Re: Huston, we have a problem (A.K.A. Threshold vs Fixed in hicolor-0.x theme)

[Jakub Steiner <jimmac novell com>]

On Thu, 2006-12-21 at 10:42 -0500, Rodney Dawes wrote:

> > I don't know what's the correct solution here, I prefer reread the Icon
> > Theme spec. In fact, setting Size=48 means that _any_ theme and
> > application will have to provide scalable icons at 48 pixels: this is
> > the GNOME and Tango icon themes behavior, but, if I'm right, in Oxygen
> > icon theme scalable icons are at 128x128 pixels (to respect the value in
> > hicolor or to have detailed icons? dunno).
> 
> The solution is to specify Size=48 in the index.theme for the scalable
> directory. This won't break 128x128 icons, as the icons will get scaled
> down to the canvas size. The problem with 48x48 icons with Size=128 is
> that the icons are merely placed on the center of a 128x128 canvas, and
> then scaled down, rather than simply keeping their 48x48 canvas size.
> The simplest solution is therefore to use Size=48, as this means that
> all icons above 48x48 will still work properly. This is in fact, the
> fix that we ship in SLED and OpenSUSE.

I didn't realize that 128x128 icons won't be mis-rendered when using
Size=48 when I spoke about this with Alex during the Boston summit. He
suggested installing our scalables to 48x48. 

Even though this is a lot of work to change both tango-base and
gnome-icon-theme, I wasn't completely opposed to the idea for one
reason. I am somewhat inclined to extend the Tango guidelines to deal
with Really Large(TM) size for high density displays. Vista, Oxygen, Mac
OS X all focus on high density screens and even though we provide
scalable icons that render sharply, the look becomes very unique and
simplistic due to lack of detail and thick strokes at sizes above 64x64
pixels. And the key attribute of the Tango style is to 'fit in'. I
suggest making this super size optional, really only being useful for
application and places context. The 48x48s are still quite fine for
things like action icons I think.

Installing our current scalables to 48x48 (which has a 2px treshold)
will make the icons which will lack the yet-to-be-created super size
look blurry though. Not a single super-size icon has been created yet,
but I wouldn't want to close the door now to do this eventually.

Sorry for complicating things :)

-- 
Jakub Steiner <jimmac novell com>
Novell, Inc.