QuotaLens · marks · round two

Twelve marks, shown at the size they live at

Every one is a single icon on a 24-unit grid: square, two paths or fewer, no texture and no scene. Each is drawn large enough to actually see, then repeated at 24px, at 16px, and inside a browser tab — which is where it has to work.

The only test that matters

All twelve at 16px, favicon size, in one row. If a mark disappears here it is out, however good it looks blown up.

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12

16 × 16 px, actual size · same numbering as the sheet below

Level

How much is left. The reading is in the shape, so the mark moves as you burn.

01

Ring

A circle drawn 68% of the way round. The most legible way there is to show a fraction inside a square, and nobody needs it explained.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

holds at 16 · live-updatable · nothing else looks like it in a tab strip

02

Tank

A square filling from the bottom, the way a level sits in a vessel. Blunt, very solid small, and it uses the whole icon slot.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

heaviest silhouette of the twelve · live-updatable

03

Bar

A progress pill filled to the same 68%. Wider than it is tall, which is the one thing here that fights a square slot.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

the inner fill thins out at 16 · reads as a generic loading bar

Rate

How fast it is going — the thing the Claude usage page will not tell you.

04

Break

Flat, then the climb. One path, two segments — the exact moment the tool exists to catch, with nothing else in the frame.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

cleanest line of the set · says rate, not amount

05

Columns

Three bars climbing. The most obvious “usage over time” glyph there is, which is both the appeal and the objection.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

bulletproof at 16 · shared with every analytics tool ever made

06

Gauge

A dial and a needle. Says “instrument” faster than anything else here, and the needle can track the actual burn rate.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

three elements in one small square · busiest of the four I would ship

Window

The five-hour and seven-day windows, the unit everything in the product is measured in.

07

Dial

A clock face with the used part of the window filled in. Level and time in one shape, which is exactly what a five-hour window is.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

very solid at 16 · live-updatable · reads as time, not just quantity

08

Glass

An hourglass, part run through. Warmer than the rest, and the only one that implies a deadline rather than a quantity.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

the waist closes up at 16 · most decorative of the twelve

09

Brackets

A window with nothing in it. The most abstract of the twelve and the only one that can never be made wrong by a change to the product.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

holds fine · but it says “code”, not “quota”

Long shots

Worth seeing, and I would not ship any of the three.

10

Q

A ring and a tail: the initial, and read the other way a lens on a handle. The only mark here that carries the name.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

reads as a search magnifier before it reads as a Q

11

Pair

Two upright meters side by side — the five-hour window full, the seven-day window low. Both readings in one square.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

the small inner fill is lost at 16 · too much information for an icon

12

Battery

The one shape everybody already reads as “how much is left”. That is its whole case, and also the problem.

24
16
QuotaLens 68%

instantly understood · instantly a battery indicator, not a product

What four of them can also do

A mark that is also the reading

Ring, Tank, Dial and Bar each hold a value, so the favicon in your tab strip can be the live session window — you would know you were at 91% without opening the tab. Colour appears only at the threshold; the rest of the time the mark is plain ink. When the collector goes stale the mark loses its value rather than showing a wrong one, which is the same rule the dashboard already follows.

early in the window22%
two thirds gone68%
at the threshold91%
stale, value unknown

Shortlist

The four I would actually ship

MarkWhy it survivesThe catch
01 · RingA fraction in a square, understood by everyone, and it can show the real number.Rings are common. Yours is distinguished by moving, not by shape.
02 · TankHeaviest silhouette at 16px. Fills a square icon slot with no wasted margin.Blunt. Says level, says nothing about time or rate.
07 · DialThe only one that says level and time — which is what a window is.Half a beat slower to read than the ring at 16px.
04 · BreakSimplest drawing here, and the only one about rate rather than amount.Static. It cannot carry a reading, so there is no live favicon.

If you want one answer

All twelve are drawn on a 24-unit grid with 2–2.6 unit strokes, inherit currentColor, and use no gradients, no texture and no more than two paths. The 16px renders on this page are the real thing at real size, not scaled screenshots.