Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2005 4:44 pm Post subject: GUI Icon Redesign
I’d like to help out with a GUI for OO. I don’t have any coding skills but I can draw. If someone can get me the various icon resources used in OO I can start to redesign them.
Also if I can get some pixel sizes for different icons I can make a mock up in photoshop and post a jpeg of it to see what others think. Then someone could replace the icons with a patch to make it look more like an os x app.
Well, most of the icon resources are in 8-bit BMP format since OpenOffice.org was originally a Windows app. There are some icon sets out ther (most notably the Ximian Industrial icon set) that make the icons 24-bit + Alpha channel, but they don't look particularly Mac-like.
The normal size of OOo/Neo icons is 26x26. So if you'd like to design icons (which would be GREAT!) you should basically do them as 26x26 in RGBA 32-bit format, which can then be converted to the correct format for the build.
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 4:57 am Post subject: Re: GUI Icon Redesign
RedOrchard wrote:
I’d like to help out with a GUI for OO. I don’t have any coding skills but I can draw. If someone can get me the various icon resources used in OO I can start to redesign them.
Also if I can get some pixel sizes for different icons I can make a mock up in photoshop and post a jpeg of it to see what others think. Then someone could replace the icons with a patch to make it look more like an os x app.
I don't have much of info, but GREAT PLAN! We've been looking for someone who will make pretty toolbar icons forever. Someone else here was writing about software to use for it (maybe that was you too, I don't remember - if not, maybe you can help each other).
Conversions of other sets have been done, but none of these is properly Mac-pretty. For my compilation see http://geocities.com/ovvldc/ (though it is at a 22x22 size, so it is a bit smallish). Ximian did a set as well but it looks rather Linux-industrial..
I also hope that the new icons will be useable in 2.0 later. I don't know exactly what the new specs are, but I recall reading somewhere they will use PNG. This uses RGBA colour space and should work merrily. If someone knows better, please say so...
In any case, bulk conversion and collection can be done through a script, using ImageMagick. One example is included in the toolbar file on my site. _________________ "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
"I think it would be a good idea!"
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 7:26 pm Post subject: Prototype In 2 Weeks
Great. I’m glad other’s are interested in this too.
ovvldc can you use ImageMagick to strip the icons out of OO? I’m not handy with using the terminal at all.
Does anyone know if there is any work on OO 2.0 icon redesigns? Are there any roughs of what icons they want to use for OO 2.0? I checked their UI area but didn’t find any evidence of any prototype UI.
I’m taking a look at the icon sets from http://geocities.com/ovvldc/ and most are 22x22 or 24x24. Fa says neo uses 26x26. Can I get a definitive answer on what OO uses?
My current thoughts are to make a mockup of what I think it should look like in a modern OS X cocoa app and work backwards. I can then scale or modify them to work with what OO currently uses.
I’m thinking of using Apple’s iApps as a stylistic guide for the icons. So that OO will fit nicely with Apple’s other apps. I’m going to focus on the word processor and move on from there. I’ll have a prototype put together in two weeks (Jan 27). Mind you it will be really rough.
Last edited by RedOrchard on Thu Jan 13, 2005 10:00 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 8:24 pm Post subject:
Well, the too "Aqua-y" shouldn't be a problem since we'll be doing the widgets through Java/Carbon and not through GIFs. The problem with a lot of those Mozilla themes was that they essentially used screenshots of Aqua controls (or the underlying images from the OS iteself) on other platforms. Apple essentially owns the copyright on the Aqua "theme" images, which is what makes it a problem due to literal copying. Not sure if that's directly relevant, but figured I'd throw the legal context in there.
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 1:19 am Post subject: Re: Prototype In 2 Weeks
RedOrchard wrote:
ovvldc can you use ImageMagick to strip the icons out of OO? I’m not handy with using the terminal at all.
I wonder.. ImageMagick itself is a command line tool. The current icons are in a giant BMP file. Stripping out by hand should be possible, if you can set Photoshop or whatever to work to a grid of the size of the icons. The BMP is regularly spaced.
And AFAICT, the script in the toolbar set I collected (if I recall correctly, Yoxi did thorough reading and edited that one) uses the positions in the .csv file to calculate where the icon should be and then composes a big BMP file from the separate icons.
The only trick now would be to find the icons that are not in the .csv file and make a list of those and their position in the BMP as well. Then all you need to do is give the image a proper name and the script can do the rest.
RedOrchard wrote:
Does anyone know if there is any work on OO 2.0 icon redesigns? Are there any roughs of what icons they want to use for OO 2.0? I checked their UI area but didn’t find any evidence of any prototype UI.
I read this from someone who apparently did see them, but they are supposed to look very Linuxy..
RedOrchard wrote:
I’m taking a look at the icon sets from http://geocities.com/ovvldc/ and most are 22x22 or 24x24. Fa says neo uses 26x26. Can I get a definitive answer on what OO uses?
AFAIK, it scales to whatever size you use. But I would consider 24 to be a decent minimum size. Also, when I use my 22x22 icons there is an empty edge to the right and bottom of my icon which seems to be about 3 or 4 pixels wide. If you want to see it, hove the mouse over one of these buttons. From this I would say 26x26 is the ideal size.
If there are other convention I don't know. Anyone?
RedOrchard wrote:
My current thoughts are to make a mockup of what I think it should look like in a modern OS X cocoa app and work backwards. I can then scale or modify them to work with what OO currently uses.
I’m thinking of using Apple’s iApps as a stylistic guide for the icons. So that OO will fit nicely with Apple’s other apps. I’m going to focus on the word processor and move on from there. I’ll have a prototype put together in two weeks (Jan 27). Mind you it will be really rough.
That's better than I hoped for, so I will be waiting. Good luck!
P.S. Does anyone know if there is any facility by which apps can access Apple's icons for use within them? Other than by paying licensing costs, of course... I wonder if Apple would mind if you put icons in an app that everyone already has on their computer anyway.
Considering that Neo will not be used on other platforms.. _________________ "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
"I think it would be a good idea!"
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
I'm glad to see someone finally undaunted by the task of designing several hundred icons whose names/references and locations are not known! Every other time this has come up (about once a month since mid-2004), the proposers have run away when they found it wasn't going to be an easy task.
If you look through the old "look-and-feel summit" and related threads, you might find some other useful info that we scrounged up.
Also, if you go to Tools>Configure>Toolbars>Main Toolbar>Customize...>{click on just about any "Buttons in use" item}>Icons..., you should be able to scroll through about two dozen screens that contain, I hope, all the icons currently used in the OOo UI (some may no longer be used in Neo/J since we've removed them from the menus). I have yet to discover where the source files live in OOo CVS, but Dan or Ed might be able to find them quickly so that you can look at them individually rather than in that tiny "Customize buttons" panel.
Ideally, and what I think Dan and Ed have in mind, is that your icons will then be built into the source as the default set rather than assembled as a replacement set via IM, etc., as Oscar and others are doing now.
Thanks so much for undertaking this thankless task! I can't wait to see your first mockups!
(Then, we just need to find the default color settings for some of the UI elements, and Aqua buttons and scrollbars and progress bars and dialogues and ... and Neo/J will be all set! )
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 2:45 pm Post subject: Available to help.
I was a UI developer for many years, up until quite recently. I have a modicum of free time and would love to help. You can throw me graphics to do and/or I can help organize the effort.
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 8:37 pm Post subject: OOo 2.0 / Abiword icons
So a quick look at OOo 1.9 shows only slightly happier icons.
But, I did download the GNU'd Abiword for OS X. It has some darn-decent looking icons. I am completely ignoratant of the source of these icons, if they develop them themselves or if they are using a set developed externally.
The question is: Is it simply too gauche to try to build a common icon pallete with them?
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:21 pm Post subject: Re: OOo 2.0 / Abiword icons
berchca wrote:
But, I did download the GNU'd Abiword for OS X. It has some darn-decent looking icons. I am completely ignoratant of the source of these icons, if they develop them themselves or if they are using a set developed externally.
Personally, I'm not very fond of those icons; they don't seem to mesh well with the mostly-Aqua look of Abi, either. I think they're the standard Gnome icons and you can get an OOo set of them, but I don't think they fit in OOo very well—and in Neo even less so. I tried the Gnome set in OOo for a while and once the novelty wore off, ended up giving up going back to the defaults, which while not brilliant at least seemed to "fit" with the overall look of OOo.
(On the other hand, there were neat concepts in the Gnome OOo document icons that I'd like to replicate in the Neo icons the next time I redo them, for 1.5 or 2.0 )
Just my $2.50.
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 7:55 am Post subject: Re: So it goes
berchca wrote:
So I'm probably just in the phase that prefers the novelty. 'sis okay, it's what I get for being such a johnny come lately.
The good thing about designing the icons is that you actually have control over how they look, So you and RedOrchard can do whatever you want .
But I feel I must agree with Smokey. The Aqua icon set that comes with the package I put on my website is pretty crappy. Not nearly modern and stylish enough. It somehow reminds me of Barbie...
Ciao,
Oscar _________________ "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
"I think it would be a good idea!"
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Actually I was also thinking I'd like to apply to help with the GUI redesign. I do lots of looks, I think I'd probably take an OS X with a twist type look. I don't really like the whole glossy feel of a lot of OS X apps cause it doesn't always make em look that good. I think every App should have a design that just fits that app. Either way if anyone would also like my help on this I'd love to help. I currently run clayshaker.com.
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I’m glad other’s are interested in this too.
Every other time this has come up (about once a month since mid-2004), the proposers have run away when they found it wasn't going to be an easy task.