Creating a "Favicon" for the Forum

[Matthew Schenker]

Everyone,
Time to add another professional touch to the forum -- a "favicon."

What in the world is a "favicon," you ask?  Well, it's that little icon that appears in a tab in your browser, and in the address bar.  It also appears in your bookmarks.  A favicon helps identify a Web site, especially when you have a bunch of tabs open at the same time.  Here are some examples of well-known favicons:

Festool:
[attachthumb=2]

Amazon:
[attachthumb=1]

Google:
[attachthumb=3]

By default, the forum uses the SMF basic favicon (just look at your address window or your browser tab).  I want to have the forum display a more forum-specific favicon.  I've got some ideas of which one to use, but I thought I'd ask members for suggestions.  Or if you are good at designing icons, go ahead and create one we can use and post it here.  It has to be an *.ico file, sized at 16x16 pixels.

Matthew

 

[Eli]

How about one of these:

[size=13pt]F[/size]

 

[Tinker]

How about one of these:

[size=13pt]F[/size]

Eli,
All I see is the letter F.  Is there more? ???
Tinker

 

[eweber]

Why not using one of the message icon like the domino or the saw ?

 

[jonny round boy]

For anyone who wants to have a go, there's a Free Favicon Generator which will generate the correct .ico file from any GIF/JPEG etc. source image.

I was going to suggest using the TS55 message icon, but Emmanuel beat me to it.... 

 

[jonny round boy]

For anyone who wants to have a go, there's a Free Favicon Generator which will generate the correct .ico file from any GIF/JPEG etc. source image.

I was going to suggest using the TS55 message icon, but Emmanuel beat me to it.... 

Having reduced it to the required 16x16 pixels, I now feel that the saw icon doesn't really work. See for yourselves:[attachimg=1]

It's just too small for such a detailed picture, IMHO.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

jonny,
Thanks for the link to the UK favicon generator.
I discovered another favicon generator, LOCATED HERE.
Great little applications for this specialized task!
Matthew

 

[Eli]

How about one of these:

[size=13pt]F[/size]

Eli,
All I see is the letter F.  Is there more? ???
Tinker

Nope. Like they discovered, fancy doesn't look so good tiny. A green F is what I'd wear on my chest if I was Captain Festool.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

I agree that simple is better here.

We can go with Elii's example, or use the icon that Dan Clark created for the "new posts" icon.  It's still simple, but is more unique to our forum:
[attachimg=1]

Matthew

 

[jonny round boy]

I've based this on Festool's own favicon, but with a small addition: [attachimg=1]

 

[eweber]

I agree that simple is better here.

We can go with Elii's example, or use the icon that Dan Clark created for the "new posts" icon.  It's still simple, but is more unique to our forum:
[attachimg=1]

Matthew

I like this one.

 

[Daviddubya]

The favicon by jonny round boy is more easily recognized than the one that Matthew used above, at least to my eyes.  I had to study Matthew's to realize it was an "F".  A bit more contrast would help, Matthew.  I'm not good at designing graphics, so I'll leave that to those with more creative ability.

Interesting that I don't see the Festool favicon on the Festool USA site (www.festoolusa.com), but I do see it on the Festool home page (www.festool.com).  Looks like the Festool USA site uses the browser's default favicon.

 

[SteveD]

I like that simple Fog icon, providing Festool have no problem with it being close to theirs. Favicons are very useful - but a pain to get 'right'. I know people starting up new companies that begin their corporate look with the favicon - and then have their corporate look and feel based on it.

SteveD

 

[The Woodentop]

For what it's worth, I like Johnyroundboy's favicon. Simple is often best.

Larry

 

[eweber]

Maybe we should start a poll

 

[Matthew Schenker]

The favicon by jonny round boy is more easily recognized than the one that Matthew used above, at least to my eyes.  I had to study Matthew's to realize it was an "F".  A bit more contrast would help, Matthew.  I'm not good at designing graphics, so I'll leave that to those with more creative ability.

That's a good point.  Looking at it again, I definitely see what you mean.  This is why I often put ideas out there for members to discuss, rather than just doing it!

Interesting that I don't see the Festool favicon on the Festool USA site (www.festoolusa.com), but I do see it on the Festool home page (www.festool.com).  Looks like the Festool USA site uses the browser's default favicon.

I was surprised to see that as well.  Maybe they can borrow ours!

Keep the ideas coming everyone.

Matthew

 

[Forrest Anderson]

Here are my two "entries" 

 

Of the others already submitted, I like Eli's and Jonny Round Boy's best.

I must say that despite it's small size, I also rather like JRB's circular saw, and wonder if there might be a tool which could be shrunk slightly more successfully.

Forrest

 

[jonny round boy]

Forrest, they don't appear to be working (unless your idea is 2 very slightly different versions on a red 'X' theme!).

 

[Eli]

I like the 'New Posts' one, but I agree with David, it needs a lot more contrast. Maybe make the letter outlined in black or a darker shade of green. Forrest's are good too, I like the second one of those two.

 

[Forrest Anderson]

Forrest, they don't appear to be working (unless your idea is 2 very slightly different versions on a red 'X' theme!).

Hurumph! I wonder what's wrong there...  ???

They should be image links to two .ICO files on my website, and they show up on my computer in MSIE7 and Firefox 2 running on WinXPwith no problems. I suspect that my webhost might be running rather slow tonight, and the image requests are timing out.

Let's try approaching it in another way, by creating a .GIF image and putting it in the FOG Gallery.

This is what they might look like in the favourites list of a browser, along with the favicons from some other websites:

I've deliberately changed the typeface of the "F" so as to differentiate it a bit from the official Festool favicon.

Does that .GIF image display OK?

Forrest