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Filed under: Design, Google

Does the readability of favicons matter?

Sub-pixel renderingThere's an incredibly short post up at Typophile by Miha showing how much better YouTube's favicon could be if Google applied a sub-pixel rendering technique. Sub-pixel rendering is the approach that Microsoft uses in its ClearType font-smoothing technology, though there are many others using the technique. The concept of sub-pixel rendering is that you can fool the eye into seeing smoother curves and cleaner lines than are actually possible due to the pixel density of a screen by using very specific colors. Miha's example shows that to make clear-looking white inside the read YouTube logo, you actually use yellows and purples rather than the white that is currently used.

While there's no doubt that sub-pixel rendering is valuable for rendering text on computer screens, is it really necessary to have specialized talents in this area to make favicons more readable? There's no doubt that Miha's revised version of the YouTube favicon is more clear and easier to read; what do you think? If you could apply it easily, would you revise your site's favicon using sub-pixel rendering?

[via Google Blogoscoped]

Filed under: E-mail, Google

Better Gmail 2 now shows unread messages in the favicon

Better Gmail 2
The other day the folks at Google launched a new Gmail Labs feature called Title Tweaks that lets you decide whether your browser title bar should read "Gmail - Inbox (20)" or "Inbox (20) - Gmail." This is a feature that's been a part of Gina Trapini's Better Gmail 2 add-on for Firefox for a while, but now that it's officially part of Google Labs, you can set your preferences once and they'll apply no matter what web browser or computer you use to check your email.

But there's one thing that the latest version of Better Gmail can do that Google can't... yet. Better Gmail 2 now lets you see how many unread messages you have right on the favicon. This takes up a lot less space than the typical Inbox notifications in the title bar. And that means you should be able to see how many unread messages you have even if you have dozens of tabs open, or if you're using an add-on like Faviconize.

If you don't want to install Better Gmail 2 for one reason or another, you can get the same effect by using the Unread Messages Count in Favicon userscript with Greasemonkey.

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Productivity

Favicon Generator: favicons made easy

Have you ever seen a site with a really awesome favicon -- that tiny icon that shows up in bookmarks and address bars -- and wondered how to get one yourself? Favicon Generator makes it totally simple, with two different ways to get exactly the icon you want. You can upload any image, or make your own with a pixel-level editor. Then Favicon Generator does the rest, and gives you a .ico file that you can use with your site.

Generator mode is where you can upload your gifs, jpgs and pngs to be converted. The Generator will resize them to the standard 16x16 pixel favicon size for you, but you can easily get a full-sized .ico instead by clicking a checkbox. In Editor mode, you draw your own icon on an oversized 16x16 grid, using any web colors you like. There's no option to enlarge the grid, so this is no solution for serious pixel-art projects. When it comes to favicons, though, it's the perfect tool for the task.

Filed under: Internet

Display GMail unread message count on the favicon

If you've always got GMail open in one of your Firefox tabs, you can't always see the unread message count - when you have a whole slew of other tabs open, for example.

Install the Gmail Unread Message Count in Favicon script for Greasemonkey, and that problem is solved. The script overlays the current count on Gmail's envelope icon and it will display even when you're not parked at your Inbox. It's nice to be able to keep tabs on new messages without tabbing back to Gmail.

The icon will also become brighter as the number of unread messages increases. You will, of course, need to have the Greasemonkey addon installed as well.

[ via Lifehacker ]

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Mozilla, Freeware, Browser Tips

Locationbar - added features for the Firefox location bar

Locationbar2The location bar in browsers hasn't changed in, well, a darn long time. The last big advance was probably the introduction of Favicons. Firefox Add-In Locationbar² attempts to upgrade the location bar and make it both more readable, and more useful. It breaks apart the sections of the URL, optionally hiding the protocol, and if you hold a modifier key (Shift, Alt or Ctrl) it allows you to click on any level of the URL to jump there.

While it certainly seems more useful, it's also a bit disconcerting. URLs have looked the same for a long, long time. It's unclear whether this new way of displaying them is truthfully easier on the eyes, or if it just creates more confusion that must be deciphered before processing what you're looking at. The ability to jump anywhere in the URL's folder structure is definitely useful though.

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Mozilla, Freeware, Browser Tips

FaviconizeTab: "Minimize" tabs in Firefox

FaviconizeTabOh, how cool. FaviconizeTab is an add-on for Firefox that does just one thing: It shrinks tabs of your choosing down to the bare minimum: Just the icon. While tab titles are handy to have, when it's a tab you have open all day like your RSS reader or (if you're me) Joe's Goals, the title is inessential and just takes up space. FaviconizeTab frees up that space, which gives the other dozen tabs you have open more elbow room. In its Options you can choose to activate it with a double-click, Ctrl-click, Alt-click, or Shift-click, or just use the context menu, and if you have Firefox set up to restore your previous session's tabs on start-up, FaviconizeTab will remember which tabs should be Faviconized. One feature I wish it had is to specify that certain bookmarks should always open "Faviconized"--maybe next version.

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Mozilla, Browser Tips

Favicon Picker for Firefox

Favicon Picker for Firefox

When I first came across Favicon Picker, an extension for Firefox, I didn't really see the utility of it. It took Rachel Cunliffe at cre8d blog to set me straight. The real reason Favicon Picker is fantastic is that it lets you do away entirely with text labels in Firefox's Links toolbar (if you want), as in the screenshot above, and it lets you assign favicons to bookmarklets. Not only does that each one a lot easier to pick out at a glance, it also makes room for a lot more of them. Excellent.

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