[OpenFontLibrary] Status report about the new OFLB

[Dave Crossland]

2009/1/1 Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com>:
>
> However, currently those icons are only useful in representing boolean
> states: "covered" or "not covered".
>
> Perhaps we can consider adding color to the icons.  I would propose
> having not more than 3 states:
>
>  1. Full Coverage
>  2. Partial Coverage -- more than 50%
>  3. Partial Coverage -- less than 50%
>
> (There is actually a 4th state, "No icon displayed at all" meaning "no
> coverage at all" for a given orthography).

Yes I think having 4 states is good, although perhaps the partial
folding should be higher - 80/20 perhaps - because a font with 55%
coverage is likely not much use, whereas 80% is more useful - and when
only 20% or less chars are missing, I guess that people will be more
inclined to 'finish off' the job :-)

> In terms of colors, we might initially think "Green--Yellow--Red" as
> used in traffic lights.  But as I am often reminded at the Kellogg Eye
> Center where I work, a significant percentage of the population,
> especially men, are red-green color blind. The rate is something like
> 8% of the male population.

I agree, and the blue-yellow scheme fits in with our current brand style.

>  1. Icon with BLUE                       background  -- FULL Coverage
>  2. Icon with YELLOW-ORANGE background  -- > 50% Coverage
>  3. Icon with GRAY                      background  -- < 50% Coverage

Your 'mixed for contrast' set is good to go IMO :-)

The listing feature that I mentioned is currently under development is
likely to use different shapes for different licenses - circle for
CC-PD, square for OFL, and triangle for GPL - and perhaps having blue
squares, grey triangles and yellow circles would be good... But
perhaps just colour differentiation is fine :-)

> We could even have tooltips so if you hover over the icon with the
> mouse, it could indicate the actual % coverage.

That would be great! :-)

> I've attached a quickly-done mockup of some icons.


-- 
Regards,
Dave

"Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers
and deluge the hobby market with good software."
- Bill Gates, 1976, in want of www.gnuherds.org