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Where to find icons for new applications?

paws

Well-known member
For my todo list app, which targets OS 7-9, I'm looking for a few small, generic icons for a toolbar - a pencil icon, a wastebasket, and a checkmark, maybe one or two more.

Short of just nicking some from an app I like, I wonder if there's somewhere I can look for pixel icons in an appropriate "late Classic" style? I've only ever done modern development with stuff like Font Awesome. Unfortunately I'm not much of an artist myself.
 

Crutch

Well-known member
My first stop would actually be nicking them. The Susan Kare MacPaint palette icons were pretty ubiquitous in the classic Mac era. I would personally grab that pencil probably, and use the Finder’s “small icon” version of the trash can for a wastebasket. That way you end up pixel-perfect vs. what Mac users expect.

For miscellaneous symbols like a checkmark, try the Cairo and Symbol fonts.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
In the absence of skill, you could always brute force it - write a little program that generates a random collection of black and white pixels and keep pressing refresh until you get an icon you like?

🤣
 

Phipli

Well-known member
A project I'm actually competent enough to attempt :
 

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  • Random Icon.hqx
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paws

Well-known member
Haha, might give that a try. For a 32x32 icon it seems like a lot of pressing enter, though.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
Haha, might give that a try. For a 32x32 icon it seems like a lot of pressing enter, though.
Yeah, 2^1024 variations, which my phone's calculator says "out of range" for.

There is a bug in that version that means it doesn't redraw properly if you cover it with another window, but I didn't want to spam the update.
 
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