Program Icon for XnView

[Dreamer]

what do you think about this or this::


adding a slight soft shadow from above enables the icon to be visible on dark and light surfaces as well. Or the left version with that shiny style thingy ... that I don't know how to really manage yet ;P

I can't see anything, it's some strange problem with imageshack - some images only, it's not just me. Try imagevenue.com or something else please.

[Olivier_G]

I can't see anything, it's some strange problem with imageshack - some images only, it's not just me. Try imagevenue.com or something else please.

Works fine here (and they actually look nice... ).

[robc]

They do look nice: I prefer the version without the "button effect", though.

[helmut]

Nice icons, eweryboooody. Like robc I prefer the icons without the button effect.

The icons look a bit blur, though, I guess this is due to the grey background and/or the JPG compression of the screenshot, right?

[eweryboooody]

Jep, I guess thats it. maybe imageshack runs another compression over it..

hehe ;] the one without the button is not much work from me...
I just used the logo from the xnview-homepage and scaled down to 48, 32, 16 pixel in PS with "Bicubic Sharper".
But the shadow is a very smooth one too, maybe that forces the blurry impression.

[XnTriq]

Today is my one year forum anniversary. (Clo lured me in, he's the one to blame!)
To mark the occasion, I'd like to present you with a little something I made a couple of months ago. :drumroll:

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It's an alternative/secondary set of icons for XnView which is intended for use with shortcuts in the Start Menu, on the Desktop and the Quick Launch Bar of the Taskbar, or with application launchers of 3rd party software like Total Commander, ExplorerPlus etc.

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A first draft has been sitting on my hard disk ever since, tucked away deep down in some dusty old directory tree, waiting patiently for its moment in the spotlight.
I had to prep them a little bit, but now they should be ready for prime time.

Pierre already has a neat alpha-blended icon for XP. For the time being though, I'm (happily) stuck in Windows 2K land, and since I'm not too fond about the 8-bit version of the current main icon, I decided to create my own.

I tried to maintain the brush stroke kind of look of the original logo, which turned out to be tricky business given the low resolution of 16²px and 32²px.

The 4-bit icons are based on a bright variant of the standard 16-color Windows palette. Actually, it's the same palette Microsoft used for the icons of many of their own apps (Windows Media Player & Sound Recorder, for instance). So this should be perfectly legitimate.

If this generates any interest, I could make them availbale for download as an ICL file through RapidShare.

[helmut]

Congratulations, XnTriq, to your first anniversary. You particpated about 33% of the board's lifetime, which is 3 years, soon.

Thank you for diving into the depth of your hard disk and providing us your jewels. Your icons look quite nice and interesting to me. Especially the 16 colour version are interesting, I think (though nowadays 16 colour mode plays a minor role).

I like your approach to keep the rough design of the logo. I think I'll have to put your iconset next to the current one to say which one is better.

Greetings, Helmut

PS:
On the XnView download server there's still plenty of disk space and I think all XnView admins will agree to host interesting stuff on it. (Putting stuff on the download server does not mean that it appears on the XnView Download page.)

[Clo]

—> XnTriq

Hello !

• Félicitations ! - Congratulations !

• I plead guilty ! But glad to see you often here !
- A good librarian is very useful in such a forum ! You play this part pretty well !

KR
Claude
Clo

[XnTriq]

• Félicitations ! - Congratulations !

• I plead guilty ! But glad to see you often here !

Merci beaucoup, Pop Clo!

- A good librarian is very useful in such a forum ! You play this part pretty well !

Hey, I really like that analogy!

Shhh...

Congratulations, XnTriq, to your first anniversary. You particpated about 33% of the board's lifetime, which is 3 years, soon.

Danke, helmut!
BTW: Does anyone remember who posted this photo last year?

• 

Thank you for diving into the depth of your hard disk and providing us your jewels.

My jewels? I hope they're still where they belong!

Your icons look quite nice and interesting to me. Especially the 16 colour version are interesting, I think (though nowadays 16 colour mode plays a minor role).

Glad you like'em.
Of course you're right, nowadays nobody needs 4-bit icons anymore — not to mention monochrome ones.
It makes little sense to run a graphics program like XnView on a system that isn't capable of displaying at least hi-color.
On the other hand: I think it's good practice and it certainly doesn't hurt to include lo-res icons in an executable.

Librarian's links:

• GUIdebook: “One thousand square pixels of canvas”
  On evolution of icons in graphical interfaces
• http://www.axialis.com/tutorials/iw/fig-03.gif
• http://www.iconconstructor.com/Graphics ... s_grid.jpg
• http://www.digitope.com/pixelshop/libra ... _icon3.jpg

I like your approach to keep the rough design of the logo.

JohnFredC made an important point when he argued: “Cool is one thing, but visibility is much more important! Icons are not photographs, they are symbols!!!!”

On the XnView download server there's still plenty of disk space and I think all XnView admins will agree to host interesting stuff on it.

Would you mind hosting that IconLibrary (ICL) file for me?

[StickyNomad]

2XnTriq

I've quite a low post-count yet, but I'm following this forum for quite a while (and am using XNView for years).

I really like your Icons. They really look crisp and clear, very nice work!

One thousand square pixels of canvas

And thanks to the librarian for this very interesting article!

I'm the designer of the Icons for the upcoming version 7 of Total Commander (one of the the greatest file managers in the known universe IMO), and this article was very informative and inspiring. I especially liked the author's conclusion, I think I kind of share his point of view...

Hello Clo, btw

[Clo]

—> StickyNomad

Hello !

• A bit aside :

- The current default-skin is no longer supported by its designer, and now matching extra-icons
as *.ICO or ICL are missing for it in the 1.90 Alphas.
- Maybe could you contact Pierre and then provide a small complement ?
- This skin is not in my tastes, I don't wish to do
- I selected 20 new commands as the most useful (in my opinion), so this is not a too big job…
- What do you think ?

VG
Claude
Clo

[StickyNomad]

2Clo

I'm not sure if I understand you right. Will XNView 1.9 support ICL/ICO files in the toolbar and do you want me to port the actual default icons to .ICL files and design 20 additional command icons in the same style?

The simple port won't be a too big job, but designing 20(!) additional icons fitting to this style would be quite some hours of work as far as I can see.

I would appreciate to bring in my humble designing abilities into XNview, as I really like this great program. Also I'm doing (web-)design for my living and surely have the capabilities for this task. The main problem is time, as I'm loaded with work already and fear I can't do this within a few days in my (quite little) spare time.

But I'm not rejecting this task in general, perhaps Pierre could give a few informations of the concrete demands...

[Clo]

—> StickyNomad

Hello !

• With 1.90, the former 33 available commands are on the bitmap still.
- Only extra-commands are supported as *.ICO and *.ICL.
- In my quoted message, I wish *.ico for all, but it's not recommended currently because some problems…

…The main problem is time, as I'm loaded with work already and fear I can't do this within a few days in my (quite little) spare time. …

No hurry… There is a long time still till the final release, we have Alpha 3 currently…
- So, drawing two icons a week, one the next week etc. could do the trick…

But I'm not rejecting this task in general, perhaps Pierre could give a few informations of the concrete demands...

Nice to hear. Wheather Pierre is interested in such a complement, he could give you the criteria to follow…
- Roughly :
- The icon size is 24² - The bitmap exists as embedded in two versions, 32 BPP and 8 BPP. My personal selection is :

6_save-only_enregistrer_seulement.bmp
12_import-clipboard_importer-presse_papiers.ico
18-quitter_exit.ico
25_select-all_tout.ico
26_unselect-all_annuler-selection.ico
28_copy_copier.ico
30_paste_coller.ico
316-créer_create_bande-images-strip.ico
319-créer_create_multipage-s.ico
404-voir_hexa_view.ico
446_copy-to-folder_copier-vers-dossier.ico
447_move-to-folder_deplacer-vers-dossier.ico
466_open-in_associated_ouvrir-dans-associé.ico
467_open-in_editor_ouvrir-dans-éditeur.ico
485_copy_image-data_copier-données.ico
browser_parcourir-vignettes.ico
ShowGrid_VoirGrille.ico (I drew a couple for this command)

- They are indeed the most basic commands missing in the bitmap, but it's better than nothing…
Above, the names are those I used for my test-set (*.ICO - ICL - Bitmap). The numbers can be removed.
- The default small tool bar bitmap for the browser is up to date, but had a defect I fixed up
- Nothing to change for it…

VG
Claude
Clo

[XnTriq]

:D You made my day, StickyNomad! I'm truly flattered by your kind remarks, especially because — guess what — I've been following the evolution of your icon/glyph theme since it caught my eye on some TC screencap.

I was very pleased to see that I'm not the only one who prefers a more subtle style of GUI over all the fancy-schmancy, eye-candy-overload kind of stuff floating around these days. Too much make-up for my taste!

Naturally, this might be considered a natural side effect of evolution of hardware. However, looking at the latest graphically rich interfaces such as Windows XP or Mac OS X, it is clear that the icons have been slightly too “overdesigned.” Sometimes, instead of helping, they start to stand in the way.

Hopefully, future icons will be a little bit toned down and once again return to doing what they have always been supposed to do – enhancing the user experience.

Keep that in mind when designing one.

Now that Clo has talked you into doing some work for “us” too, we should give you a little plug to allow other XnView users to get an idea of what you've been up to over at the Total Commander Forum:

• I made some new Icons
• New Icon set for TC (update -> version 1.1)
• Poll: Do you want StickyNomad's TC Icons in TC >V6.51?
• Poll: Do you want an icon competition?
  How should we decide on new icons in TC?
• vicons3 icon set update -> version 1.11
• Poll: Should StickyNomad's icons replace the original Total Commander icons?
• Projekt eingeschlafen? Neue Funktionen?
  • Post #73605: ghisler(Author)
• TC7 preview screenshots?
  • Post #96158: StickyNomad

Note: I've restrained myself from posting any screenshots, as you guys obviously want to wait for the final release.

[helmut]

Thank you for the links, XnTriq. But in none of the topics I could find a non-broken link which shows the toolbar. Nevertheless I'm convinced that StickyNomad is the right person.