I agree that 16 is not enough to design correct icons but 256 colors could be enough. pereahs the best is to allow gif files for icon should be a solution so that we not use Notes icon editor.

There are plans to allow an image resource as the database image. They ran out of time for getting this into 8 and addressing the backwards compatibility issues. I don't know whether this is planned for 8.0.1 or not, but it is on the list.

I talked to Mary Beth about that at the last Lotusphere. I actually had an idea about how to solve the backwards compatibility issue. But I can understand if they wanted to get more important features in instead. :-)
My solution would be to have a second icon for 24-bit icons (perhaps bigger than 32x32 pixel as well?).
Here is how it would work (let's assume they put it in version 8.5):
* If client < 8.5 : display existing icon
* If client >= 8.5 and new icon is blank: display old icon
* If client >= 8.5 and new icon is not blank: display new icon

When you save/close the new icon, you get a question if you want to copy a 16 color version to the old icon. Or you could have a button in the editor to clone it. Or why not have a combined editor, where you can edit the 24-bit icon as well and the 16 color icon side-by-side? Add a "clone" button, or "transfer" button to copy between the two icons.

... and a (small, if need be,) icon library with cool, professional images to pick up and use/modify.

Eye candy is important. How many times have experienced that a very feature-rick application is dismissed on looks alone.

I think IdeaJam is a great example of getting the balance of functionality and look right.

I cannot believe I am actually agreeing with Mika on something:-)

There is a state of the art in icons and Notes should adhere to it, of course. That it has gone this long with 16-color icons is ridiculous, and extremely frustrating when you create beautiful 3-d icons that render horribly in 16 colors. It's like have a beautiful home and inviting the neighbors over, but instead of an ornate carved-wood door, the first thing they see a cheesy beaded curtain that last looked cool before the Brady Bunch was in reruns.

Doing something along the lines of what Karl-Henry suggests seems the most logical course. I would add that those "other" things the current icon design element does, such as storing db title, template names, etc., should also be brought into a more logical place. As a fallback for presenting a "Notes 8+" db on an older client, a default 16-color Notes logo could be shown unless the designer explicitly chose a different "Pre-Notes 8 Icon" (which might be the new design element name).
- For

100% I agree... a 16 color icon let looks my applications very old :(

I think that Mary-Beth Raven is considering a complete make-over of the workspace in a future version of Notes 8. Not only you want nice icons but you also want to be able to drag files onto your workspace of bookmarks, don't we ?

I thought I saw this demoed as part of RNext in 2002. Was I dreaming, or was this feature taken out before Notes 6 was released?

Maybe allow to choose an image resource as icon?

Why not start using SVG as well? This means work space icons and bookmark/side bars use the same icons but the fidelity is retained.

Aw, come on guys! Every time I edit an icon in Notes it brings me right back to 1994 when I started developing on V3. Good times... Seriously, that editor is due for some love. Maybe a surprise in 8.0.1? :-)

I agree with Jim that there's something nicely retro about editing the 16 colour icon right there in the client! But... I was looking at a Workspace here in the office the other day, and the Notes UI is in serious need of work. The ability to specify an image resource as the icon would be a start. A PNG filter wouldn't hurt either!

instead of doing just supporting more colors, the suggestion for ico files is very awesome at it allows cross platform (mac / linux) and suddenly there are MANY icons already done for us that we just have to browse on icon sites.

Its time to leave the windows 3.1 era icons in the past.

I agree with using the W3C web "standard" method for providing an icon for a Notes application, as a design element with the rel="icon" property. The GUI would specify a notes image resource that would easily translate into the "favicon.ico" in the default frameset's automatically generated header HTML. This should allow the designer to specify a image resource icon for any design element too(i.e. document, frameset). This way the client could show a different icon for an open document or whatever... More info: { Link }

I also want multi skins available that I can apply to my Notes client

I've installed 8.0.2 last week or so and the icons are pretty much the same as they have always been. Shame 8.0.x promises and delivers much, but we still have windows 3.1 style icons.

yes! yes! yes! 16-color icons? That's not even funny. Even 8-bit icons would be retro, but would be a huge improvement.
For backward compatibility, keep the old icon resource for Db name, etc, but just make a new resource type for the new icons.

also support this related idea:

{ Link }

The 16-color Notes DB Icon a seriously embarrassing limitation that takes all the steam out of a conversation about how "modern" Notes is now. From the standpoint of trying to convince folks who long ago concluded that Notes is legacy 1990s software, showing essentially the same old workspace full of crap icons is killer (and not in a good way). Better graphic support throughout is important, but the db/app icons are currently a huge lost opportunity to make a brilliant "first impression" on such folks (to say nothing of fodder for criticism from MS).

We shouldn't have to apologize for anything about the product, and lingering things like db icons, the dated workspace (I love the workspace, but it's too rigid for 2009), the flaky replicator page, and various 64KB limits hinder my willingness to reintroduce Notes to those who have written it off. I fear losing them for another 5 years if they notice the key things like this that *haven't* changed in the last 15.

Oh, and we haven't even talked about the impression this "feature" makes on new developers, who probably see how limited their icon choices are and wonder if this is a platform they should invest time in.

Also, **GO VOTE** for this related idea about general graphic support in the Notes client: { Link }

I'd like the database icon to be a "computed image resource"...very flexible. Of course, there would be a regular database icon for backward compatibility, storing the dbtitle, etc. If it's too difficult to support all the image formats in a database icon, you could limit it to ICO formats only. Or maybe, PNG and ICO.

UI is KING - we recently applied a common UI to all our applications, we spent loads of time defining standard fonts, sizes, colours, view twisties (+-), icons in views, curved buttons, action bar backgrounds, tabbed tables in forms, standards for embedded views, navigation fonts & graphics etc.

Our users think we're using new apps, the learning curve has been shortened for new users. The applications all feel more integrated. Its all win win win.

Is such a shame the entry point to our apps is via a low resolution graphic.

I got a feeling that we won't see this 24-bit icon workspace, database icon, etc until Notes 9.

Its a shame that the #1 idea on ideajam for Domino Designer has yet to be implemented by IBM. I doubt that development effort for this is likely to consume their collective efforts for any single point release.

I believe I heard at LS10 that this feature would be part of the next maintenance release of Notes (yey)

This is supposedly coming in 8.5.2 according to Mary Beth's blog, though maybe not for roaming.