Apple Computer Network Router 2 User Manual download pdf (Page 163)

CHAPTER 5

Icons

Extras Drawer Icons 5-9

Extras Drawer Icon Shape 5

Icons for Newton applications generally should not look like icons for desktop

computer applications. Boxy icons are common on desktop computers, where

colors and shades of gray can distinguish one icon from another. In the

Newton Extras Drawer, boxy black-and-white icons look too much alike,

especially when they are in great number or are uniform in size. Try to give

your Extras Drawer icon a distinguishing silhouette. If for some reason your

design must use a black rectangular ﬁeld, eliminate a pixel in each corner to

make the icon more rounded. A rounded icon looks more Newtonlike.

Extras Drawer Icon Names 5

When you design an Extras Drawer icon, you should also come up with the

name to be displayed beneath it. If the name is too long to ﬁt on one line, the

Extras Drawer automatically wraps the name onto a second line. You can

control where the line breaks by including a blank space or a hyphen at a

judicious spot in the name. Despite this accommodation of two-line icon

names, you should avoid them. A two-line icon name crowds the icon below

it and diminishes the vertical separation between icon rows.

Whether one line or two, broad icon names may collide in the Extras Drawer.

To keep an icon name from running into its neighbors, make it no more than

9 to 11 characters long per line. (The length depends on which letters are in

the name, since letters are different widths.)

Don’t worry about your careful work devising an icon name being undone

by a user changing the name. Users cannot change the names of Extras

Drawer icons.

Animating an Extras Drawer Icon 5

Instead of having an Extras Drawer icon highlighted when a user selects it,

you can have it appear to move or to change to an alternate state. For

example, many of the built-in applications’ icons feature this type of simple

animation, including In Box, Out Box, Calls, Time Zones, Clock, Prefs, Setup,

and Writing Practice.

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Apple Computer Network Router 2 User Manual Page 163