



well, this was only a scaling issue. the new logo is 250x62 - half as wide as the proposed logo in the thread you've linked.

I was hoping for a new logo to be created, that is balanced, and not just for the current logo to be chopped up, which is what sucks (partly due to the imbalance that results).

The new one's nowhere near as bad as the one in the other thread, I agree... But it's still wider than the PHPBB logo, which might be a problem (or might not).

And it's not just the absolute width that's the issue... 250x62 is much wider than it is thin; it would be nice to have a rounder / squarer logo available that actually has the full word(s) in it (not just the O-star thing). IMO this would look nicer in some cases, and would scale better and be useful for places where images need to fit into roughly square space.

Here is an icon that is 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48:
http://www.munzy.net/freeOrion/images/f ... nzy001.ico
I grabbed this from the freeOrion wiki - I guess it is pd's? Either way, my mods to it are released under the appropriate copyright thingy freeOrion is using for graphics. If we could get an official copyright release line I would use it.

What is inside the .ico file:


I linked a shortcut to the .ico:


What the icon looks like when transparancy is used (Not very good IMOSHO):

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