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The Thridy Journal

Thoughtful articles on AI, design, development and startups.

Complex technology, explained so simply you finally understand it. New stories every week.

AI Developer Design Startup By Kiran

You Are Shipping 52 KB to Fill 64 Pixels

Featured · Developer

You Are Shipping 52 KB to Fill 64 Pixels

Every icon in our API returns three links, and most apps use the heaviest one. We compared the 512px display file against the 200px small file across 288 icons: the small file is 77 percent lighter and, below 200 device pixels, the average pixel differs by 0.77 out of 255. We also found exactly where it stops working.

Kiran · 6 min read · 31-08-2026

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90% of Our Icon Shadows Point the Same Way. The Highlights Do Not.

We measured baked light direction on 200 icons from our own library, and the two halves of the lighting cue disagree.

30-08-2026Design

90% of Our Icon Shadows Point the Same Way. The Highlights Do Not.

We Checked 200 of Our Own Icon URLs. Every Download Link Returned 403.

Our API ships three image links per icon. One is retired, one is heavier than it looks, and neither of them is the smallest file we can serve you.

27-08-2026Developer

We Checked 200 of Our Own Icon URLs. Every Download Link Returned 403.

The Shadow in Your 3D Icon Is Baked In. On Dark, It Vanishes.

We decoded 60 Thridy icons: a median 38.5% of the visible pixels are semi-transparent, and most of that band is a drop shadow rendered for a light page.

24-08-2026Design

The Shadow in Your 3D Icon Is Baked In. On Dark, It Vanishes.

We Have 13,332 Icons. Browsing UI & Interface Shows 239.

Our category filter reads one field per icon. Every icon carries 2.31 categories, and your chart icon is filed under Business & Finance.

23-08-2026Design

We Have 13,332 Icons. Browsing UI & Interface Shows 239.

Your 3D Icons Go Stale in Four Hours. We Measured the Second Visit.

Every file on our CDN carries max-age=14400. Here is what a returning browser actually pays for the same 24 icons.

20-08-2026Developer

Your 3D Icons Go Stale in Four Hours. We Measured the Second Visit.

Fifteen 3D Icons at 64 Pixels Cost Us 209 MB of Memory

Every icon ships in three files. We measured what each one costs a real browser.

18-08-2026Developer

Fifteen 3D Icons at 64 Pixels Cost Us 209 MB of Memory

Two Projections, One Icon Row: Why Your Set Looks Off

We classified 13,332 Thridy icons and measured 120 of them by hand.

17-08-2026Design

Two Projections, One Icon Row: Why Your Set Looks Off

You Set Every Icon to 48px. They Render Between 29 and 40.

We measured the transparent margin inside 96 Thridy icons. No two of them are the same.

16-08-2026Design

You Set Every Icon to 48px. They Render Between 29 and 40.

We Measured the Color of 260 3D Icons. Only 21% Are One Color.

Which is why CSS hue-rotate cannot turn an icon set into your brand palette, and what we do instead.

13-08-2026Design

We Measured the Color of 260 3D Icons. Only 21% Are One Color.

At 24 Pixels, a 3D Icon Keeps 4% of Its Detail

We rendered 22 of our own icons at nine sizes and counted what survived. The silhouette holds all the way down. Nothing else does.

12-08-2026Design

At 24 Pixels, a 3D Icon Keeps 4% of Its Detail

We Searched Our Own 13,315 Icons for 30 Product Words. Thirteen Returned Nothing.

Webhook, uptime, audit log, rollback: why those searches come back empty in every 3D icon library, and what to type instead.

11-08-2026Design

We Searched Our Own 13,315 Icons for 30 Product Words. Thirteen Returned Nothing.

We Audited 500 of Our Own Icon Alt Tags. Most Do Not Belong in Your App.

Library alt text is written for a catalog. Your interface is asking a different question.

10-08-2026Developer

We Audited 500 of Our Own Icon Alt Tags. Most Do Not Belong in Your App.

Same Box, Different Sizes: What Is Inside a 512px 3D Icon

We measured the transparent margin in 60 Thridy icons, and found a 1.72x spread hiding inside files that all claim the same size.

09-08-2026Design

Same Box, Different Sizes: What Is Inside a 512px 3D Icon

3D Icons in Dark Mode: What I Measured on 59 Real Icons

Only 17 cleared 3:1 contrast on both a light and a dark background, and no icon can clear 4.5:1 on both. Here is the arithmetic and the fix.

06-08-2026Design

3D Icons in Dark Mode: What I Measured on 59 Real Icons

What Icon Search Actually Does With Your Words

I ran 102 searches against my own icon library and counted every result.

06-08-2026Design

What Icon Search Actually Does With Your Words

Why 3D Icons Are Not SVGs, and What to Use Instead

The format question every designer asks about 3D icons, answered properly.

06-08-2026Design

Why 3D Icons Are Not SVGs, and What to Use Instead

Your 3D Icon Is 1.45 MB. It Should Be 4 KB.

I measured 150 icons off our own CDN across PNG, WebP and AVIF. Resizing beats every codec argument you are about to have.

06-08-2026Developer

Your 3D Icon Is 1.45 MB. It Should Be 4 KB.

From PowerPoint to HTML: AI Presentation Solutions with Bento

Why decks are moving off proprietary files onto the open web, and how AI is accelerating the shift.

From PowerPoint to HTML: AI Presentation Solutions with Bento

Designing for Speed: How GigaToken Influences UX

When infrastructure gets dramatically faster, the experience you are allowed to design changes with it.

26-07-2026Design

Designing for Speed: How GigaToken Influences UX

Creating Collaborative Design Tools: Lessons from Bento

What building a shared, real time design canvas actually teaches you, beyond the marketing gloss.

26-07-2026Design

Creating Collaborative Design Tools: Lessons from Bento

Webhooks Explained: How Apps Talk to Each Other in Real Time

A plain-English guide to how webhooks work, why they beat polling, and how to make them reliable

26-07-2026Developer

Webhooks Explained: How Apps Talk to Each Other in Real Time

The 8-Point Grid System: How Spacing in Eights Makes UI Feel Consistent

Why the best interfaces run on multiples of 8 and how to apply the scale to your own screens

25-07-2026Design

The 8-Point Grid System: How Spacing in Eights Makes UI Feel Consistent

Building an HTML-Only Presentation Tool: Challenges and Solutions

Taming a flexible medium into a fixed one, from pixel perfect layout to reliable exports.

25-07-2026Developer

Building an HTML-Only Presentation Tool: Challenges and Solutions

Skeleton Screens vs Spinners: Which Loading State Feels Faster

A practical guide to choosing loading states that make waits feel like progress.

24-07-2026Design

Skeleton Screens vs Spinners: Which Loading State Feels Faster

The Journey of Building Thridy: From Concept to Icon Library

How a single frustrating deck turned into a soft 3D icon library, and what the road taught me.

24-07-2026By Kiran

The Journey of Building Thridy: From Concept to Icon Library

Surviving with Postgres: Essential Tips for New Startups

The database decisions that quietly follow you for years, and how to get them right from day one.

24-07-2026Startup

Surviving with Postgres: Essential Tips for New Startups

How to Choose the Right Icons for a SaaS Dashboard

A system for picking icons that make your dashboard obvious, fast, and trustworthy.

23-07-2026Design

How to Choose the Right Icons for a SaaS Dashboard

How Database Indexes Make Queries Fast

The data structure that turns a full-table scan into a millisecond lookup

23-07-2026Developer

How Database Indexes Make Queries Fast

The Anatomy of a REST API Request: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Method, URL, headers, body, and the response, one piece at a time

23-07-2026Developer

The Anatomy of a REST API Request: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

How CDNs Make Websites Fast: Caching, Edge Servers, and TTL Explained

A practical guide to how content delivery networks cut latency, and how to tune caching so your pages load fast without serving stale content.

23-07-2026Developer

How CDNs Make Websites Fast: Caching, Edge Servers, and TTL Explained

Lessons from Building a 3D Icon Library

What 2,600 soft-3D icons taught me about consistency, search, and restraint.

23-07-2026By Kiran

Lessons from Building a 3D Icon Library

Design tokens in 2026: how design systems finally talk to code

A stable W3C standard, native Figma support, and a real build pipeline mean your design system and codebase can finally read from the same file.

23-07-2026Design

Design tokens in 2026: how design systems finally talk to code

How to Use 3D Icons to Enhance AI Interfaces

A practical guide to adding warmth, hierarchy, and trust to text-first AI products without the clutter.

How to Use 3D Icons to Enhance AI Interfaces

Unlocking RAG: How Retrieval Augmented Generation Works

A simple guide to understanding Retrieval Augmented Generation.

Unlocking RAG: How Retrieval Augmented Generation Works

Understanding RAG: Retrieval Augmented Generation

Learn how RAG combines data retrieval and AI generation.

Understanding RAG: Retrieval Augmented Generation

How Git Works: A Beginner's Guide

Learn the basics of Git, the tool developers use to manage code.

22-07-2026Developer

How Git Works: A Beginner's Guide

How a Computer Cursor Moves: Simple Explanation

Understand the journey of a cursor from your input to the screen.

22-07-2026Developer

How a Computer Cursor Moves: Simple Explanation

Jack Dorsey's Buzz: A New Era for Team Collaboration

Buzz integrates chat, AI, and Git hosting to streamline teamwork.

22-07-2026Startup

Jack Dorsey's Buzz: A New Era for Team Collaboration

AI Attempts to 'Draw' Mona Lisa: GPT-5.6 vs Rivals

Exploring how AI models tackle artistic challenges.

AI Attempts to 'Draw' Mona Lisa: GPT-5.6 vs Rivals

OpenAI, Hugging Face Tackle Model Evaluation Breach

Incident highlights risks in AI model evaluation processes.

OpenAI, Hugging Face Tackle Model Evaluation Breach

Gemini 3.6 and 3.5 Flash: A New Era in AI Models

Introducing Google's latest AI models: Gemini 3.6, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and Cyber

Gemini 3.6 and 3.5 Flash: A New Era in AI Models

Kimi K3, Qwen 3.8, and Anthropic's Uncertain Future

Exploring the impact of recent AI advancements and challenges.

Kimi K3, Qwen 3.8, and Anthropic's Uncertain Future

Claude Fable Challenges the Jacobian Conjecture

Mathematician produces a counterexample to a long-standing math puzzle.

Claude Fable Challenges the Jacobian Conjecture

China's Open-Weights AI Strategy Gains Momentum

China's open approach to AI outpaces the West's proprietary models.

China's Open-Weights AI Strategy Gains Momentum

How Figma Components Simplify Design

Understand Figma components and streamline your workflow.

20-07-2026Design

How Figma Components Simplify Design

OpenAI Codex Context Size Reduction: Impacts & Insights

OpenAI has reduced Codex's model context size, affecting developers and AI projects.

OpenAI Codex Context Size Reduction: Impacts & Insights

Understanding MCP: Model Context Protocol Explained

Simple guide to grasping the Model Context Protocol concept.

Understanding MCP: Model Context Protocol Explained

Why AI Dev Tools Need Simple Widgets

Small UX enhancements can make a big impact.

19-07-2026By Kiran

Why AI Dev Tools Need Simple Widgets

Regressive JPEGs: Unpacking the New Image Format

Exploring the implications and potential of regressive JPEGs.

19-07-2026Design

Regressive JPEGs: Unpacking the New Image Format

How AI Agents Work: A Simple Explanation

Discover how AI agents make decisions and interact with their environment.

How AI Agents Work: A Simple Explanation

Why Designers Should Embrace AI in 2026

Explore how AI skills can enhance your design practice.

18-07-2026By Kiran

Why Designers Should Embrace AI in 2026

AWS Billing Glitch Exposes $1.7 Billion Error

AWS users face shock over incorrect billing estimates revealed.

18-07-2026Developer

AWS Billing Glitch Exposes $1.7 Billion Error

Kimi K3: The Future of Open AI Innovation

Exploring the implications of Kimi K3's open intelligence model.

Kimi K3: The Future of Open AI Innovation

How AI Agents Revolutionize Product Design

Discover how AI agents are transforming the way we design products.

17-07-2026By Kiran

How AI Agents Revolutionize Product Design

How to Be a Product Designer: From Vision to Reality

Master the skills and mindset needed to thrive in product design.

17-07-2026By Kiran

How to Be a Product Designer: From Vision to Reality

Why and How to Use 3D Icons in Your App

Discover the trend of 3D icons and how to incorporate them.

17-07-2026By Kiran

Why and How to Use 3D Icons in Your App

Sony Removes Purchased Movies: What Buyers Need to Know

Sony deletes movies from users' accounts, sparking ownership debate.

17-07-2026Startup

Sony Removes Purchased Movies: What Buyers Need to Know

Kimi K3 Launches: A New Era in Open AI

Kimi K3 brings open frontier intelligence to developers

Kimi K3 Launches: A New Era in Open AI

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AI Developer Design Startup By Kiran

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