Proposal for Big Sur/Monterey-compliant/iOS Beta icon

edited February 14, 2022
Hi guys,

Being a graphic designer utterly irked with non-Big Sur-like icons (I hated the new look at first, but it has since grown on me), I've been customising the icons of my most commonly used apps so they get those properly smoothed out roundrect backgrounds.

Zotero is one of those apps, and I came up with a version by extracting the .png images from the current .icns file (which, incidentally, isn't fully Retina-compliant), fiddling a lot with healing brushes, scaling and whatnot and slapping it onto my quasi-Apple-official Affinity Designer template, but wouldn't mind getting my hands on the original 3D/vector artwork or working with whoever made it originally, and doing an *official*, crisper version.

You can find my ersatz version and work files here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1F8F3ifcc4eTZ6h_8BSNCYDfqLpBwrAyF?usp=sharing
  • edited March 14, 2021
    Also, for what it's worth, at least another freeware software developer took in a similar offer, namely Maarten Foukhar from Burn: https://burn-osx.sourceforge.io/Pages/English/home.html (he still hasn't updated the website, but the latest Universal version is already using my revised icon design, completely redone from scratch).
  • Love the Big Sur design
  • I have been looking for a nice, Big-Sur-compliant Zotero Icon for ages (yes, damn my OCD). Thank you, yours looks nice and my search is finally over :P

    btw, you should upload it at this repository of Big Sur Icons: https://macosicons.com/zotero
  • edited February 14, 2022
    @chrisgrieser you're welcome, and thank you for that resource, as well!

    I've just created an account there and finished uploading 60 Big Sur/Monterey-compliant icons of my own over there for a lot of apps and folders. Once they do get approved, you'll be able to browse them at https://macosicons.com/#/u/joaofrgomes

    I'm still not sure whether that repository fully supports .icns files (I did manage to upload my own and all files downloaded from there are, indeed, in .icns format, but I'll only be able to check whether my custom 16x16@1x instances were preserved or not – Zotero's icon being one the few that did include such a special version on that instance – after they're all approved and I can finally download them back from there).

    If that's the case, I'll be sure to post a direct link to the public file here, too. I was just checking my Google Drive link and only now realised that I had accidentally deleted the corresponding folder the other day (I've now since restored it, but it's best if I also provide a fully public and static link to my work).
  • @justinschmidt thank you for the compliment!
  • As for Zotero devs… Will you take another look into this?

    The desktop icon looks even more out of place in iOS/iPadOS, and I'm guessing the final release must be drawing closer, so, yep. ;)
  • edited February 21, 2022
    @chrisgrieser meh, I've just checked one of my already approved icons (for LibreOffice) and, sadly, it seems macOSicons mangles our careful design work towards neat and compliant ICNS packages; it just takes the PNG file from the 512x512@2x instance and downscales it, which, for a so-called icon repository, is amateurish, at best.

    I'll likely leave it online but, seeing how you have access to the real deal here already, it's a bit pointless to post the link here. I raised my concerns on the project's GitHub page here ( https://github.com/elrumo/macOS_Big_Sur_icons_replacements/discussions/1098 ) and if and when it's fixed, I'll be sure to post the link to an updated/re-uploaded version of the icon here.
  • This looks so much better, thanks!
  • @cristianbrodbeck Thanks! I’ve since done an even better version, in which I smoothed over all the resizing artifacts, but it’s still not perfect, as I had to resort a lot to cloning and retouching with the healing brush.

    If Zotero wanted to do a collaboration with me, by providing the original vector/3D files, or the original author was willing to copy my idea, it would look even better.
  • I would love to see the rounded-square icon on macOS!
  • edited November 20, 2023
    @megesgir thank you! Well, you can always use the version I linked to, it's as close as possible to the original icon while being Big Sur-compliant. ;)

    As for the developers, please excuse me the shameless plug and bump, but Zotero 7 would be a perfect opportunity to introduce a rounded square icon variant on both macOS and iOS/iPadOS. And, indeed, users seem to agree, as my custom Zotero icon (sadly not yet updated with the best, proper .icns file) is by far, with more than 800 downloads, the most popular of the bunch on my macOSicons page.
  • Please use @joaofrgomes' icon or any other squircle-shaped icon to ensure it doesn't appear out of place on macOS.
  • There's a new squircle icon in the redesigned Zotero 7 beta.
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