Discussion: Recent Changes in Material Icons in VS Code

[devferx]

I've been using "Material Icons" in my VS Code since I started web development, and recently I noticed some quite drastic changes in the icons. For example, the Node.js icon used to have softened and less pronounced edges in the original version, but now it has very defined corners, which feels uncomfortable after having used it for so long. I'd like to understand the reason behind this change and if there's any way to revert it.

Previus	Current

❤️ Thank you for taking the time to read the issue

[PKief]

In the past, there have been requests because the icons are too blurry (e.g. #1310). I have also thought a lot about this and @lucas-labs has taken a lot of time to make the existing icons sharper. Many icons are much easier to recognize in the small display of the editor, as they are displayed in a 16x16 grid.

Feel free to take a look at the description from this ticket and you will immediately notice the difference. Even if perhaps one or the other icon looks slightly different, in my view, this change was definitely worth it.

The icon for the JSON file has also been adjusted, as the previous one was a bit too large and did not fit in so well. I also struggled for a long time to change it, however, it has always bothered me a bit how it looked. The new icon was taken from Google's Material Symbols (reference) and fits better with the other icons.

In case it's bothering you completely, VS Code provides you the option of installing an earlier version of the Material Icon Theme (install a version below 5.0.0) and you'll still have the old icons.

In any case, thanks for the question and thanks for using this extension. I'm always happy of hearing feedback 🙂

[devferx]

❤️ Thank you for taking the time to explain the changes and considerations behind the icon updates. It's great to hear about the effort put into improving the sharpness and consistency of the icon pack. I completely understand the decisions behind these adjustments.

The dedication to this project is admirable, and I sincerely wish the best for the extension. I'm excited to see how it continues to evolve and how these changes benefit the community. Thanks again for your hard work and for constantly improving the development experience for all of us! 👏🚀

[lucas-labs]

Btw, I'm open to work on changes on any of the icons I've modified. So, if you have any suggestions, feel free to tell me.

I made these changes initially in a custom fork we use at work where we added many icons that are very specific to our team and our projects. But since the icons we created were pixel-perfect at 16px, they seemed like they didn't fit in with the rest. So I decided to take a few days and try to make all the icons pixel perfect. Some changes were simple and almost imperceptible beyond looking 'sharper' but in other cases, I made some highly opinionated decisions that I understand some may like and others may not (even with some of the decisions I made, I'm not 100% happy myself, as in the case of the Golang icon, which we modified a few days ago).

Therefore, I'm available to try to improve the designs, just @ me =)

Cheers!

[devferx]

❤️ Thanks for the willingness to continue improving the icon designs. It's great to know that this repository is open to suggestions and willing to work on additional changes.

Once I read the post of @PKief I completely understand the change, if there are any suggestions from me, I will let you know through a GitHub discussion, thank you very much for the hard work to improve the icons, it really is a worthwhile change 🚀