Idea: Icon family preview

McKinley
1

I don’t remember where I’ve seen this, but it’s a very neat idea. In addition to the regular Preview window, it would be neat if there was a “Icon family preview” option as well.

So what this looked like is basically a grid of symbols with some nice spacing between them. And some of the symbols in the grid is the one that you’re currently editing. This allows you to see the symbol in relation to a whole symbol set. This makes it easier to check if it matches the tone or style you’re looking for, or if you accidentally deviated from it.

So for example, it’d show you a grid like this (0 are other, all different icons, and the 1 is the one you’re currently editing).

0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 1 0 0
1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 1 0 0 0

So what I think would be useful for this, is if you could pick from an icon family, such as Apple’s SF Symbols or Material Design and it would use a random assortment of those icons to intersperse your icon in.

Bonus ideas:

  • Icon properties match what you currently have selected for your own workspace.
  • Select a folder with your McKinsey files and it’ll use your own icon family!
  • Add a toggle for ‘Dim other icons’, so you can more easily spot your icon.
  • Select a category within the common icon sets, so the example icons are themed. For example, I could select ‘Weater’ if I’m currently making a sharknado symbol.
2

That’s a really good idea. Would you want any control over which other icons were used, or should it be random (or pre-set) from the set?

Also, are the icon sets I’ve got in the Symbol Browser (SF Symbols, Material, Iconify, Phosphor) enough or would there be some desire for custom ones?

Note that everything McKinley renders goes through the SF Symbols renderer, so the other sets would be being converted to SF Symbols behind the scenes — this probably wouldn’t be an issue unless you’re relying on the precise sizing of another renderer.

1 Like
3

Would you want any control over which other icons were used, or should it be random (or pre-set) from the set?

Probably not. I’d be happy with a random set from whatever set I choose. Maybe I’d want to hit a button and refresh to other random icons and shuffle the positions of the currently working icon.

Also, are the icon sets I’ve got in the Symbol Browser (SF Symbols, Material, Iconify, Phosphor) enough or would there be some desire for custom ones?

Plenty for me. Just the idea to select your own folder of McKinsey files would be great.

Note that everything McKinley renders goes through the SF Symbols renderer, so the other sets would be being converted to SF Symbols behind the scenes — this probably wouldn’t be an issue unless you’re relying on the precise sizing of another renderer.

This probably shouldn’t be a problem? It might make the feature less useful if the relative size to type of your icon differs greatly. But you should probably get something like this live and hear the feedback before trying to optimize further.