Re: application specific themeable icons

[Bill Haneman <Bill Haneman Sun COM>]

Dobey wrote:
> I don't think there is any disagreement to wanting standard
> accessibility themes across the desktops. The KDE people on the
> XDG list expressed only interest in doing that, when it came up.
> I don't think there has been any activity in getting it done, though.
>   
Somebody needs to start it, then the rest will follow.  IMO the Gnome 
HighContrast icons are the best for low-vision in terms of visibility 
(though not actually vector icons, they are monochrome with no small 
features or thin lines, etc. and were designed in conjunction with the 
a11y team and various gimp filters simulating vision problems.).
> There have also been numerous suggestions of other ways to do the
> accessible themes, including automatically deriving such icons from
> the selected theme's icons. Andy Fitzsimon demoed a little bit of the
> work he'd been doing on this, at the GNOME Summit in October. In the
> end, this may end up being the best route to take, as it could mean
> that all themes are automatically accessible, and we can avoid doing
> the same work over and over again in a bunch of different files in
> different themes, spread across the disk, allowing us to pick up a
> little performance benefit too.
>   
I have to disagree here.  While it's a nice idea with some utility, and 
Andy is to be thanked for doing the work, it simply cannot deliver the 
goal of readily differentiable monochrome icons across the desktop - the 
stock graphics are just too 'busy'.  There's really no substitute for 
purpose-built bold, monochrome icons.

Bill
> -- dobey