Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

When the Octocat Mark is rendered at any size less than 75x75 pixels, it's pretty much impossible to tell that the "tail" of the cat is actually a tentacle.

That's unfortunate, because on https://github.com/logos the only recommended use for the mark is in social buttons, which are going to be relatively small.

Even at larger sizes, the tentacle just seems tacked on.




Maybe that's OK: we know it's a tentacle, others can just blissfully think it's a tail.


See the home button in the upper left corner of the page. You don't see the suckers but it is recognizable. I don't think they're terribly worried about seeing those details.


Agree. They should have a guideline about using the cat at small sizes, or provide customized low-rez versions. I looked at it and thought it might have worked better if they ditched the suckers and just used multiple waving tentacles.


If you download the mark, it's a .zip including some smaller versions without suckers on the tentacle.


Exactly. Compare the logo in the blog post to the one in the masthead. And then go one step further and compare to the favicon (no tail there).

The small sizes don't have to convey that the tail is a tentacle, they just have to convey "GitHub".


There is a tail in the new favicon[0] It's also been the old logo[1]

[0] https://github.com/favicon.ico

[1] http://octodex.github.com/favicon.ico


Only at larger sizes. At the 16x16px version, there isn't anymore.


Yeah totally, when small it looks like its waving a hello




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: