I know I've said it already, but i have to say it again: I (still) absolutely love these action icons Uri.

They have such a big impact on the work environment since they show up in so many places. They literally transform existing applications. It seems like action icons and places icons are some of the biggest bang for the buck in terms of transforming the desktop experience just because they show up everywhere.

Here's my current desktop (if you're not a fan of application menus, avert your tender eyes):


Thanks so much for doing this Uri!

(That Inkscape icon is pretty damn cool too).

jensreuterberg wrote:Right, ok time to review a few things guys:

1) Uri is the expert on icons. I'm not saying you guys should shut up - but ... try to remember that he's done more icon themes than all of us put together and they are very well recieved and for good reason.
2) All feedback has to be combined with some exact reasoning AND some suggested fixes with something like "What happens if you do THIS?". Again not to shut you guys up or anything - just remember that Uri is donating time that he, quite frankly, doesn't have much of (being bound up in .... what is it now, Uri? Five different projects?). So respect that and give him proper feedback.

He is working under some rather strict specs and at the same time rather undefined specs - and as someone who's done too much freelance work where this was common ("oh just do something nice"/"I'll know which style I want when I see it") it's one of the most stressful ways of working.
That means that we need to ramp up the support he needs to be able to keep doing this awesome work.

So try to give exact, proper, criticism and if at all possible - try to spread out that Uri is helping us, doing great work and that if anyone could help him on his Flattr theme (one of his other projects) that they should do so since that means that he gets more time over for us.

6 and counting

But yeah, just like Jens said, help me find people for Flattr and I can devote more time to the KDE icons.

alake wrote:I know I've said it already, but i have to say it again: I (still) absolutely love these action icons Uri.

They have such a big impact on the work environment since they show up in so many places. They literally transform existing applications. It seems like action icons and places icons are some of the biggest bang for the buck in terms of transforming the desktop experience just because they show up everywhere.

Here's my current desktop (if you're not a fan of application menus, avert your tender eyes):


Thanks so much for doing this Uri!

(That Inkscape icon is pretty damn cool too).

Application menus D: - it does look sharp, crisp and awesome.

I added a whole bunch of icons to the Git repository just some hours ago, you should try them out.

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As for the app icons, I think I'll change them, I like the two that I've done, but not so much as I'd want to. No square icons, promise.

Here's Gwenview with some of the icons I added.

Ok so I'm bringing it up here - what do people think (especially Uri since it's his icons) to use a combination of one of Uri's current themes and the new icons? I mean use one of his current themes as placeholders? That way we can ship a new theme in time of June and simply work quietly and nicely in the background doing the icons replacing them as we go?

@Jens I wanted to propose the same thing. I'm currently using Flattr, and it *really* is awesome.

Uri what do you say? What if we got Flattr in as default until the new icon set is up while trying to get the community to join in working on the icons?

That would be great!, just some things though:

I removed some of the icons in Flattr because they were incosistent with the icons that I made originally, these icons were kindly added by a contributor. I have a somewhat strict set of guidelines for the icons in Flattr, they're actually a PDF in the GitHub repository. Some of the icons in there currently are just empty documents because of that. Others I haven't replaced yet (like the mimetypes).

Right now I'm not on my computer but I'll attach a screenshot so you can see the new application icons that I'm doing they're actually like Flattr, I'll have to tweak a bit the colors of the folders so they match (mostly making them flatter by removing the shadows and lightning I added).

We would have to then make emphasis on following the guidelines and using the templates (I also added templates with grids).

Ah, sorry Uri, sorry jens, I know I did it again.
Okay, here's another take, trying to make my feedback on the icons in Ark more precise and actionable
In Oxygen, the "New", "Add File", "Delete" and "Extract" icons are all the same rectangular shape plus overlay, but except for Add File and Delete, the overlay is always in a different position. This makes the icons easier to distinguish. The icons you showed, however, all have the overlay at the same position (lower-right corner). Therefore, they can only be distinguished by the actual shape of the overlay, which takes longer than just looking at the outline.
So, could you maybe try keeping the overlays at the same positions as they were in the Oxygen icons? Would that make them look too visually inconsistent (I personally don't think the Oxygen icons look too inconsistent)?

The Gwenview icons you posted, on the other hand, are perfectly distinguishable, you won't hear any complaints about them from me

As for the amount of work: I've been told numerous times by Nuno what unimaginable amounts of work went into the Oxygen icons. I don't think it's even remotely feasible for a single person, in his free time, as one project out of six. That's why I've been asking myself whether it would make sense to open up the icon design work to the wider community in the public forum. I think the icons you already made give a quite good impression of the general style you're going for (and maybe the Flattr guidelines could be adapted for this project?), so other people should be able to create icons consistent with them.

The issue is that whle yes I agree this is too much for one person I want Uri to nail the application icon style so that we have something actually visual to show people a guideline to follow and see - for now it's the inkscape one AND the smaller monochrome icons. We might be able to open up the work with the monochrome icons but I want Uri to get to a point where he feels comfortable with it and can write a short "how-to" if he wants to to make certain that we don't have to wade through submitted ideas to get to a few good ones

colomar wrote:So, could you maybe try keeping the overlays at the same positions as they were in the Oxygen icons? Would that make them look too visually inconsistent (I personally don't think the Oxygen icons look too inconsistent)?.

Yes, all icons have this feeling that the elements are leaned towards the right or the center. The tip of the new document icon is on the right, the arrow from the open folder is on the right, the settings icon, and all the icons in Ark. They are like this because we read from left to right so that our eyes land on the + or - signs and also languages that read from right to left see the signs first, so that and the context the icons are in give away their meaning.

jensreuterberg wrote:The issue is that whle yes I agree this is too much for one person I want Uri to nail the application icon style so that we have something actually visual to show people a guideline to follow and see - for now it's the inkscape one AND the smaller monochrome icons. We might be able to open up the work with the monochrome icons but I want Uri to get to a point where he feels comfortable with it and can write a short "how-to" if he wants to to make certain that we don't have to wade through submitted ideas to get to a few good ones

You can check the style I'm doing now for the icons in the repository.

The folder icon is a doozy

Uri: if you feel up to it could you write a "how-to" and a style guide for the icons? If so I can post it this monday and try to do a drive for it and Flattr as well.

ivan wrote:The folder icon is a doozy

Thanks!.

jensreuterberg wrote:Uri: if you feel up to it could you write a "how-to" and a style guide for the icons? If so I can post it this monday and try to do a drive for it and Flattr as well.

Ok, I'll try to write something.

Just to add my belated two cents to using Uri's ridiculously cool Flattr as a baseline and iterate from there: Yes, please! Yeah, I know the decision's already made but I just wanted to make my happy known.

I'm so excited that Uri is down for doing this and to see how the community responds.

Been meaning to chime in on this all weekend, but got a little distracted.

alake wrote:Just to add my belated two cents to using Uri's ridiculously cool Flattr as a baseline and iterate from there: Yes, please! Yeah, I know the decision's already made but I just wanted to make my happy known.

I'm so excited that Uri is down for doing this and to see how the community responds.

Been meaning to chime in on this all weekend, but got a little distracted.

I'm down for the cause.

I completed the row of icons I have in my panel/dock.



They're already available in the Git repo.