Use distinctive application icon/logo for Back In Time (icon proposals)

[Germar]

Hello, I'm AZorin from the Zorin OS project. I believe that Back In Time is a brilliant program although it seems to be missing an independent icon. I have created one which I have attached to this message.
Some credit goes to the Oxygen Icon theme. I hope you will like this icon and decide to choose it for your program.
Best regards,
AZorin

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Imported from Launchpad using lp2gh.

• date created: 2010-04-23T18:23:49Z
• owner: azorin
• assignee: azorin
• the launchpad url was https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/569139

[Germar]

(by danleweb)
Hi AZorin, thanks for your interest in the project.
I like the idea of having a special icon for BIT but I'm not so crazy about the one attached.
I would like one that suggest "going back in time" or "pause time".

Thanks,
Dan

[Germar]

(by azorin)
Would something like a clock with a rewind icon work or would you like something more flashy?

[Germar]

(by danleweb)
Hi,

Sorry for the late answer but I was on vacation.
I do prefer something like a clock with a backward flash.
Something like the attached image or even better.

Best regards,
Dan

[Germar]

(by azorin)
I made a new one. It is attached to this message.

[Germar]

(by danleweb)
I like this better.

[Germar]

(by mastropino)
I think that we need a custom icon for the Notification Area!

[Germar]

(by azorin)
Maybe this one?

[Germar]

I'm not really excited about the previous proposals. I'd like to have something like a glowing Flux Capacitor

[ElvisPresly]

Until you choose, as a result the worthy program will remain without icon ;)

[buhtz]

I think because of the nerd-factor of the "flux capacitor" it wouldn't be hard to find someone how would provide an icon for this. ;)

Some examples we could build on or we could contact.

I would suggest trieing to contact people on this plattform: http://www.iconarchive.com/
Maybe we find a nice icon or a person who would be willing to produce one for BIT. And it is a nice website to get inspired by different design styles.

[NikoKrause]

[ElvisPresly]

@NikoKrause developers will use all the same standard "save"))))))

[buhtz]

I really like it. Minimalistic but with the fluxcompensator.

[Germar]

I like it, too. Only the arrow looks a bit wired. Maybe we could rotate it so the arrow head is on 7 o'clock and has enough space to be a full arrow head. Start of the circle would be on 4 o'clock.
Could you send me the svg please?

[NikoKrause]

This was just a raw draft.
Base icon was the Moka icon for Deja-Dup:
https://github.com/snwh/moka-icon-theme/blob/master/src/D/deja-dup.svg

The flux-compensator is a bad hack. Maybe someone with more Inkscape skills can create a better version.

[NikoKrause]

The Material Design Icon theme has a simple, but perfectly fitting icon for BackInTime:

Available here: https://github.com/google/material-design-icons/blob/master/action/svg/design/ic_restore_48px.svg

[amitkeret]

Last comment is more than a year old...
Still no decision on an icon for this great program?

[emtiu]

@emtiu Here you can find our up-to-date icon draft (designed by @meetdilip) with two different colors (one for BiT root and one for BiT user). Any comments or vetos?

No veto, I really like it :)

[buhtz]

Just noticed our boring icon that reminds me about this issue here. ;)

To my understanding after reading this thread @meetdilip just need to decided about a licence. When you need assistence choosing one I would suggest to contact the community of Inkscape, or the Free Software Foundation (Europe) or the "Open Source Initiative".

[aryoda]

@meetdilip gave us the freedom to choose:

Ok, I have no particular preference. :)

It is now my turn to incorporate the changes and I would like to use the new icons in our upcoming Qt6 version now

[buhtz]

FYI: We might get got a small press release on linuxnews.de. The author asked me for our logo. 🤣
In the end I provided a screenshot of the main window.

[buhtz]

I would like to bring this to an end. We need some decisions and statements from @meetdilip about it. It is not possible to give us the choice. He is author and copyright holder and need to decide. But we can assist this.

Our goal is to use the logo for Back In Time but other projects shouldn't be allowed to use it in another context.

Dear Dilip, your answers to the following questions would help us to direct you to an appropriate license.

1. Is it OK for you if the use of the logo is exclusive to the Back In Time project?
2. Is it OK for you if Back In Time as project can access the logos source file (an svg?)?
3. Is it OK for you if Back In Time project members do modify the source file? Modifications for example are changing the color palette, use another size/resolution, add the logo to another picture (e.g. on to a screenshot).

One licensing model could be that Dilip keep authorship and copyright and give the BIT an exclusive-use license with rights to modify in perpetuity. But I am not clear enough about it today. We need to consider two relationships: 1) Between Dilip (the author) and the BIT project 2) the BIT project and the rest of the world.

Collecting some information and opinion about this topic

• Asked on Inkscape forum about licensing: https://inkscape.org/forums/beyond/how-to-licence-a-project-specific-software-logo/.
• debian-legal mailing list
• REUSE.software mailing list (related to SPDX specification)

[buhtz]

Hello Dilip,
long research, short answer. The easiest for all parties would by if you would release the logo with the same licence as we use in Back In Time project. The license is "GPL-2.0-or-later".

The meaning is (in short) that everyone, not only members of our project, can use, modify and publish the logo.

What do you think?

[buhtz]

It seems this won't come to end. Without license we can not use it. Anyway...

I think about looking for a new creator somehow. Now we are more clear about what we need and how it should be licensed. So we can communicate that before someone starts to be creative.

I can contact again the BIT and creator community in several ways.
Or what might reach more people I could add a request-for-icon-creator-message-dialog to BIT itself. We have done this with a request for translators, too.

[buhtz]

Does someone has mail contact to dillip?

[buhtz]

Just in case if we can not finish with Dillip I have another quick n dirty "concept" for a logo. This drawing is just a concept done with MS PowerPoint + MS Paint, to give you an idea.

The idea is based on "backup" logos like this.

Most of them are stack of discs.

This is my "drawing":

One of our main features is to use hardlinks to save storage space. This is what I try to impress in my drawing with the vertical bars, sometimes separated by horizontal lines. My example is stack of 5 discs, 5 snapshots. The 3rd bar is not separated by a horizontal line so it is one unchanged file stored via hardlink in this snapshots.

Got the idea?

A symol like this might be easy to draw and to scale. And it might work with colors and in grayscale. Of course someone more professional need to do it and decide about the colors, bars and horizontal lines. My example is to noise.

[buhtz]

Because there is no more feedback I will close the issue soon.
I opened a follow-up issue #1961 with improved and clearer details about what this projects need and what need to be done about a logo, especially when it comes about licensing. My hope is to attract more designers when the tasks are described more clearly.

I will also come up with some ideas and sketch ups about a logo. 🤣

I am sorry. But the work still done was worth it but even if we are not using the results we learned a lot about the process and can make it better next time.

[buhtz]

Closing this ticket based on the comment above. Feel free to reopen
if the problem still exists. Thank you for your efforts. If you have
any further questions, ideas or encounter any other issues, please
don't hesitate to let us know.

Best regards,