SVG icons for HighContrast theme

[Luca Ferretti <elle uca libero it>]

Hi everyone, 

this email is about a SVG version of HighContrast icon theme and some
improvement in gnome-themes package.

1. SVG icons

        Why? Well, because it's needed :-) HC vector icons are simpler
        to draw and maintain, can be scaled up and down "loss-less", and
        so on. Remember that HC icons are simply B&W icons, so no
        shadows, no lights, no details. Only round corners to make them
        sexier.
        
        What is currently available? A lot of SVG icons are from Jakub:
        here was a HC icons tutorial on its website[1] and an almost
        complete GTK+ icon theme. I simply renamed those files,
        following icon-theme. Other icons are from me, using current HC
        icon theme as "template" and drawing in Inkscape: filesystems
        context and device context are ready to use, mimetypes still
        need some work.[2]
        
        A preview is on bugzilla, bug #319041 (see README before install).
        
        I'm drawing them in my spare time, don't expect to dump all PNG
        versions in a short time. But HC icons are really fast and
        simple to draw in a vector format, and Inkscape provides
        potrace, so you have a little hope.
        
        Of course, also joining current PNG and new SVG, there are a lot
        of missing icons :-( See evolution, in example
              
2. Theme specs

        Currently gnome-themes still provides icons in gtkrc format. GTK
        + supports icon themes. Major GNOME apps too. We can and we
        should use it. Why? well, as above, it's simpler then edit gtkrc
        file. Just place the image in the proper directory with the
        proper name. Moreover it's a fd.o standard. Moreover icon theme
        and control theme should be separated IMHO.
        
        BTW: what about recent icon-theme-naming specs?? Is better use
        it immediately or respect it later?
        
        Oh, the icon theme on bugzilla loads only SVG icons. You can
        edit index.theme file adding HighContrastLargePrint in Inherits
        key to see them joined.
        
        Note that a B&W named-icon only theme is a good testbed for
        applications: the package on bugzilla provides an icon for stock
        ticker applet, but it isn't loaded 'cause the .server file adds
        the png extension :-( Same for epiphany: it's not using GTK+ stock
        icons for fullscreen/leave fullscreen toolbar items.

        PS: please note that GTK+ support different icons for RTL/LTR
        locales, so some icons need a *-ltr.svg and a *-rtl.svg version
        to works.
        
        PPS: it seems that libgnomeui stock icons are not icon-theme
        enabled (need gtkrc to change them) :-( I'm not sure I used the
        proper names, but anyone has more info?


3. Themes framework

        Of course HighContrast(LargePrint) is just the peak of the
        iceberg. gnome-themes package needs to be refreshed. I'm not
        speaking only about "old" themes (a11y apart, we are shipping
        the same themes from 2.0!!), but also about installation
        framework.
        
        Interesting goals could be:
              * clean up "pleasure" themes, revamping them and removing
                icon stuff; we are in GNOME 2.12 but gnome-themes seems
                locked to GNOME 2.2 :-((
              * port a11y themes to named-icon standard (as point 1 and
                2 of this email for HighContrast), maybe providing
                LargePrint as SVG.
              * provide a build "framework" to reuse icons (i.e. reuse
                gtk-cdrom file for gnome-dev-cdrom
                gnome-dev-cdrom-audio, gnome-dev-dvd...). There is yet
                done by a sh script, but first it works only inside a
                directory (gtk-cdrom should be under action/ while
                gnome-dev-* are under devices/) and second it needs an
                UN*X shell and a filesystem supporting links (Rodney,
                what about icon-naming-utils?)
              * provide an utility (perl? python?) to automatically
                produce HighContrastInverse SVG icons from HighContrast
                SVG icons simply swapping #000000 and #ffffff (or maybe
                CSS???)
              * dump out LowContrast icon theme: IMHO is better try to
                reduce the contrast through the theme engine: is it
                possible?
              * refresh the directory tree [3]
        

Comments? (I hope a lot)

        
[1] I can see it on web anymore :-( But I've a copy on disk. It's yet
converted in XML/Docbook+gnome-doc-utils, just waiting for Jakub
approval.

[2] of course mimetypes are hardly-"reused": i.e. draw
gnome-mime-video.svg and use it for all Video MIME types. BTW what about
the PSP video emblem?

[3] I suggest to use a directory tree like:
        
        gnome-themes +
                     |
                     +--> common
                     |
                     +--> themes-icons +
                     |                 +--> HighContrast
                     |                 +--> HighContrastInverse
                     |                 +--> LowContrast
                     |                 +--> LargePrint
                     |
                     +--> themes-controls +
                     |                    +--> HighContrast
                     |                    +--> HighContrastLargePrint
                     |                    +--> ...
                     |
                     +--> themes-windows +
                     |                   +--> ...
                     |
                     +--> themes +
                                 +--> HighContrast
                                 +--> HighContrastLargePrint
                                 +--> ...
        
        or similar.