Re: Life after the GNOME freeze

[John Karcz <jsk29 cornell edu>]

> - Nice icons for the file manager.
> 
> We need 48x48 icons that are suitable for file types in the
> file manager. A complete list of the icons we need is on
> the gnome-icons CVS module. 
>
> Currently the file manager is using some very ugly and old
> icons I found, and they need to be replaced. 
>
> We would like to have the icons keep the spirit of the
> current gnome icons.
>
> If you have artistic talent, please let us know and share
> your icons with us.
 
I've been lurking around, thinking of using Gnome as a front end to
some of my simulations.  It looks great!  I like the api.

Well, I have no artistic talent, but I've been playing with
a couple of icons out of boredom, and have a couple of
questions.

The first is this:  Do people want to have separate icons for
things like *.png, *.xpm, and *.jpg files, rather than one
general "image" icon?  I noticed in the gmc sources that there
is a little label on the icon for *.ppm, say, to differentiate
it from a *.jpg.  My opinion on this is that the label in the
icon is redundant... the filename already clearly says the
type of the image.  (I suspect, though, that there are cases
where the extension on the filename is wrong, but I've personally
never run into an image like this.)  I guess I feel that if the
image is the same for each of the extensions, adding a copy
of the extension to the icon won't clarify the view of the
directory.

I was also wondering if there are any palette issues I should
worry about if I cook up an icon.  Can I make images with
huge palettes and have Imlib sort it out, or should I restrict
the number of colors used?

My suggestion for the "image" icon is that we use a tiny copy
of a painting or picture that is in the public domain, or that
we can get permission for.  If we have separate icons for each
image type, maybe each should have a different painting. The
paintings probably won't have any connection with their
corresponding image extension.  The would, however, provide
people who work with a lot of images a quick way to notice the
different file types.

I threw one example up at my site at
<a href="http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jsk29/icons.html">Cornell.</a>
Does this look like a cool way to handle images?  If anyone can
think of a copyable piece of artwork they'd like me to throw into
the pile of icons, let me know...  I'll gimp up some icons.

(I truly am clueless on the copyright issues involved with this.
I think it would look great, though, and I'm hoping that some of
the classical pieces of art of freely reproducible... I can probably
talk to some of the intellectual property people around campus to
find out how to deal with this, if people think it's an interesting
idea.)

Anyway, let me know if this looks like a good plan or not.

Later,
John