# Is every icon unique? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 2, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100 "2020-08-02T17:32:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/21 "2021-05-16T23:21:36Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I always thought Discourse and other sites with generically created user icons should do a better job at generating icons with unique appearances. The general concept is called an [identicon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identicon). I like the first-letter concept that Discourse uses, but think it should be combined with a more geometric background. I like the [Github style](https://github.blog/2013-08-14-identicons/); they look like Space Invaders to me. But some combination of letter-geometry would probably be preferable than either one alone. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/22 "2021-05-17T00:09:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Good eye! - There were next to each other in one of the “mini-lists” next to each topic. I doubt I would have ever noticed otherwise. I did the right-click, “view image info” to confirm. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/23 "2021-05-17T00:17:01Z")
Interesting. @ALOHA_HATER and @Arcite have the same color code as the subjects of the current discussion. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/24 "2021-05-17T00:33:12Z")
Never mind on @ALOHA_HATER . ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/25 "2021-05-17T00:35:34Z")
I realized I was looking in the wrong place for the color code. I just checked in GIMP and the three do share the same color. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/26 "2021-05-17T00:38:06Z")
I haven’t done any research on the color distribution or the color generation. As I mentioned above, the icon-generating API can produce ~16M different possible colors. Of which humans can see the differences of about 10M colors and typical modern hardware can display about 5M colors distinguishable by a human. What I haven’t dug into is whether Discourse’s user-onboarding system chooses the colors from a much more restricted palette. e.g. it’s good bet that lots of the very light grays bordering on off-white are not used since it’d be real hard to see the white letter against a nearly-white background. They might well also choose a “chunkier” minimum increment of color in each channel. e.g. instead of 256 possibilities for each of R, G, & B maybe they only use 26 or 16 possibilities. The goal being to avoid almost-indistinguishable icons. But _if_ they did use, e.g. only 16 values per channel suddenly there’s only 16^3 = 2^12 = 4096 distinct icon colors actually used. I don’t think it’s actually that restrictive, but you get the idea. Next time I’m bored enough I’ll dig into the code & see. If anyone else with the skills wants to preempt that effort, go for it! ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/27 "2021-05-17T00:40:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > What I haven’t dug into is whether Discourse’s user-onboarding system chooses the colors from a much more restricted palette. - @Irishman and @DrDeth share the same color. Looks like there is a restricted palette. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/28 "2021-05-17T00:47:20Z")
@Melbourne and @Squink share a color. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/29 "2021-05-17T00:51:11Z")
That is Ok by me. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/30 "2021-05-22T23:32:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’d bet that when a new user is created their color code is chosen by a hash of something. With probably some filtering to prevent off-white or very pale colors. > > My bottom line: Probably not formally guaranteed to be unique, but statistically unlikely to repeat very often. This is correct! ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/31 "2021-05-23T18:37:08Z")
Not exactly on topic but @Lucas_Jackson and **LHOD** used to have the same picture of Cool Hand Luke, tho I think they were mirror images. And I just noticed that former mod @Bone has the Son of Man for an avatar and there is another poster that uses it now, but I’m blanking on the name. With trillions of pics available, I always find it amusing when the little niche like the Dope doubles avatars. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2021, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/32 "2021-05-23T18:55:04Z")
Icons aren’t unique but snowflakes are. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2021, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/33 "2021-05-23T19:02:25Z")
Topic edit suggestion for the mods (I was gonna mention the topic owner, but this topic is old enough that edit protection has probably kicked in.\*) > Is every user avatar icon unique? Icon isn’t specific enough IMO 😉 \* users at trust level 2 and higher do have a longer allowed editing period after composing their post, but not all the way back to August 2020! ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/34 "2021-05-24T17:29:38Z")
I don’t know about every other icon, but I feel rather unique, but that could just be my perception of reality and those around me. ``` //i\\ ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100.md?page=1)