Dashicons Returned We’re meeting every Thursday at 18:30…

Dashicons Returned!

We’re meeting every Thursday at 18:30 UTC (2:30 ET) in #design-dashicons, after the #design meeting. As a reminder, our goal is to switch Dashicons to a collection of SVGs, rather than a font.

Slack Archive

We discussed

  • The beginnings of a feature plugin: https://github.com/ryelle/SVG-Dashicons-Plugin/
  • The start of an announcement post with history & a roadmap.

To Do

  • Continue working on the feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins., starting with identifying code for all current icons
  • Write up the announcement. We have an outline, any help writing the full post in the next week would be much appreciated. Otherwise we might just post an outline 🙂

As always, check in to #design-dashicons if you want to help out! We’ll meet again Thursday, June 6, 2015 14:30 UTC-4

#dashicons

Dashicons 3/19 Notes

Slack Archive

We Discussed

To Do

Next week, we’ll have a discussion to confirm what approach we should take, and how to get there. If you want to join in, that’ll be March 26th, at 18:00 UTC in #design-dashicons.

#dashicons

Dashicons 2/5 Notes

Slack Archive

We Discussed

  • SVG For Everybody was merged into githubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/, the mockup can now be seen on IE9+
  • Debate over creating a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. set of Dashicons, and leaving any icons not used by core in a downloadable pack.

Dashicons “core set” Discussion

Started from Michael’s comment about applying the core philosophies to dashicons. If we can narrow our focus on only the core icons, any improvements and changes only need to happen on this smaller subset of icons. For current dashicons users, creating your own icons in SVG should be simple- or they can download the SVG they want from somewhere.

There was a lot of reluctance from the developers in attendance, I think because we use those icons 🙂

We left off the discussion at this: for backwards compatibility it’ll be best to keep all dashicons in core. This may change as we move to implement this in core, it’ll depend how we handle backcompat.

Since we haven’t made any final decision, any extra discussion should happen on the github issue for grouping icons.

To Do

  • Note if/where icons are used on the google doc in this github issue.
  • Continue working on the mockup: refine the grunt tasks, browser test.

We’ll meet again next week, February 12, 2015 18:00 UTC.

#dashicons

Dashicons 1/29 Notes

Slack Archive

We discussed:

  • Merged the grunt task pull request.
  • Dropped in SVG For Everybody for IE support, works out-of-the-box for IE9+
  • IE7-8 will use PNG fallbacks, and we recommend just 2 color sets, a light and dark.
  • Subsetting Dashicons into groups based on use(?), ongoing discussion will take place on Github.
  • We also touched on creating new icons for 4.2, but new icons are not a priority

To do:

  • @ryelle will update the repo to use SVG For Everybody.
  • @michael-arestad‘s going to work on the grunt tasks; and rename the pngs as needed.
  • Once those things are done, anyone can work on browser testing 🙂

There’s also been work on the Dashicons style guide, so check that out & leave comments.

We’ll meet again next week, February 5, 2015 18:00 UTC.

#dashicons

Dashicons 1/22 notes

Slack Archive

We discussed:

To do:

  • AnyoneCheck out the PR & leave any feedback.
  • @michael-arestad‘s going to keep tweaking the tasks – there are some things we don’t need, and can do in other ways. Also looking into alternatives that don’t generate a billion pngs.
  • Anyone: Leave any suggestions/resources/questions for the style guide as comments on that page.

We’ll meet again next week, January 29, 2015 18:00 UTC .

#dashicons

Dashicons meeting notes

Slack Archive

The current goal is to move away from Dashicons as a web font and use an SVG sprite instead. This will be easier to contribute to, and easier to manage.

We discussed:

  • There’s a mockup on GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ for anyone who wants to contribute, which still needs more work: https://github.com/ryelle/WP-Dashboard-SVG
  • The process for generating svgs: most vector editors support svg, so you can create/edit them directly. We want to stay with using Grunt to create the SVGs, and avoid using a 3rd party service.
  • A style guide for making new Dashicons.

To do:

  • The mockup still needs work for browser compat – @michael-arestad will add grunt tasks for optimization & fallback PNGs, @ryelle will work on the JS support for IE.
  • Style Guide for icons, as a page on make.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org//design, following training’s example. @melchoyce, @empireoflight & @liljimmi seemed most interested 🙂
  • Potentially create a walkthrough for creating/editing vectors in various programs (Illustrator, Inkscape, etc).

We’ll meet again next week, January 22, 2015 18:00 UTC .

#dashicons

The Future of Dashicons

During the WordPress Community Day following WCSF, a group of us (@ryelle, @empireoflight, @michael-arestad, @liljimmi — am I missing anyone? Maybe @markjaquith was there?) got together and discussed the future of Dashicons. Here are the notes from that meeting:

Icon font, or SVG?

Inline SVG vs Icon Fonts [CAGEMATCH]

Pros:

  • SVGs better rendered in browsers
  • Easier to maintain
  • The grunt process would be in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., so anyone can do it

Cons:

  • Different steps of building
  • Drop icon (svg) into folder, run grunt
  • IE9,10,11 don’t support external svgs
  • JS library fallback
  • Originally this was a font due to IE8
  • grunt would compile light/dark pngs
  • Modernizr or hacky thing to add a class

What’s the process for the new font?

  • Icons are all 1 .ai, each as a layer or artboard, exported to SVG
  • Or shortcut to SVGs
  • Grunt compiles a folder of SVGs to generate png, css, etc.
  • Optimize SVG
  • Grunticon to create pngs-> can be different colors
  • Combine SVGs into sprite
  • Pulled into core

How to BackCompat?

  • Old fonticons would use .dashicons, new would use .dashicon
  • Enqueue old font for a while
  • Check JS to see if anyone’s using old font

Steps

  • We already have the folder of SVGs
  • Micheal going to Gruntfile
  • Ben use this process for Palm Tree, Tracy bringing in things that missed 4.0
  • Upload SVG to a ticket
  • Stay on the 20×20 grid, for consistency
  • Official guidelines and template (Mel)
  • Style guide!
    • Redirect to dev hub
  • Blog: where we’re going, pros and cons, btw demo page.

Purpose of Dashicons?

How far are we going? Everything ever?

  • No new third party icons
  • Keep small as possible, things are hard to remove
  • Keep focus on wordpress admin
  • Approval process for icons
  • Ben is best for stylistics, but whether the icon belongs is democratic

Following the meeting, we redirected the githubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ resource to Dashicon’s new official home at developer.wordpress.org/resource/dashicons/.

Next up, we’ll want to start having meetings to get this process rolling. @ryelle has agreed to lead meetings, and has a preliminary mockup for the new process that we can talk about at our first meeting, which will take place some time during the week of the 12th-16th. What day/time works best for people?

#dashicons

Discussing Genericons and Dashicons with Ipstenu and George…

Discussing Genericons and Dashicons with Ipstenu and George Stephanis at WCSF Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/., and wanted to bring this up for more discussion.

See also #24864.

Proposal: could we merge the two icon sets and have it be included in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.?

A few things to consider:

  • We’d have only one icon source to update.
  • There’s already enough overlap. (But, would Genericons users want the extra icons?)
  • Bundling in core will mean fewer themes and plugins needing to maintaining their own version.
  • Would this bottleneck maintaining the icon source over time? If it’s tied to core development cycle it’d be slower to iterate.

#dashicons, #genericons, #icons