Re: GNOME Backgrounds Revamp

[Thomas Wood <thos gnome org>]

Andreas Nilsson wrote:
> Thomas Wood wrote:
>
> > There was a small discussion on #tango (until we were politely told to 
> > go else where ;-) ) the other day about what we should do with 
> > gnome-backgrounds.
> >
> > It transpired that several people weren't happy with the quality of 
> > the current backgrounds in the package. I want to rectify that, and I 
> > want to make sure that it contains a set of backgrounds that the likes 
> > of jimmac, andreasn and lapo will actually use and love!
> >
> > We will have to revamp the current collection by throwing out some of 
> > the existing backgrounds. This is because we cannot have too many 
> > backgrounds installed as it makes the background selector list too long.
> >
> > Several people agree that andreasn's tiles [1] are very nice and 
> > suitable replacements for the current set. I suggest we don't include 
> > more than three or four however, for the reasons above.
> >
> > There are currently two other "categories" of backgrounds, which are 
> > "GNOME Branded" and "Translucent". I think we could reduce the number 
> > of branded backgrounds and replace them with just one or two with new 
> > backgrounds of a consistent style. The translucent backgrounds we 
> > could also reduce to just two. I think Tentacles and Rectangles are 
> > the best, and they are also now SVG since andreasn converted them from 
> > the original pixmaps.
> >
> > Since we have removed several backgrounds overall, I'd like to add 
> > some new nature and abstract backgrounds. One other aim I have is to 
> > make sure as many of the backgrounds as possible are in SVG format.
> >
> > So by the end of this process we should have:
> >
> > 3 tiles (from andreas' collection)
> > 2 branded (NEW)
> > 2 translucent (existing)
> > 3 nature/abstract (NEW)
> >
> > 10 total
> >
> > So, I need volunteers to make the new branded and nature/abstract 
> > backgrounds. I would like to include a background that could be 
> > considered the "default" background for GNOME (much like various 
> > Windows editions have "default" backgrounds). This could be an extra 
> > background if required, bringing the total to 11. But we can't go over 
> > this limit due to the problems with the background selector list!
> >
> > So, thoughts and contributions and volunteers please!
> >
> > -Thomas
> >
> >
> > [1] http://ramnet.se/~nisse/diverse/temp/patterns/
>
>
> I would like propose this as one of the nature backgrounds.
> http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/teams/art.gnome.org/backgrounds/NATURE-FreshFlower_1600x1200.jpg 
>
> It feels very varm and nice. Also fit well as a desktop background as it 
> do not distract you. Perhaps we could ask garrett if we could use some 
> of his macro-photos of flowers from his gallery.

I like it - it's nice to have a wallpaper that is not the normal green 
or blue. I'm CC'ing garrett to see if he has any suggestions on one from 
his collect (and even if we have his permission to use one!).


> For the patters my favorites are stars, clouds and hearts.
> Not sure about the branded one, but I'm sure radel can come up with 
> something nice. I agree with lapo that one branded background should do.

Interesting you call them patterns, and I've called them tiles. I wonder 
which makes more sense to the average users. I suppose that "patterns" 
is more meaningful in this context than "tiles" is.

Not sure if radel is on the list, so CC'ing him as well. Jimmac showed 
me this background which we could possibly use as one of the branded or 
translucent backgrounds: http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/curves.png

Lapo had a go at creating a translucent version here: 
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/bat/tmp/thos-better.png

I'd love to see this as SVG, but I'm not sure how possible that is.

-Thomas