Forum Subject: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/02/10 06:00pm
By: Roccivic

Hi all,

I talked a good while ago to Dirk over IRC about updating Geeklog's icons and he thought that it's a good idea. I've already started some work on this and I would like to go ahead with it. However, since I'm new to this community, I'm not too sure what is the best way to proceed...

Should I open a bug in the tracker? Or is it best to post about this kind of things on the mailing list? Or a forum post here is OK? Anyway, I figured I could ask a questions or two here.

First of all, what is the best theme to use? For example, for me there are 2 candidates: "tango" from the freedesktop project and "humanity" from Ubuntu. The former has well defined guidelines and resources, but the latter IMO looks better and has many more "already usable" icons. But, I guess, others may disagree...

Another thing is compatibility. Some icons in GL are in a reasonable PNG format, but others are in a not-so-good GIF format. I thought this may be for compatibility with IE6, but is it? And, in general, what is GL's policy about images? Should developers try to support very old browsers?

Well, this is it for the moment.
Thanks,

Rouslan

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/02/10 10:43pm
By: jmucchiello

Just make a copy of the professional theme (give it a new name) and then replace all the images in the theme with something better. There is a global variable defined in the theme that says what the default image type is. If you like PNG, use and set the variable appropriately.

Once you have your icons ready for public viewing put the theme on a public website (or post here and see if someone else can host it). Then folks can look at it and tell you what they think is good or bad. Ultimately, if Dirk likes them, he might put them into the professional theme that ships with Geeklog. Be sure to release your theme with a GPL compatible license so he can use them, of course.

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/02/10 11:55pm
By: Anonymous (ironmax)

If your theme is up to date and is XHTML Strict, why not send a copy over to the demo site?

Michael

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/03/10 04:26am
By: ::Ben

Hi,

About pictures, maybe the core team can make a cleaning in the images folder. I see an "antique" admin folder. Do someone or something use it anymore? Some files in the buttons folder could take the same way?

Anyway, Rouslan it is a nice idea to renew the icon set.

Thanks,

::Ben

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/03/10 08:50am
By: Laugh

Instead of using the standard Professional theme that comes with geeklog why not use this one:

ProfessionalCSS_en for Geeklog1.7.0

that has been updated to use divs instead of tables.

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/03/10 09:29am
By: Roccivic

Thanks for all the replies.


But that's only the theme, there are many other images in GL...


Good idea. I think there are many more potentially unused images in "public_html/images"...
Maybe this should be filed as a bug?


Since I'm mostly interested in updating the graphics, I guess the theme does not matter much. But if GL will be using that theme as the default some time in the future, then maybe it makes sense.

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/03/10 10:01am
By: ::Ben

One way to update the geeklog iconpack could be to make 2 or 3 icon sets and let the geeklog community vote for the old one or a new one.

::Ben

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/03/10 05:26pm
By: Roccivic

I'm not sure that this is the best approach. I would much rather spend extra time polishing one iconpack/theme then working on many "rough" iconpacks/themes. This is why I'm trying to understand what is the best in advance.

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/04/10 04:49am
By: 1000ideen

One big problem is that some icons of the forum plugin contain text.

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/04/10 05:26am
By: ::Ben

I was thinking to 2 or 3 designers 8) to make the sets.

::Ben

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/05/10 05:18pm
By: Roccivic

I don't think that I should be sticking my nose in the forum plugin quite yet, it doesn't even ship with GL. But yeah, it's not very good for an internationalized CMS.


There are more volunteers?

Rouslan

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/05/10 05:52pm
By: Roccivic

I done a small bit more work on the icons from the "submissions" menu. I decided to go with Tango as I noticed that GL currently uses an old version of this theme. This set is far from finished, but I thought that I should show some of the progress here. So here's a picture[*1] . There is quite a bit of things that I think should be done to the above set of icons. There currently are wrong colours, wrong shadows, wrong highlight, wrong positions, heck some icons are even the wrong size. But before I start ironing out these details and polishing everything I would like to get some feedback on what I have so far, as well as on some other things. I think that I'll write a few down here:

• I think that a stethoscope is a nice substitution for the current "version check" icon that is borrowed from some sort of "system monitor" application. However, right now it looks, well, plain ugly.
• A safe/vault can be nice for the "DB backup". The current one needs to be binned and redrawn, too.
• I haven't drawn anything for "static pages", yet. But one idea I have is a piece of paper attached to the "wall" with a rusty nail. I just thought that a rusty nail will imply that these pages do/will not change often.

I appreciate your opinions. Rouslan

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/05/10 08:28pm
By: Laugh

I like your choices so far.

I was wondering about the stories icon, maybe and open book?

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/06/10 06:04am
By: ::Ben

Rouslan,

For the stories icon it could be a paper sheet with a picture. I see one in the tango set.

Thanks for the very good work.

::Ben

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/06/10 07:08am
By: Roccivic

I like that. I think I can draw one. Oh, there is a ready made book icon in the tango set, too. It's closed though: icon. This one[*3] ? Personally, I like the book idea better, but on the other hand, there are few objects that have depth so the paper might fit well because of that... Thanks for your comments. Rouslan

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/06/10 07:20am
By: ::Ben

Yes This one[*3] . :pray: ::Ben

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/06/10 08:40am
By: Laugh

The only problem I see with the sheet of paper is that it does not denote multiple items. Maybe you can put another sheet or 2 behind it?

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/06/10 09:23am
By: Roccivic

I actually tried that already and it looks, well, incorrect. It does not fit together with the other icons. I'm not sure what the problem is with it, but I'll have a guess. Other icons that have depth are in perspective, so just sticking a few extra sheets behind a rectangular object break consistency. And so this looks odd to the eye (to mine anyway...). The book icon[*2] is already in perspective, so I will stick with it for the moment. It also has a few bookmarks, which suggest multiple content elements. Rouslan

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/07/10 02:37pm
By: Roccivic

I did a bit more work on this, so I figured I should post another screenshot[*4] . I ditched some of my earlier idea in favor of an easier way out and I'm now doing some work on other graphics. I welcome your feedback. Rouslan

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/07/10 03:18pm
By: ::Ben

Very nice work Rouslan.

Topics are very difficult to symbolise. The icon you provide make me think to comments. The old one is a box with 2 drawers. Maybe you can find something newer like folders :

I liked the stethoscope...

::Ben

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 07/07/10 03:40pm
By: Roccivic

Good point, I found a ready-made silver file cabinet. It looks decent.


So did I. However, I'm not a graphics designer, in fact I'm not much of an artist either. So, a stethoscope is quite a complex object for me to draw. Maybe I'll try again later.

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 10/25/10 04:55pm
By: Roccivic

I tried to come up with something else for the "version check" icon, but really can't think of anything good. I drew a gauge for this today, but now I'm not too sure about it: http://www.placella.com/gl/icons/versioncheck.png[*5]
Good enough or has anyone got better ideas?

BTW, this is what the rest looks like so far: http://www.placella.com/gl/3.png[*6]

Rouslan

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 10/26/10 05:44am
By: ::Ben

I like that gauge.

::Ben

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 10/26/10 09:16am
By: Laugh

A tough one.

Here are some ideas off the top of my head. (I am not saying they are any better)

- Some sort of heartbeat indicator, maybe with a magnify glass
- Maybe the G part (with the paper clip) of the Geeklog logo and a magnify glass

Speaking of a Geeklog logo, we should also probably come up with a new favorite icon at some point. Something that represents Geeklog better than the current lightning bolt. Once again I am thinking of the G part of the logo unless someone else has a better idea?

Tom

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 10/26/10 12:26pm
By: Roccivic

I'll try this. It could be good.


Was thinking about this myself some time ago. I can give this a try, too.

Rouslan

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 10/27/10 04:52pm
By: beewee

Nice work, Rouslan! My compliments!

Here[*7] are some category icons, for your inspiration.

I like this one[*8] (except the lack of any color).

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 11/01/10 01:35pm
By: Roccivic

Had a look at this, but there is just too much detail for the paperclip logo to fit into a 16x16 square. Maybe just a paperclip? That would surely fit and will probably be more appropriate then the lightning bolt. Other ideas?

Rouslan

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 11/01/10 04:39pm
By: Laugh

Another suggestion would be just the photo of the G or maybe just the blue part with the white G

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 11/07/10 10:00am
By: Roccivic

Here's what I came up with for the topics: http://www.placella.com/gl/topics.png[*9]
There are two icons for "GL" and "GSOC" to choose from. Which ones do you prefer? Other comments?

Rouslan

Off-topic: Why are inline images disabled here?

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 11/07/10 10:37am
By: Roccivic

Had a quick go at the favicon. Here's the result: http://www.placella.com/gl/favicon.png[*10]

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 11/07/10 12:14pm
By: Laugh

Looks good.

For the topic icons I think I prefer topic_gl over topic_gl-2 since it is straight from our logo.

The fav icon is harder ... I am not sure which one I prefer as both of them are good ...

Re: Update geeklog iconpack

Posted on: 11/07/10 03:09pm
By: Al262

Very nice.

I would suggest some sort of check mark for the GL Version test. As for the topics, a rolodex comes to mind and one of those old fashioned personal phone directories (Slide to the letter and click to flip open).