Re: use and abuse of shadows :)

[Luca Ferretti <elle uca libero it>]

Il ven, 2003-06-13 alle 11:55, Alex Combas ha scritto:
> Here is something that bothers me.
> 
> My application icons don't seem to have a consistent light source,
> some of them have light coming from directly in front but others
> seem to have the light coming down from above.
> 
> Either way, i wish they could be more consistent.
> 
> Ive included another small screen shot, in this picture the foot icon
> has a bottom shadow but the gimp, gnome-terminal, gaim, rhythmbox, emacs
> and logout icons all have drop shadows. Then we have the Home icon, as
> well as the bluefish, mozilla, evolution, xchat, and gconf icons that
> have no shadow at all.
> 

Well as you can see icons come from different project, so...

> https://division22.merseine.nu/shadow.jpg
> 
> What is the proper way to draw shadows?

Good question. Let's go to read HIG. 
There are 2 prospectives: 
      * table prospective, used for objects/documents/applications icons
      * shelf prospective, used for toolbars and menus

Plus, all icons should be designed as if:
      * there is lighting coming from the upper left corner, with a soft
        drop-shadow cast within the icon's 48x48 (used in table
        prospective)
      * there is a light source placed above the "camera", casting a
        shadow down (used in shelf prospective)


So, now there is a little incoherence: the application menu (and panel
launchers too?). There are apps icons (so table prosp) placed in a menu
(so shelf prospective). And the same icons are used in preferences:// or
application:// in nautilus :-(

The only trick in my mind is build up 48x48 icons (typically used in
nautilus) using the table prospective and a 32x32 ones using shelf.


And now a little question from myself: what about emblems???? Table or
shelf???????? It should be shelf, you use them only in file manager and
they should be objects.

-- 
Think bigger

			My uncle