Hello all! This is my first post on this forum (sorry if this is in the wrong sub-forum).
One thing about old programs and forums I absolutely
adore is the little icons they use. Nowadays, all you see are the usual same-looking, single-colour (or 2 colours if you're lucky) vectors that look identical in almost every single program, with a few holdouts from devs that just can't be bothered changing them (good!). Some programs I use thankfully let you customize icons (shoutout to LibreOffice and WinRAR) and I always spend a few seconds just staring at how beautiful some of them are.
So, here's a few of my favourites:
Fugue Icons by Yusuke Kaimyamane. A not uncommon sight back in the day, used by Paint.net up until recently as an example. The artist even provided the source files
on his website! These are my personal favourites, they're just so pretty.
Silk/FamFamFam Icons by Mark James. You've definitely seen these somewhere before, and many programs and websites still use them! Versatile, detailed and beautiful.
Tango Desktop Project by freedesktop.org. Used to be used in GIMP, GNOME and even Firefox! Also the iconset I use in LibreOffice, surprisingly versatile.
Oxygen by the Oxygen Team. Used in KDE and still being updated. Absolute peak aero and they're also SVG, which means they're still viable for usage today!
Farm Fresh Icons by Fatcow Web Hosting. Another common sight back in the day, they've completely disappeared now.
The Fatcow website still looks great, though.
Galaxy Icons by the OpenOffice Team. These have a very distinct style that I adore, my second favourites after Fugue, though sadly quite limited in their use.
Icons used to be so fun, full of life and character. Definitely feels like the natural evolution of old pixel Windows 95-type icons. I'm so happy when I download a program that still has these or something similar, or at least has the option of using something like them. I can honestly say using the Tango and Galaxy icons on LibreOffice has genuinely helped me focus and not feel like shit while studying my notes (wish the rest of the program matched them!). This is just a pretty small, often unappreciated part of older software that I absolutely adore.
So yeah, what are your thoughts on these? Do you have any of your own examples? I'd love to hear what you have to say! Cheers.
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