no battery status icons in 16x16 size

The 16px icons are not needed , the panel uses 24px icons in the default install.
Did you restart the session..? panel icons sometimes dont work until the session is restarted.

Also, what size[px] panel are you using?

16px are needed.

1) Not only gnome panel exists. Some panels allow to set systray icon sizes (such as bmpanel).

2) I've set gtk-icon-sizes to "gtk-menu=16,16:panel-menu=16,16:gtk-large-toolbar=16,16:gtk-small-toolbar=16,16:gtk-dnd=32,32:gtk-dialog=32,32:gtk-button=16,16" because I don't like default big icons as in gnome. This settings somehow makes that battery icon 16x16. Having default big icons makes my laptop unusable - having big icons = less space to work in. Most todays laptops have screens with resolution <= 1440x900, only few of them have over 2000px where big icons are good choice, having big icons is just waste of space. I would survive having 24x24 icons in systray, if only that battery icon weren't influenced by gtk-icon-sizes (I didn't set there anything which should apply to systray icons!).

Why everyone think all people are blind so they need extra big icons to see them ...

> Also, what size[px] panel are you using?
Default, 24px. It also means that 24px icons can't (or shouldn't) fit the panel as it has 1px border at the bottom and it would look like they want to flow away from the panel.

Loïc Minier , Paul Larson:
Do note, this problem arises only because the OP has hacked the panel and forced the panel to use 16px icons, for a 24px panel
This blurriness will not arises otherwise.

Who/What is OP? Anyway, application itself cannot set its icon size (it is actually X window, not icon), systray manager decides what size will be allocated for that icon. Application should be able to render its icon properly for commonly used sizes (including 16x16, 22x22, 24x24 and maybe even bigger). I would understand that blurriness if I set it to lets say 8x8 or 19x19, but 16x16 ... that size is "standard". Moreover, the icon can be used somewhere else too, not only in systray. And that simple icon, like battery icon is, can be made very fast and it should be made.

This bug was fixed in the package humanity-icon-theme - 0.5.1

---------------
humanity-icon-theme (0.5.1) lucid; urgency=low

  * New upstream release
    - Updates old icons.
    - Included different sizes for various icons.
    - Programming Icon is black; LP: #478222.
    - Desaturate policykit panel icon; LP: #437541.
    - Desaturate nautilus-progress-info panel icon; LP: #437532.
    - Weather monochromatic icons are needed; LP: #438846.
    - Add tray icon for "blueman" applet; LP: #444188.
    - g-p-m icon doesn't show that battery is removed; LP: #485340.
    - Cloud icon is confusing; LP: #474212.
    - Icon for UPSes do not match Humanity style; LP: #485130.
    - Use tango volume icon in apps' widgets; LP: #445641.
    - Missing camera-web icon; LP: #504717.
    - Trash applet; LP: #455846.
    - No icon for iBus and associated input engines; LP: #452704.
    - gtk-dialog-authentication absent; LP: #461887.
    - No battery status icons in 16x16 size; LP: #437591.
    - More specific archive file icons; LP: #444990.
    - Missing source code icons; LP: #443164.
    - Please use user-* icons for empathy icons (tray icons); LP: #449916.
    - Multimedia-Systems-Selector has an ugly icon; LP: #447921.
    - More devices needed; LP: #455871.
    - Cut icon too dark; LP: #450938.
    - Icons for Evolution; LP: #517744.
    - More specific archive file icons; LP: #444990.
    - Missing source code icons; LP: #443164.
 -- Kenneth Wimer <email address hidden> Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:08:20 +0530