Retina Smilies

[miqrogroove]

in wp-includes/images/smilies

All of these resources are low-dpi. They should be available in high-dpi as well for the sake of retina plugins.

See #21019

[GhostToast]

I wonder if this might be something worth handling with an icon font eventually?

[dd32]

Replying to GhostToast:

I wonder if this might be something worth handling with an icon font eventually?

It may be an option at some point, unfortunately right now Icon fonts are limited to 1 colour (the stroke colour) unless you use some fancy overlaying techniques to layer up the different colours.

generally our smilies at present need 2 colours in addition to the transparent back.

[Ipstenu]

WordPress.com beat us to the punch: ​http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/new-emoticons/

I for one welcome our new smiley overlords.

[quicoto]

Replying to Ipstenu:

WordPress.com beat us to the punch: ​http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/new-emoticons/

I for one welcome our new smiley overlords.

I was going to post the same link.

Is this something we could consider for core? We really need to update the current emoticons and the one's form WP.com look great.

[iseulde]

They're cute.

[iseulde]

This is the full set:

[navjotjsingh]

+1 for including them in the core.

[Otto42]

-100 for including them in core. I love my existing smilies and will not be changing them.

If you want to include them as an option and thus add a new configuration setting, sure. But changing the actual content of my site to something else will draw my ire same as it did when you tried it before.

Nothing personal, but these are just as bad as the last time this was attempted. They look *wrong*.

[quicoto]

Replying to Otto42:

-100 for including them in core. I love my existing smilies and will not be changing them.

If you want to include them as an option and thus add a new configuration setting, sure. But changing the actual content of my site to something else will draw my ire same as it did when you tried it before.

Nothing personal, but these are just as bad as the last time this was attempted. They look *wrong*.

At least they don't look blurry on retina devices!

[Otto42]

Replying to quicoto:

At least they don't look blurry on retina devices!

So stick them in Jetpack. Or a plugin. Or anything where I don't have to use them.

What I don't want is for you to put them in core and thus arbitrarily rewrite the last X years of existing posts I already have to have these hideous new things instead.

Respect the content, respect the history.

[Ipstenu]

We didn't with capital_p_dangit().

And you can make a plugin to flip them back. Putting them in Jetpack, and only jetpack, however, puts an onus on people to install a rather large plugin they may not want nor need.

The reverse is true here, you can have a plugin to continue to use the old ones.

[Otto42]

Replying to Ipstenu:

We didn't with capital_p_dangit().

And look how many people still complain about that to this day...

And you can make a plugin to flip them back. Putting them in Jetpack, and only jetpack, however, puts an onus on people to install a rather large plugin they may not want nor need.

The reverse is true here, you can have a plugin to continue to use the old ones.

Which is of course exactly what I'll do, because I'm perfectly capable of writing such a plugin, and I started doing just that the last time this was attempted in core. Never finished because the change was reverted, but still.

If this upsets me, don't you think some other people will be upset too? Seems to me that we're going down this bad road a bit too often. The content should remain the same no matter what happens to core.

Like it or not, those smilies are content. If you're going to change them, you need to make sure you don't change them on existing content without permission. That tends to tick people off. Also, backwards compatibility and all that.

[nacin]

There are a few facts of the matter. First, these smilies were commissioned by Matt, a co-founder of the WordPress open source project, and designed by Joen, who worked on these in his capacity as an employee of Automattic but is also an established contributing designer to the WordPress open source project. The designer who has been designing icons for WordPress since 2008 is now in possession of these files, and knowing him, he'll probably end up making a few minor adjustments. (They both can also create more, and toy with variants, etc.)

Another fact is that WordPress would benefit from HiDPI smilies. We would also benefit from shipping smilies that were designed in the last decade. But the fact is, there's a lot of existing buy-in for something to change here. These smilies, if nothing else, provide a strong starting base.

Let's not turn this ticket into a war over the subjective opinions of the design of any particular emoticon. And let's especially not turn this ticket into a non sequitur war over sanctity of content. Also, it really doesn't matter whether it is or isn't in Jetpack by WordPress.com, or in Example Plugin by example.com, or anywhere else, or how where it is or where it is not affects the ability for users to use them if they wanted. None of those arguments really matter in the end for what WordPress core should do. How we decide whether to include these, or some other smiley design, is not really going to be influenced by any of this.

[Otto42]

What WordPress core should do is to not mess with my content. Not now, not ever. it was not cool in #10145 and it's not cool now.

But given that it appears that the tide has finally turned against me and this is likely going to occur at some point in the future, then I'll just have to take future proofing steps to prevent that.

So that plugin I started writing in 2009 when this issue first cropped up has now been created and uploaded.

​https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-smilies

It seems that to prevent core from stepping on my content, I now have no choice but to run preventative-measure plugins like these. And that's just a darned shame, in my opinion.

[mercime]

+1 for using SVG with .png fallback support for new emoticons ​http://filamentgroup.com/lab/grunticon

I think though that the background should be lighter for better contrast because even with 20/20 vision, I had to squint and move closer to the monitor to check out the difference between the 1st and 3rd emoticon posted above. Someone from WordPress Accessible Team should check this out.

[knutsp]

Only on content published after the release date of this ticket's fixed milestone?

WordPress needs to move forward, and old content needs to preserved as is.

[Viper007Bond]

Smilies are a lot like themes -- they'll never please everyone and not everyone will want the set of smilies. Thankfully it's easy to replace them with smilies.

When you switch themes, do your old posts keep using the old theme that was in use when you wrote the post? No, not unless you're using a plugin.

Core should just make the switch and be done with it. Plugins can come along and handle other cases (different smilies, old smilies on old posts, etc.).

[philiparthurmoore]

Some of the emoticons are very hard to differentiate at the moment or convey an appropriate emotion.

↑ The winking doesn't look like winking; it looks like a malformed, squished normal smilie eye.

↑ Big smile, LOL, and evil grin all look so similar, especially LOL and evil grin, which have different meanings. All I see is teeth.

↑ This doesn't look surprised. It looks upset/sad.

↑ The lips overshadow the tears on this cry emoticon. I would never assume this means crying.

↑ Angry and oops/embarrassed are really close to each other visually; the meaning is lost. And the blush can't really be seen on the second emoticon.

↑ The eyeballs look grainy here.

↑ Doesn't look like a drink; looks like sand. I know Joen loves White Russians, though - we gotta keep this one in! ;) Maybe adjust the shape of the glass?

All in all, the traditional smilies that we've come to understand and love online seem to need a fair amount of work to make them more immediately understandable in meaning. The newer, non-recognized smilies like the burrito, WordPress logo, bear, martini, etc. all are very easy to understand because no precedent has already been set. (This is feedback from my eyes; your mileage may vary.)

If there's a way we can improve upon this current set that leans closer in meaning to the old set then I'd love to see these in core. Sooner or later the old, grainy smilies will go - why not take this first set and improve it?

[philiparthurmoore]

Another thought: for the crying, it looks like a woman. I am a man and do not think I would choose this to convey my faux-tears online. If there's a way we can make sure that the more emotive emoticons are gender-neutral or ambiguous that would be nice.

[miqrogroove]

Resolved by emoji in 4.2.