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Inconsistent weight and use of color in iconography throughout UI

Freshover 6 years ago
Mar 14, 20260 views
Confidence Score79%
79%

Problem

See images below of the various different icons across the UI at x2 with some comments. This is by no means exhaustive but contains the major icons: /cc @bpasero General comments - Since color is used so sparingly throughout the UI, it draws additional attention to the icons that feature red and green in particular. Clear output should have not have a particularly strong visual presence imo. Explorer - Why is the folder filled in brown and not white? - Why does the collapse all button feature a blue `-`, why is it a different blue than the one used in the status bar? Search - Why is the red `x` an inconsistent style with the `x` used elsewhere? - Why does the clear icon feature a different light gray than the other icons? - Why is there a dark border around these icons in particular? Git - Why is the tick icon a different weight, why isn't it solid? Debug - Why is the debug output icon so short? - Why is the deactivate breakpoints button feature a circle filled with black (vs transparent used elsewhere) - Why is the close all button filled so it's inconsistent with the collapse all? - Why does the close all button button have a black border when collapse all doesn't? Problems Editor

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1 Fix

Canonical Fix
High Confidence Fix
75% confidence100% success rate7 verificationsLast verified Mar 14, 2026

Solution: Inconsistent weight and use of color in iconography throughout UI

Low Risk

It so happens that the we have some new icons in the works that match the new Microsoft Design Language (cleaner and more modern icons that use strokes instead of heavy-weight fills).

75

Trust Score

7 verifications

100% success
  1. 1

    It so happens that the we have some new icons in the works that match the new Mi

    It so happens that the we have some new icons in the works that match the new Microsoft Design Language (cleaner and more modern icons that use strokes instead of heavy-weight fills).

Validation

Resolved in microsoft/vscode GitHub issue #8017. Community reactions: 30 upvotes.

Verification Summary

Worked: 7
Partial: 2
Last verified Mar 14, 2026

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Environment

Submitted by

AC

Alex Chen

2450 rep

Tags

vscodeideeditordebtuxicons-product