Reverting Affinity Icons

[Bri-Toon]

I just want to know if it's possible to revert the Affinity icons to how they looked before. They certainly don't look bad now. They look very neat and professional. It's just that something I do is sort all of my programs in their own categories. All office applications together, all security applications together, and so on. I want to make a category called Multimedia and have the Affinity programs in there, and I like how there was a picture inside each triangle indicating what they're for. They quickly jump out at you telling you what they can do. So I just want to know if there is an option revert the look for the icons like in the second screenshot here and possibly any future apps. If not, it's no problem. I just love organizing my own computer workspace.

[Callum]

Hi Bleduc,

 

Unfortunately I don't think its possible to revert to the old icons. However eaton11 did create some custom icons for Affinity along with a tutorial on how to install them you may want to give those a try I have included a link to them below :)

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/8341-custom-affinity-icons/

 

I hope this helps :)

 

C

[Bri-Toon]

Eh that's a bummer. Well I just wanted to check.

 

Those are interesting icons though. Thank you for the suggestion.

[Alfred]

It's easy to find the old AD icon on the Interwebs and change the properties of the shortcut on your Windows Desktop to use that one instead of the new one, but I don't know whether Callum's comment

 

Unfortunately I don't think its possible to revert to the old icons.

 

refers to licensing issues. I wouldn't have thought it matters what you do with an old, abandoned icon if it's only for personal use, but I am not a lawyer!

[Bri-Toon]

I assumed he meant within the program's actual settings. If there is no licensing issue, I guess I too could come up with icons; along with any other future Affinity applications - only if it's allowed.

[Alfred]

I guess I too could come up with icons

 

I'm confused, Brian! I thought you wanted to use the old icons instead of creating your own. :huh:

[LilleG]

I never thought about searching for the old ones.  I liked them a lot better too, for the same reasons as leduc.  I'll be really glad when the current trend of reducing information whenever and wherever possible runs its course, as all fads do.

[MEB]

Hi Bleduc,

There's nothing stopping you from customising the icons for your own use in Fences and similar software. You can simply change the icons of the shortcuts pointing to the apps instead of the apps icons themselves.

[Alfred]

There's nothing stopping you from customising the icons for your own use

 

In that case, here's an ICO file containing the old Designer icons at 16, 32, 48, 128 and 256 pixels square. I imagine that it wouldn't be immensely difficult to convert it to ICNS format for Mac users.

[MEB]

Hi @Alfred,

I meant for his own use, not for distribution. There may be copyright issues associated with their distribution. @KateM is probably the most suited person to advise you regarding this.

[Alfred]

Sorry about that, Miguel. I obviously misunderstood! I've removed the attachment now.

[R C-R]

Hi Bleduc,,

There's nothing stopping you from customising the icons for your own use in Fences and similar software. You can simply change the icons of the shortcuts pointing to the apps instead of the apps icons themselves.

You could do something similar on a Mac, possibly using software to generate your own ".icns" Apple icon image replacement files in /Applications/Affinity Designer.app/Contents/Resources, although I have no idea if this would create a problem with the Code Signature for the retail version, so try it at your own risk.

 

What I do instead when I want a different icon (or name) for some app I use regularly is to create an alias to it, put that in a user domain folder somewhere, & give it a custom icon and/or name. I have several folders like this that contain nothing but aliases, with each folder named for an app category, like Graphics, Sound, Games, Utilities, etc. Those folders are added to the Dock for easy access.

 

One of the nice things about this is, since they are just aliases, an app can appear in more than one folder, useful for apps that fit in more than one category. It also allows shorter or more descriptive names if you want.

[MEB]

R C-R,

Yes, this can easily be achieved on the Mac too. But the screenshot posted by the OP refers to the Windows version using an application like Fences from Stardock.

 

@Alfred,

No worries, i'm simply playing safe here since that's not my area. KateM is probably the best person to reply to this  ;)

[R C-R]

Yes, I realize bleduc was referring to Windows, but since Callum linked to eaton11's custom icon topic, & it includes a video applicable only to OS X, plus LilleG (who I think is a Mac user) contributed something here too, for the sake of completeness I thought it worth mentioning the OS X options, too.

 

As a side note, particularly for "under the hood" things like this but also for many other topics, it is getting increasingly difficult to tell if a topic that appears in the general Questions (or Feature Request) forum applies to both Mac & Windows platforms, & often even if it applies to AP, AD, or both. I have no idea of the best thing to do about it, but I hope there is something in the works that will help.

[LilleG]

Thanks, R C-R,  Yes, I am a Mac user.  And I agree that it's become confusing with no way way to tell in advance if the post you're clicking on has anything to do with anything that applies to you.  Lots of clicking in, Ooops, clicking out.  

[Bri-Toon]

Whoa! Lots of feedback since my last visit.

 

I'm confused, Brian! I thought you wanted to use the old icons instead of creating your own. :huh:

 

Well I did, and I still do, but assuming that any future applications after Publisher will use the same style as the new icons, I will create ones to match the old.

 

I never thought about searching for the old ones.  I liked them a lot better too, for the same reasons as leduc.  I'll be really glad when the current trend of reducing information whenever and wherever possible runs its course, as all fads do.

 

Really? I'm a bit shocked but satisfied that I'm not the only one who feels that way. The icons are always important to me.

 

Hi Bleduc,

There's nothing stopping you from customising the icons for your own use in Fences and similar software. You can simply change the icons of the shortcuts pointing to the apps instead of the apps icons themselves.

 

I didn't realize there was software other than ViPad that was similar to Fences. Truthfully, I've been thinking about switching to a Mac for about 6 months, and I still can't make up my mind. It's such a big change. The Fences alternative, Desktop Groups, looks interesting.

 

You could do something similar on a Mac, possibly using software to generate your own ".icns" Apple icon image replacement files in /Applications/Affinity Designer.app/Contents/Resources, although I have no idea if this would create a problem with the Code Signature for the retail version, so try it at your own risk.

 

Even though I'm currently a Windows user, I thought Finder > Applications in Mac is just where the applications are. I didn't think there were further locations.

[R C-R]

Even though I'm currently a Windows user, I thought Finder > Applications in Mac is just where the applications are. I didn't think there were further locations.

In OS X the root level Applications folder is the normal location for applications available to all user accounts. Users can also create an Applications folder in their home folder for applications available only to them. Aliases are basically just 'smart' pointers to applications, folders, or files; in OS X you can move a file to a new location & the alias will automatically be updated to point to it in its new location. They can have their own custom icons or names.

 

Finder is really just an application, one that lives in the System > Library > CoreServices folder, along with around 200 other apps that supply the 'core' features of OS X. Some are 'faceless' -- they run without any visible presence or user interface; others are more conventional.

[Bri-Toon]

I see.

[Alfred]

For anyone who is interested in using the old icons, all three are available (at a good size, and on a transparent background in PNG format) in this Affinity Blog article from June 2014:

 

https://affinity.serif.com/blog/welcome-to-affinity/

[LilleG]

Thanks for the link, Alfred.  Those were really nice icons.  I've never quite understood why Affinity wanted to dump something that was distinctive, easily recognizable, and informative for something so bland and non-specific as the current ones.  I don't think anyone looks at a blue triangle and a magenta one and says "Oh yeah, the blue must be a design app and the magenta a photo app." 

[R C-R]

Personally, I think the new icons, or at least the Photo one, is quite distinctive, particularly at the small size they appear on my Dock. The old ones were more "arty" & less abstract but the details got lost at small icon sizes, like in Finder list views.

[LilleG]

I agree they didn't show much detail in List View but they looked great in the Dock.

[Bri-Toon]

I wouldn't say the new icons look bland. It's a pretty clever approach in making different designs out of As'. Plus, I think I see why they chose to update the icons. Affinity is a POWERFUL alternative to the Adobe suite. They probably wanted to give their icons that more potential look to indicate a battle. I, personally, think it would be a neat idea to have Designer's icon as the main logo of all of Affinity's products (silver), and use the old icons for the applications. I do still feel that Designer has an awesome logo that screams power.

 

For anyone who is interested in using the old icons, all three are available (at a good size, and on a transparent background in PNG format) in this Affinity Blog article from June 2014:

 

https://affinity.serif.com/blog/welcome-to-affinity/

 

And added. Thank you, sir.