Difference between revisions of "Icon Font"

Revision as of 12:42, 7 October 2020

UBIK-Standard.ttf is a custom set of font icons developed primarily for use on the Xamarin Client, due to concerns over the legality of using Microsoft's Segoe MDL2 Assets icon font file on non-Windows platforms (ie. Android and iOS). Apart from this legal concern, having a standardized font icon set will contribute to having a more consistent look across the various platforms and clients as UBIK-Standard.ttf becomes more widely adopted.

The latest font set can be downloaded directly from here using the UBIK-Standard.zip file.

UBIK-Standard is an Icon Font. For Xamarin, the standard Text Font is Inter, which is included in the resources and thus available to use immediately.

UBIK-Standard is currently only supported for the Xamarin client.

Creation

The process for creating icons is documented here.

Step 01: Asset Creation

The first step is to find similar, open-source icons to tweak. Pixeden, LineIcons, or LineA, are good starting points, as they have a similar style.

When tweaking (for example, in Adobe Illustrator), use a stroke width of 3 for the base line thickness.

It is good practice to produce three sets of .SVGs; a stroke version, an expanded version, and a final version. The stroke version is more easily edited, but the lines must be 'expanded' in Illustrator to be imported as icons. Finally, duplicate the expanded version, and name it using the following syntax: 001#ubik-U0x26

• The first number is used to keep the icon list orderly.
• Add as many tags as desired using the # as separators. For example, a check mark icon may be listed as #ok#confirm#check. The - ends the tag portion of the syntax.
• The glyph code assigns the icon to a certain space on the character map. As different device vendors block different glyph code sets for different uses, it is good practice to overwrite the basic alphabet, numbers, and symbols, to ensure the icons work on a large range of devices. Starting from 21, glyph codes may use numbers, or letters from 2A (2 here being an example) to 2F.

Step 02: TTF Generation

IcoMoon is a useful online tool for generating the icon font, that can then be installed on a device or packaged into the client resources.

• Import Icons (top left) - Use this button to import an already existing font file, when creating additions, for example.
• On the Selection tab (bottom center), ensure that the desired set is fully selected, and shown with an orange outline.
• On the Generate Font tab (bottom right), double check the generated tags for the icons. The settings button beside the download button allows you to edit the font file name and version.
• The download button exports the .ttf, among other resources, in a .ZIP, that is then downloaded.

Usage

UBIK-Standard.ttf is currently only supported for the Xamarin client.

Xamarin Client

The first full version of the icon set was completed in September 2019. The tables on this page show the icons, along with a description of their intended purpose (some have multiple), and the natural language In-App Name, and Hex code suffix, both of which can be used to call the icons using XAML.

Using XAML, Glyphs can be called in two ways. One method is to use the Hex Code, and another is the In-App Name. Of these two methods, the recommended method is to use the In-App Name, as it uses a natural language attribute as opposed to a glyph code, making it more immediately apparent which icon is being requested by the code.

The two below examples show how one might use both methods to create a User symbol.

In-App Name Usage

In the below example, Glyph="{x:Static resources:UBIKIcons.User}" is used to call the User symbol.

Hex Code Usage

In the below example, the attribute Glyph= and the following Hex Code is used to call the User icon. These Hex codes can be found using a Character Map program, or by searching through the icon tables below.

Directly Accessing Icons

The icons can also be used like every other font by setting the FontFamily attribute. For example:

Icon Tables

WikiFormatting prevents the entire Hex Code from being displayed in the tables, so a space was used to break the glyph code. Please remove the space when using the Hex Codes from the table.

Basic Icons

Icon	Casual Name / Description	In-App Name	Hex Code
	Ubik - Scalable UBIK logo for use on the splash screen.	Ubik	&#x 26;
	Service - The customer profile.	Service	&#x 21;
	User	User	&#x 22;
	Password	Password	&#x 23;
	Log In	Login	&#x 24;
	Log Out	Logout	&#x 25;
	Navigation - Global navigation or Hamburger Button	Navigation	&#x 28;
	More Actions	Actions	&#x 29;
	Home	Home	&#x 2A;
	Scan	Scan	&#x 2B;
	POI - Included in update 1.1		&#x 2C;
	Settings	Settings	&#x 2D;
	Search	Search	&#x 2E;
	Map - Included in update 1.1		&#x 2F;
	Syncmode- - Automatic uploads and downloads	Online	&#x 30;
	Syncmode - Automatic downloads / manual uploads	Manual	&#x 31;
	Syncmode - No Automatic uploads or downloads	Offline	&#x 32;

Objects Pages / Tabs

Icon	Casual Name / Description	In-App Name	Hex Code
	Start / Objects / Children - Symbol used to signify an object hierarchy. Thus used after logging in as the Start symbol, as well as for the Children tab just under the object title in the Header.	Children, Start	&#x 4A;
	Properties - Used for Properties tab just under the object title in the Header.	Properties	&#x 4B;
	Documents - Used for Properties tab just under the object title in the Header.	Documents	&#x 4C;
	Document being Viewed - Used in place of the Children tab (first position) when a document is being viewed.	DocumentView	&#x 4D;

Child-Object Status Indicators

Icon	Casual Name / Description	In-App Name	Hex Code
	Uncommitted Changes - Used to show an item has alterations which have not yet been committed to the server (for example, in offline mode).	Changes	&#x 41;
	Uncommitted Changes / Variant - An alternate symbol for the usage. Currently, the small size that the icon is rendered at means that this image is too detailed for use on a child item in the above description.	ChangesAlt	&#x 40;
	Technical Alert - Use to show that one or more children within the branch have an active Technical Alert status.	Technical	&#x 43;
	Organizational Status: Ongoing - Used to show that one or more of the tasks underneath this object are still in progress.	OrgOngoing	&#x 44;
	Organizational Status: Complete - Used to show that all the tasks underneath this object have been completed, and the ORG Status has been confirmed.	OrgComplete	&#x 45;
	Downloaded - Used to show that a branch download has occurred, making this object available offline.	Downloaded	&#x 48;
	Downloaded An alternate symbol for the usage. Currently, the small size that the icon is rendered at means that this image is too detailed for use on a child item in the above description.	DownloadedAlt	&#x 46;
	Locked	Locked	&#x 47;
	Deleted- Indicates an as-yet uncommitted Deleted status (for example, in offline mode).	Deleted	&#x 52;

Properties

Icon	Casual Name / Description	In-App Name	Hex Code
	Online/Linked Document - Used to indicate strong signal, or as a base for the Ok and Bad signal icons.	OnlineDoc	&#x 66;
	Live Value Signal: Good	SignalGood	&#x 63;
	Live Value Signal: Ok	SignalOK	&#x 64;
	Live Value Signal: Ok	SignalBad	&#x 65;
	Read Only Property	PropReadOnly	&#x 60;
	Editable Property	PropEdit	&#x 61;
	Editable List	PropEditList	&#x 62;

Actions

Icon	Casual Name / Description	In-App Name	Hex Code
	Add - Generic icon for adding something.	Add	&#x 50;
	Add Photo	Photo	&#x 51;
	Delete- Indicates an as-yet uncommitted Deleted status (for example, in offline mode).	Delete, Deleted	&#x 52;
	Discard - Discard object from local database.	Discard, Cancel	&#x 53;
	Revert - Discard uncommitted changes.	Revert, Reset	&#x 54;
	Download - Action to trigger a Branch Download.	Download	&#x 55;
	Use Geo Location	UseLocation	&#x 56;

Editors

Icon	Casual Name / Description	In-App Name	Hex Code
	Confirm	Confirm, Check, Ok, TaskYes	&#x 57;
	Revert	Revert, Reset	&#x 54;
	Cancel - Exit editor without saving changes.	Cancel	&#x 53;
	GUID: Go To	GoTo, Right	&#x 5B;
	GUID: Edit	Edit	&#x 5C;
	GUID: Delete	Delete, Deleted	&#x 52;

Task Actions

Icon	Casual Name / Description	In-App Name	Hex Code
	Task Yes	Confirm, Check, Ok, TaskYes	&#x 57;
	Task No	Discard, Cancel	&#x 57;
	Task Finished	Confirm, Check, Ok, TaskYes	&#x 57;
	Task NA	Task NA	&#x 6A;

Generic Navigation

Icon	Casual Name / Description	In-App Name	Hex Code
	Right	Right, GoTo	&#x 5B;
	Left	Left	&#x 5D;
	Up	Up	&#x 5E;
	Down	Down	&#x 5F;

Additions / 2020-09-24

Icon	Casual Name / Description	In-App Name	Hex Code
	Good	Good, ThumbsUp	&#x 6B;
	Bad	Bad, ThumbsDown	&#x 6C;
	Indeterminate	GoodBad, Thumbs	&#x 6D;
	Map	Map	&#x 2C;
	POI	POI	&#x 2D;

Known Issues

Xamarin Client

The development of the custom icon font on the Xamarin client was hampered significantly by unexpected icon substitutions, which appeared to be vendor/device-specific. To avoid this issue, the individual icons in the text file were mapped to the Hex codes used by the most basic alphabet and symbol characters.

A second issue was encountered where using unstable behavior was observed when using UBIK-Standard.ttf for icons when the user switched tabs, leaving UBIK running in the background. In these cases, circular icon containers became square when switching back to the app, and the icon glyphs were no longer visible. However, using the GlyphButton and GlyphLabel elements (as opposed to simply Button and Label) seems to prevent this issue.