Home » About » Share Icon Guidelines

In order to facilitate the standardization of multiple source and destination sharing, ShareThis is offering its Share Icon for general use to the online community using guidelines similar to the Feed Icon Guidelines for the "RSS icon" published by the Mozilla Foundation. The Share Icon must not be incorporated into or used in any combined trademark, service mark, trade name or other similar identifier (e.g., corporate or organization name) other than in connection with the trademark ShareThis.

Using the Share Icon

The Share Icon is freely available for general use in connection with sharing (for example but not limited to social web linking, bookmarking, rating, recommending, emailing, instant messaging, and posting to blogs, feeds, social networks & social web sites), 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 sharing;
• 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.

Usage guidelines

The Share Icon should be used to indicate the presence of the ability to share content via multiple source and/or destination channels.

The canonical use of the Share Icon is on a web page containing information (such as blog posts, news articles, embedded content widgets and so on) to signify that this content can be shared via multiple channels.

The Share Icon may be used in other contexts that involve sharing to multiple channels. For example, the Share 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 sharing.

The Share Icon (or confusingly-similar variants of it) should not be used in the following contexts:

• sharing to a single channel or service
• 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 Share 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 Share Icon was exclusively or primarily associated with a particular individual, company or organization, product, or service.

ShareThis wishes to disclose that as the owner of the Share Icon, they will have the only appropriate use of the Share Icon as a primary application icon, web site logo (including a favicon), and/or as a trademark, service mark or trade name.

Note that these guidelines are not intended to preclude in any way making fair use of the Share Icon, including using the icon in connection with blog posts, news stories, magazine articles, books, television programs, movies, or other works discussing sharing or applications or web sites supporting sharing.

Visual guidelines

The Share Icon should be displayed in its entirety on either a solid light or dark background (avoid mid-tone or strongly colored backgrounds). The Share Icon should not be displayed in parts or with other elements superimposed on top of the Share Icon.

The Share 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 Share Icon may be displayed using the colors black and white in contexts where color reproduction is not possible. The Share Icon may be used with the colors of the inverted (e.g., white used instead of green 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 Share 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 Share Icon should not be displayed in modified forms inconsistent with the above guidelines or in ways that visually compromise the Share Icon. In particular, the Share 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 Share 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 Share Icon that conform to the overall spirit of these guidelines. Such cases include using different colors for the Share Icon where appropriate (e.g., in matching a site theme) or using the Share Icon in combination with other icons of a compatible style and nature (e.g., to identify the type of share being offered). However in the interests of providing a consistent experience for users we suggest that providers of sharing services and related goods and services make minimum use of such alternative representations of the Share Icon.

• Publishers
• Users
• Developers