Re: GNUstep Icons and look proposal

[Nicolas Roard]

Le 21 août 04, à 16:35, Quentin Mathé a écrit :

> I think I disagree with you…
> First what you said is not true, most Mac OS X icons include a 
> "breathing space", it is even an implicit rule for an application icon 
> which can be placed in the Dock, otherwise Dock icons would be in 
> contact when they are side by side.
> Anyway we need a rule here, to avoid the Mac OS X problem where most 
> icons have a "breathing space" and some haven't, and I think it is a 
> better rule to said to the icon designer that the icons shouldn't be 
> in contact directly with their frame than the reverse; moreover to 
> have a "breathing space" will help to port Mac OS X applications, 
> because it is an implicit rule with Mac OS X icons as I said.

Personally I don't think it's really important -- we could very well 
scale the icon if needed.. so it's more a matter of
We just need to chose to use it or not -- the important thing is 
consistency.

> >  Also, I would get rid of the 30-degree folder icons. Find some other
> > way, like making them more plain and simple, using only a few colors,
> > while making more important and less common icons more detailed and
> > interesting.
>
> As it explained, in our guidelines, the shape variations is the most 
> efficient way to speed the icons perception, especially at small size 
> like 16*16. We could also use vivid colors like red to mark the folder 
> icon but I don't think it is a good idea to have red folders even 
> without considering color perceptions problems which affect many 
> peole. As such in my opinion, I think we have with the "30 degrees 
> folder icons", the most distinctive shape possible when mixed with 
> documents icons, then it is currently the best solution I can think 
> of, especially when you consider the fact it will still be less 
> "intrusive" than applications icons when the icon view (32*32 size or 
> more) is used, this is also important.

The thing that I'm not entirely convainced is if that special 
distinction is really needed...
I agree that having the folder icons slightly rotated is a good idea, 
but it also an additional requirement for the icon graphist, and 
perhaps too broad.

After all, the important thing is to have a consistency among the 
directories -- ie, they will all have the same basic icon, even if you 
compose some
graphical elements on top of it (think about a lock, etc.)

About the 16x16 icons, I doubt people will browse their filesystem with 
that size -- in the case of a browser view (with icons on the left of 
the cell), there is another important indsight for the user: the small 
arrow on the right of the cell.

That's one of the guidelines I'm not entirely sure..

--
Nicolas Roard
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
 -Arthur C. Clarke