Does anyone have or has anyone seen a template which shows topics containing new posts by means of icons (like []http://community.infopop.net/infopop/images3/topic_new.gif[/] in Open Topic) as opposed to background colour changes?

It could be done. I have the plan drawn out in my head, but not enough PHP knowledge.

You could just use the same principle that JoshPet showed me with having CSS independant folder icons on ubbthreads.php. You could either make a new cell, or just take out the post icon and put it in there as a background aligned left and non-repeating...then put the appropriate amount of spaces before the thread title so that it doesn't overlap.

Make sense?

Yes, I'm slowly beginning to catch the drift of this. What command would I use to insert the new cell and force the appropriate icon to be displayed as opposed to the background change? Would it be the same type of command that is used to display other icons (like post extras)?

You would edit the postlist.tmpl file. Just some HTML would do the trick, then carry over the $fstyle portion of the other hack for the icon to postlist.php and postlist.tmpl.