Bug 376809

Summary:	Icon request: status icon for marking "default" item in a list & action icon "Set As Default"
Product:	[Plasma] Breeze	Reporter:	Friedrich W. H. Kossebau <kossebau>
Component:	Icons	Assignee:	visual-design
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal	CC:	kainz.a, nate, stephen
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	5.9.0
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Friedrich W. H. Kossebau 2017-02-22 16:08:39 UTC

Given a list of items with the property to have one item in the list being the default one for selecting an item from this list:

when editing this list including which item will be the default one, it would be nice to have a generic symbolic icon which denotes the state of being the default item from the list. Which could be shown with the directly with the item as a decorator. This would avoid having to use a text "Default" or some other non-unique mark up to denote that state directly on the item in the list presentation.
"list-default" or "list-default-symbolic" might be a proper name.

Next, the UI often has a button to set the currently selected item in the list to be the default item, with a button text like "Set As Default". For this action it might be nice to have an action icon as well, which could be used with the text or, when needed, instead of the text.
"list-set-as-default" might be a proper icon name.

Example: 
In Konsole, open Settings > Configure Konsole..., Tab Profile
The item being the default one here is printed with a bold name.

"starred-symbolic" as state icon serves almost the purpose by look and name semantics, but it would be better to have something which includes the exclusiveness, given there is only one default item.
"preferences-desktop-default-applications" is from the application category, but very related.

Comment 1 Stephen Brandt 2017-07-11 12:24:57 UTC

Sounds like bug 382234 might be what you seek.

Comment 2 Friedrich W. H. Kossebau 2017-07-11 12:50:54 UTC

Interesting hint, thanks.

Not sure though if using an emblem icon is not rather abusing such icon types, as they seem to be intended to be used as overlays, not as stand-alone icons. Something which also is reflected in style and shape, which IMHO can be also seen in the Adwaita example, the icon sticks out at least if used for the action button (the example also hints that a tick-off symbol is not the best, unless reusing people's Win/Mac UI memory, given with the check-boxes we have the symbol now 2x in the UI for different meanings, not perfect :) ).

Then the current definition in the spec says for "Emblems Icons":
"
for tags and properties of files, that are displayed in the file manager. This context contains emblems for such things as “read-only” or “photos”.
"
(see https://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html#context )

While "files" and "file manager" surely could be extended into "objects" and "object managers", so using as overlay on list items might still be covered by this, when it comes to menu actions this runs chance for visual issues. So having a separately designed action icon still would be good to have.

Comment 3 Stephen Brandt 2017-07-11 13:37:57 UTC

I agree that a separate action icon would be better in this case. But I also think this would mean a new name should be added to the "Standard Action Icons" spec [1] in the first place, so that all major icons themes would (hopefully) follow, instead of a having one-off icon in Breeze exclusively...

[1] https://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html#actions

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2019-10-30 22:15:46 UTC

We've been using star-style icons for this in plasma-pa. For example, starred-symbolic and non-starred-symbolic. Those seem sensible enough to use here.