andreas_k wrote:Can you link to the breeze icon git repository.

https://github.com/NitruxSA/plasma-next-icons

Proposing a much simpler solution is easier.
thanks,

Any chance of getting the monochrome system icons back by default?

IMO the latest colourful ones are too "loud"

See viewtopic.php?f=17&t=129418&p=353560

Some hope/progress on the way apparently See http://notmart.org/blog/2016/05/icon-colors/

vishalrao wrote:Some hope/progress on the way apparently See http://notmart.org/blog/2016/05/icon-colors/

code stuff (notmart) is implemented in plasma 5.7 and the icons (all 3.000 icons) were updated (https://kdeonlinux.wordpress.com/2016/0 ... eze-icons/)

If you would like to test it download the dev edition of kde neon (http://neon.kde.org.uk/download#)

Yep, I have Neon Dev Unstable installed and updated (just now downloaded daily ISO and installed too) but the default Breeze system icons are the fugly colourful ones.



After editing the system.svgz file in /usr/share/plasma/desktoptheme/default/icons folder to copy the monochromatic system icons (whatever were available) from the Breeze Classic theme off KDE-look.org , and setting the IDs in InkScape, I get the following nice-looking icons for logout, reboot, shutdown.



I've put my files online here: https://goo.gl/9pkX9f , system-custom.svgz is the modified default breeze theme file with mono icons copied from the classic theme with IDs updated.

I've always been critical of Breeze mimetype icons. I think they are flawed from the start because they are based on the wrong premises and poorly executed. I had a discussion about it with Jens Reuterberg and I'd like to thank him for being such a good sport. His openness convinced me to do something more constructive than simply whining on reddit. I know starting over is not a realistic option, so here's a few thoughts and simple changes that would make Breeze mimetypes a bit better in my opinion.

Too much / Not enough / Wrong abstraction
One of the biggest problems I have with Breeze mimetype icons is that they don't make a sensible use of shapes. As every single icon has the same "folded paper" shape, the shape ends up conveying no particular meaning. This is a huge waste of potential. The shape should give information about the type of file, otherwise it is completely useless. As it is now, the 64x64 symbol-on-paper icons provide nothing more than the 22x22 symbol-alone icons, other than a large area for color. More on that another time.

Yes, everything is a file, but that's a given when we are in a file explorer. On the filesystem level, sure, there is nothing fundamentally different between a jpeg and a .tar.gz, but they are used in radically different ways and contain completely unrelated data. Presenting both as "a file" is too much of an abstraction of what they do and not enough of an abstraction of what they are.

Furthermore, the symbol that was chosen in both cases is semantically wrong, confusing, misleading and redundant (wrong abstraction). The symbol chosen to represent any "image" type is itself a picture (as in, a bound rectangular area with graphical content inside). This is fine by me, but it gets weird when you put that bound-rectangular-area-with-graphical-content-inside inside of another bound-rectangular-area-with-graphical-content-inside. This makes it seem as though the "file" contains a "picture", but the file is the picture. There should only be one layer of bound-rectangular-area-with-graphical-content-inside. Similarly, the "compressed archive" type is represented by a file containing a compressed file, instead of just being a compressed file. This is also misleading with regards to the content of the archive too.


Left: current
Right: hastily put together proposal

This is a common problem with Breeze mimetype icons. The way the basic "file" shape is left unused means several types appear as files containing other entities instead of representing the entities themselves.

Cheers.

obnosim wrote:I've always been critical of Breeze mimetype icons. I think they are flawed from the start because they are based on the wrong premises and poorly executed. I had a discussion about it with Jens Reuterberg and I'd like to thank him for being such a good sport. His openness convinced me to do something more constructive than simply whining on reddit. I know starting over is not a realistic option, so here's a few thoughts and simple changes that would make Breeze mimetypes a bit better in my opinion.
Cheers.

same more examples please. I'd play in the past a lot with different shapes but in the ende it look to noisy, so I'm very open to find some better solutions. In addition I think that the small size icons are for the file manager and for bigger sizes > 32px use a file preview.

andreas_k wrote:In addition I think that the small size icons are for the file manager and for bigger sizes > 32px use a file preview.

That is a good point. I only ever use Dolphin's icons view with large icons, and I don't enable previews in every folder.

I'd be interested to see examples of your work with different shapes.

obnosim wrote:I'd be interested to see examples of your work with different shapes.

the idea was to have wide screen picture shape for pic mimetype, movie shape for video, ... I don't know where they are. but that was my idea to start with different shapes for the main types and than maybe for some subtypes.

andreas_k wrote:the idea was to have wide screen picture shape for pic mimetype, movie shape for video, ... I don't know where they are. but that was my idea to start with different shapes for the main types and than maybe for some subtypes.

I think I remember seeing it on this subforum, I just didn't remember it being your work. I remember liking it and I don't think it was busy at all. The ultraminimalism of the current design is too limiting anyway.

Update: Well, it's now looking much better by default in the upcoming 5.8 release (I tried the Neon Developer editions today) including other apparently polishing work like in login/splash screen and plymouth animations - very slick! - so thank you to the dev and design people!

vishalrao wrote:Yep, I have Neon Dev Unstable installed and updated (just now downloaded daily ISO and installed too) but the default Breeze system icons are the fugly colourful ones.



After editing the system.svgz file in /usr/share/plasma/desktoptheme/default/icons folder to copy the monochromatic system icons (whatever were available) from the Breeze Classic theme off KDE-look.org , and setting the IDs in InkScape, I get the following nice-looking icons for logout, reboot, shutdown.



I've put my files online here: https://goo.gl/9pkX9f , system-custom.svgz is the modified default breeze theme file with mono icons copied from the classic theme with IDs updated.

@Uri_Herrera From what I understand you're at the root of the splendid iconography in Plasma 5. My compliments. It is by far the nicest theme on the GNU/Linux platform and beyond.