Making Your Own Custom Icons for Scrivener
Because, Why Not?
The process of creating, naming and adding custom icons is outlined here, in case it is of use to fellow scriveners. I include some links to useful resources for making your own versions and have also made my first sets available (for free) as ‘icon packs’, downloadable via Gumroad, for anyone who would prefer to make use of the ones I created through my first experiments.
Having recently completed a big writing project over long hours, I still see an echo of the screen set-up, even when I close my eyes. Over the past few years, I have been using Scrivener for all kinds of writing and research work, and it is that familiar window that seems to be etched into my mind.
To change-up the view, I decided to try customising the workspace. As I use Scrivener for its simple writing functionality, I didn’t want to make any major alterations. So, beyond appearance settings (font, spacing, colours), I decided to introduce some new icons that would support the way that I write.
Issues with icons
My writing projects have involved long and messy drafts, and Scrivener has been a great tool for breaking them up to view and edit. I have relied on the icons to help organise the structure and provide ‘wayfinding’ points within the full draft and research materials.
The in-built icons work well but have some limitations (or I am just icon-greedy). Once the more generic notebook icons were used-up, I moved on to individual glyphs, such as the test tube or musical note. They seem to have been created for various interesting purposes, but it can feel like coopting a set of Monopoly characters to represent different aspects of my working draft. Flags might identify the sections, notebooks marking different levels within, and clouds and cogs drafted in to indicate thoughts and notes. It has provided a working form of notation and orientation but eventually looked a bit of a ‘dog’s breakfast’. Fortunately, Scrivener is set up to incorporate ‘custom’ icons by the user.
The Plan
I aimed to add sets of icons that would work together and especially wanted some new folder references. As well as just experimenting with icon possibilities, I was interested in making use of colour to tie together groupings of information, sections and themes within writing drafts.
The Process
In planning the process, a couple of limitations guided the icon design:
- The ‘icon space’ in the Scrivener Binder is relatively small, so fine or detailed images (such as those produced for mobile phones, websites etc.) are less visible. While emojis or text can be used to create icons within the Icon Manager, I found that these are too small to function well on my high-resolution screen. For my purposes, I needed to create simple icons that would make maximum use of available pixels and the 1:1 ratio.
- For icon colours to work with the Dark Mode setting (kinder on my eyes over late-night writing hours), stronger and brighter colours were more successful, as subtle and muted shades became lost in the background.
Icon Making
Testing out various forms, basic shapes worked best to function as ‘wayfinders’, to differentiate groups, and highlight specific content visually. Clean, simple graphics were found that fit within the square format required. A number of free icon-generating applications can be accessed online. Many have lovely but detailed images. I found that Icon Packs had some useful simple icons that could be customised, recoloured and exported from inside the site — with all-important transparent background, which helped with some versions. So long as the images are clean, size doesn’t seem too ‘mission critical’, as Scrivener resizes the icon to fit. General advice is to aim for around 100 px square. Mine were bigger than that but work fine. I just tested them as I went along.
Colour was an important component. I wanted to create a set of colours that were easy to differentiate but also functioned in groupings. A bit of experimentation was needed to try out the colours in the Binder.
It was only after this process that I found some resources that would have made this process easier, so have included a couple that I plan to come back to. The highly searchable colour reference resource at Codepen (see image 2) shows an enormous range of colours (against a dark background) along with their reference number, which can then be used to recolour images in many software applications. (In Icon Packs, for example, this can be done by simply typing the number into the Customize Icon>Colors window.) I enjoyed browsing through the colour listings, with names that sometimes suggest intriguing origin stories (and might opt for ‘aggressive salmon’ next time). The website Coolers also offers a huge range of colour references along with pre-made groupings as palettes (it can take a while to load).
Icon Naming
It became clear that file naming plays a role in how the icons are displayed and grouped within the Icon Menu. To arrange sets of icons together as drop-down lists, Scrivener uses the naming structure “Category (Icon Name)”. I gave each file a name based on shape, colour label and colour number. One example is “Circle (7-Glass).png”. This results in the icon being grouped as a sub-menu with other “Circle” category icons and the label displayed as “7-Glass” (image 1 shows the menu labels). The number orders the files in the menu and helps me as a reference in selecting the icon in use.
Icon Installation and Use
On the Mac, you can install the icons by right-clicking (or ctrl-click) an item in the Binder and selecting Change Icon, then scrolling to the top of the Icon List, where you will find the Manage Custom Icons option. Selecting this will bring up the Icon Manager window (see image 4). Alternatively, from the top menu, you can select Documents > Change Icon to bring up the Icon List to access the Icon Manager.
Here you can add single or multiple icons (click the + and navigate to the files on your computer). I added mine to the bottom pane, which made them available to all Scrivener projects on my machine. The top pane limits their use to the current project. The pane you choose also has implications for sharing across devices and collaborators. Specific issues are detailed in the Scrivener User Manual (section 7.4), which I recommend as a reference to prevent or resolve any frustrations depending on your individual set-up and requirements.
Icon Pack Download
My custom icons will not suit everyone’s tastes or needs, as these were created for my own use. They are less elegant than the smaller, consistent white document icons produced by Scrivener, and yes — in a throwback to the joys of schoolbook stickers — there are hearts … and stars. If this is your sort of thing, this ‘icon pack’ version can also be downloaded (for free — having been assembled from online resources) via Gumroad.
Pros and cons
I can’t deny that I have enjoyed using this first set (a good self-bribe to get writing). The larger simple shapes can be clearly seen in the Binder in Dark Mode, and the colour groups offer a broader range.
Overall, it was more of a faff than I had envisaged. It’s not rocket science, but different aspects had to be considered. It should be much easier next time, and I am already thinking about the next ones, trying out some of those different colour palettes.
