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I'm looking for a symbol or image to represent publishers. In most situations it will include the text "publishers", but nonetheless I would like the symbol to make some link.

The best that I can think of so far is either:

  1. a pile of books, but that is already a strong representation of "books" which we may need.
  2. a picture or symbol of a press (as used in printing). Seems a little too abstract to me though.

Neither one seems to be very clear. I'd appreciate some additional suggestions or feedback before I do some usability testing on it.

bile of books printing press

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  • I think the strange thing is to represent a publisher (which I guess is a person) as an object or a pile of objects. – Bart Gijssens Mar 29 '12 at 12:53
  • Hi @JohnGB but this is not an on-topic question for this site. The FAQ was updated a while back to specifically request that 'requests for icon suggestions' questions not be asked here because there is never a 'correct' answer to them so there isn't much benefit to the community in these questions. – JonW♦ Mar 29 '12 at 15:49
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What kind of role does the publisher play in the environment the icon is needed, and what does the publisher exactly publish?

If you know what part the publisher plays on the website/app and how the user sees the publisher you can use that in determining what icon to use. Translating the role into a icon might be easier in terms of icon design and easier in terms of recognizing the icon, as you're catering to the knowledge and vocabulary of the user.

Consider the following examples:

  1. The publisher represents a catalogue of of books:
    enter image description here
  2. The publisher represents someone that does the act of publishing a blogpost:
    enter image description here
  3. The publisher represents a person/corporation:
    enter image description here
  4. The publisher represents someone you collaborate with:
    enter image description here
  5. The publisher represents the process of being printed:
    enter image description here

Each of these could work (especially in combination with 'publisher' next to it as text) even though they do not directly translate to 'publisher' as it might be defined by a dictionary.

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  • 1
    These icons are from thenounproject.com by the way – TomvB Mar 29 '12 at 12:18
  • In this case, the publisher represents typical publishers, such as McGraw Hill, Pearson, etc. The context is a company and rights holders to books. – JohnGB♦ Mar 29 '12 at 12:52
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I would try to combine a print icon with a book in this case. Because that is what publishers really do. They print your stuff and publish it in a book.

enter image description here + enter image description here = publish icon

But it's really hard to find new, irregular icons. So maybe you should use the 'publish' word instead, because people won't understand your new icon... which they've never seen anywhere.

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