Feed Icon Guidelines
- Established by Mozilla Foundation.
Previous versions of the Mozilla Firefox web browser introduced
a new feed icon
; (also known as the RSS icon
) used
in association with open
web syndication
formats such as
RSS
and
Atom:
The Mozilla Foundation has made these icons freely available for use by others; this document contains suggested guidelines for use of the icons, and is published and maintained by the Mozilla Foundation as a service to
- the community of individuals and organizations wishing to use the feed icon in connection with their own products and services and
- members of the general public who use those products and services and rely on the standard meaning of the feed icon as indicating the use of open web syndication formats.
Using the Feed Icon
The feed icon is freely available for general use in connection with web feeds using open web syndication formats, without the need to enter into a trademark license agreement or similar legal arrangement. Note that these guidelines are not legally binding.
However if you
- create and distribute software or hardware for the purposes of reading or manipulating web feeds;
- provide an online service for equivalent purposes; or
- provide or offer related goods or services (e.g., consulting or systems integration services)
and you wish to use this icon in connection with such goods or services then we request that you (or your authorized representative) make a public statement signifying your commitment to comply with these guidelines.
The following sections present the suggested guidelines; for more information see the accompanying FAQ.
Usage Guidelines
The feed icon should be used to indicate the presence of information provided via web syndication in an open format, including in particular the widely-used RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, and Atom 1.0 formats.
By web syndication
we mean a process in which content
items from a web site or other source (e.g., news stories or blog
posts or summaries thereof) are made available for other sites or
applications to use, typically using an
XML-based document format
transferred using the
HTTP protocol.
By open format
we mean a format that
is
- defined by a published specification
- free of legal restrictions on use, especially restrictions that would prevent the format from being implemented by free and open source software
- developed and/or maintained through an open process
The canonical use of the feed icon is on a web page containing information (such as blog posts, news articles, and so on) that is also made available via web syndication, with the icon linking to a URL for the web feed.
The feed icon may be used in other contexts that involve discovery, retrieval, reading, creation, or manipulation of information in open web syndication formats. For example, the icon may be used as (or incorporated as part of) a menu icon or toolbar icon invoking particular features of an application or online service that are related to open web syndication formats.
The feed icon (or confusingly-similar variants of it) should not be used in the following contexts:
- in relation to information that is not made available in open web syndication formats;
- as, or incorporated as part of, an application icon, a web site logo (including a favicon), or in any other way that would imply to a casual observer that the feed icon was exclusively or primarily associated with a particular application or web site; or
- as, or incorporated as part of, a trademark or service mark associated with a particular individual, organization, product, or service, or in any other way that would imply to a casual observer that the feed icon was exclusively or primarily associated with a particular individual, organization, product, or service.
Note that these guidelines are not intended to preclude in any way making fair use of the feed icon, including using the icon in connection with blog posts, news stories, magazine articles, books, television programs, movies, or other works discussing open web syndication formats or applications or web sites supporting such formats.
Visual Guidelines
The feed icon should be displayed in its entirety on either a solid light or dark background (avoid mid-tone or strongly colored backgrounds). The feed icon should not be displayed in parts or with other elements superimposed on top of the icon.
The feed icon should be displayed at a size that is both large enough to render it legible to its intended users and compatible with the size of any related text elements.
The feed icon may be displayed using the colors black and white in contexts where color reproduction is not possible. The feed icon may be used with the colors of the icon inverted (e.g., white used instead of orange and vice versa), as long as there is adequate contrast between the background and foreground colors.
When used as an element in a user interface (e.g., as a toolbar button) the feed icon should be displayed in a manner consistent with related UI elements and any applicable user interface standards (e.g., for the underlying operating system and/or window system).
The feed icon should not be displayed in modified forms inconsistent with the above guidelines or in ways that visually compromise the icon. In particular, the icon should not be displayed
- in a different orientation (i.e., rotated or flipped relative to the standard orientation)
- with the
rounded square
element of the icon replaced by a circle, triangle, or any shape other than that used on the original background - with the corners of the
rounded square
element of the icon made sharp rather than rounded.
Note that the above guidelines regarding size and color are not intended to restrict the ways in which the feed icon might be represented by assistive technologies designed for use by people with impaired vision. (Such technologies include software to magnify the contents of the screen and/or change screen colors, contrast, and brightness; alternative stylesheets for web sites; and the like.)
Note also that these guidelines are not intended to discourage other uses of the feed icon that conform to the overall spirit of these guidelines. Such cases include using different colors for the icon where appropriate (e.g., in matching a site theme) or using the icon in combination with other icons of a compatible style and nature (e.g., to identify the type of feed being offered). However in the interests of providing a consistent experience for users we suggest that providers of feed readers and related goods and services make minimum use of such alternative representations of the icon.