And for those of you, like me, that are lazy, the latest WIP build has a command TestBringTheCatBack so you can toggle that icon on and off.
Awesome! 
Why do some icons have tonal separation (color separation) and others have color gradients?
Here are a few examples, screenshots of the svg.
If color separation made it possible to customize color assignments for workflows, I would support tonal (color) separation. If that’s not possible, I’m for applying color gradients consistently to all icons.“Banding” is generally something you don’t want to see in digital images.
Thank you and best regards
Perhaps there could be a tickbox with an option called “Banding”. By default, all icons must have a gradient, but those who prefer heavy banding will be able to enable it later.
Banding = No (beautiful smooth gradient)
Banding = Yes (add banding, separating the gradient into 3 colours)
Hello, thank you very much for your reply.
But because that’s how it is in GH2, that’s no explanation for me. In that case, it would have to be changed in both Rhino and GH2.
In my opinion, flat objects, such as a box, can have tone separation (flat shading).
All curved objects, such as spheres, cylinders, surfaces such as sweeps, etc., should have a gradient.
“Cel shading” impairs the recognizability of the curved object icons. The cylinder shown above is not recognizable as a cylinder.
In my opinion, this “cel shading” graphic style has hardly any advantages, but if you absolutely want to display it this way, then it should at least be applied consistently. For curved objects, this means either cel shading or a color gradient. Or is there a rule for when to use “cel shading” and when to use a color gradient?
The only argument I can think of that might support color (tone) separation “cel shading” is that I suspected it had to do with the Open UI color scheme—that you could simply assign a few color values to each icon, which could also be customized.
This means that GH2 also has flawed icons that break the consistency of the majority of gradient icons.
This is absolutely disgusting.
What is disgusting? That’s an old icon fool. She simply provided the file for the people that wanted it for nostalgic reasons.
I’m one of the fans of this cool icon, and I value the great sense of humour of the Rhino developers put into its creation. That does not stop me from loving the cats in the real World.
I feed the local stray cats almost every day. The icon is just a funny way to give a visual representation of the tool’s purpose.
I agree with you — it’s important to know how to distinguish humor. In reality, the creator of this icon has highlighted an issue that exists in real life. Bringing attention to it can make people reflect on something that still happens today, instead of censoring anything that might disturb someone’s sensitivity, which ultimately leads to censorship. I have cats at home and have had them since I was a child, and I don’t find this icon distasteful — it makes you think.
I noticed something worrying about the pop-up menu in Rhino 9 WIP. Seems like it was downgraded and no longer can be transformed into a floating window. The latter is extremely useful in Rhino 7, because it lets me place the pop-up window somewhere on the screen and reach one or multiple commands there without the need to click the MMB every time to open it.
9.0.26139.16215, 2026-05-19
I can move a bit the Popup menu and it will become a floating container. (as usual)
Which version are you on?
(beware this version have broken 3dconnexion plugin)
I use the latest WIP.
I found a solution for the 3d mouse in another topic here.
There is a noticeable lack of contrast in the Command line window caused by the frame colour (RGB 192, 200, 217) in a combination with the gray text in the options. Is there a way to control the colour of both, the frame and the text inside?
(joke) Even the end of the Command line is unhappy with the lack of (obvious) customization 
Another weird thing I found is that right-clicking on any icon that lacks a RMB command triggers opening the pop-up window for editing the icon, which literally forces me to do more mouse clicks as I have to close any accidentally opened edit window. In previous Rhino versions, editing was done by holding Shift+RMB. This new behaviour is super destructive for the modeling process.
@marika_almgren
Here is the same Command line in Rhino 7 for a comparison. It’s way more usable (the underscores are clearly visible due to the greater distance from the letters and the double thickness), clean (no weird frame wrapping the text), and with contrasty wider black text for the options (much easier to read by people with weaker vision).
While people with perfect vision may not have the same issues, I experience much worse readability, especially given the fact that the bright frame around the low contrast gray text grabs the attention and further makes the visual perception worse. Prioritizing bright objects (like the frame) is a natural phenomenon of the human vision.
The font in V7 is Arial, which consists larger features of the letters that make it easier to read in the Command line field, whereas the one in V9 is Segoe, whose features are smaller and more difficult to read (despite the same text size of 9 pixels for both fonts). The capital letters of the Segoe font are noticeably narrower. Compare the letters “B” and “P”, for example.
I think that might be the same issue reported over here (i.e. poor ETO pixel alignment/display scaling):
Have a look here:
Thanks! I already found that setting and a few others. It’s pity that they are not exposed from the regular Rhino options…
Would the clicking of an empty icon do nothing otherwise?