[openbeos] Re: Icon Artwork
- From: Stephan Assmus <superstippi@xxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2006 14:41:27 +0200
Hi,
> It seems we have the same discussion again and again.
> With the overwhelming consensus being that we need original icons,
> I going to answer my own question by saying that
>
> "...Haiku cannot be officially released with the original BeOS R5 icons. For
> this reason, all icons within Haiku need to be original artwork."
>
> is official final word.
:-)
> Next steps -
> Determine if vector icons are in fact going to work with R1.
> Nail down the exact specification for the icons in terms of palette and
> resolution.
Please read the document I wrote and attached to my original email, it
answers all of these questions. It took me half a day to write this, so
please don't let this effort be wasted. Oh well, here is a summary anyways:
* "native" resolution: 64 x 64 pixels, scalable to any size since the icons
are vector data. The icons should be optimized to look good at 32 x 32 and 16
x 16.
* colors are specified with 32 bits precision, different types of gradients
are supported: linear, radial, conical, diamont.
* special features like "level of detail" and "rounding" should be conciously
used to improve crispness of display.
Please read my first email again to find out some limitations of the icon
format!
> Develop a standard theme of what the icons should look like (i.e. do we
> have black outline, 3/4 perspective, shadow?)
> Determine how icon submissions and approvals are done.
> Get it done.
These last three items are actually what I wanted to stear up with my
original email. Now, I'm voting for a contest that anybody interested in
contributing artistically can participate in: Create one or more "sets" of
icons that demonstrate the "style". The set should iclude these icons
(picking something at "random"):
must have:
- hard disk
- folder
- cd
- text document
- image document
- generic executable
- media player
- styled edit
- screen prefs
- background prefs
optional:
- bookmark
- query
- archive
- person
- email
(If you can think of other icons that really should be included with the set
to make it possible to judge it, please speak up!)
IMHO, it is perfectly fine to point out already existing icon sets, either
for BeOS/Haiku or for other open source projects (also for inspiration). Once
we see some designs posted to the list, we can decide about the next steps.
Contest deadline: September 1st 2006.
(Of course, it is never too late until we have already worked on implementing
many icons.)
If we get a lot of submissions and this list is not sufficient, either I or
someone else will try to put up a webpage on which we can compare these icons
and vote for them. (At least I am not willing to invest work into doing a
webside for this until I know if sets are contributed at all. Maybe it makes
sense to announce to this list if you pick up work on a set, so that we know
it makes sense to prepare a website.)
The format of the icons will PNG at 64x64, 32x32 and 16x16 pixel resolution
for each icon of the set. The PNGs should contain only the icon with
transparency, not any background. Since no one uses Internet Explorer for
Windows, this should not be a problem. :-)
I will put up an Icon-O-Matic version with PNG export feature within the next
week. You're free to use any tool you like of course. Already providing
native icons gets you bonus points.
There are *no* guidelines for creating a set! It's totally up to your
creativity. After the contest, when we have decided/voted which set we like
best, then we will write up specific guidelines for how to create the rest of
all the icons to fit with the chosen design.
Note/IMHO: Whoever is going to actually work on creating the rest of the
icons (doesn't have to be a single person of course) gets more voting weight!
No one can be expected to create icons without being paid which he/she
doesn't like.
Disclaimer: If you take what I wrote above as "official" word is entirely up
to you! This is an open project. I'm just trying to push forward. If you like
and think it makes sense, you can put up your own icon contest or write your
own email about it. :-)
Best regards,
-Stephan
Other related posts:
