Is it okay to "borrow" toolbar icons? February 9
Must be a common problem… I’ve been asked this a few times now. Most recently at MacNN Forums:
So there’s lots of webspace devoted to application icons, for end users, but my searching has left me empty-handed over where to get good toolbar icons for my app development. Am I going to have to make them myself? … So many toolbar functions are common or at least metaphorically similar.
I think borrowing toolbar icons is good when you’ve got a common function that doesn’t change from app to app, like Delete or Get Info. (You’re welcome to borrow Omni and icons.cx icons in such cases, BTW.)
Be careful, though — using the same icons for similar-but-not-quite-the-same functions can lead to usability problems. For example, in OmniWeb we use different-looking Back/Forward arrows on the browser and on the preferences window because they work differently: the browser buttons take you back through the history of sites you viewed in whatever order you viewed them, but the ones in preferences flip through the panes in a fixed order, like flipping pages in a book. If we used the same icons for both functions, one might be inclined to think they work the same way. Whatever you do, be sure to check out what the Aqua HIG has to say on toolbar icons.
Also, there are a few cases in which toolbar icons are part of the distinctive look or branding of a product. Apple would probably be unhappy if you wrote a mail or mail-like application and used their set of postage-stamp icons for reply, forward, etc. And we’d defend our copyrights if you were to write a browser or browser-like app using our icons for all four main functions (back/forward/reload/stop), because customers come to recognize our product by seeing those icons at the top.
“Borrowing” application or document icons is a different question, though, so I’ll save it for another time.