Graphical Icons

Software programs commonly use graphical icons for software navigation and activating features or tests. Having common icons for common functions between diagnostic applications is beneficial for the technician because that technician does not have to remember the different icons for every diagnostic application.

Standardizing icons remains a laudable, if elusive, goal. Since the time RP1213 was originally published (around the time Windows™ 98 and XP were prevalent), there has been several generational changes in Windows™ as far as enhancements to the GUI, the overall speed of the machines, and the increase in commonly available hard drive space. This allowed application vendors to use fancier-looking icons than were outlaid in the first version of RP 1213. Also, there were new functionalities occurring quickly that needed an icon where no icon in RP 1213 had been defined. These rapid changes, along with no application developer being told they "had to be RP1213 compliant" by the fleets led to each application vendor using their own icons. SUGGESTED AND MANDATED ICONS FOR COMMON FUNCTIONS DESCRIPTION  features suggested icons for the most common functions, as well as those icons that are mandated by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).