Vector based icon plugin

Anyone who want to take a look at this once os4.1 is out?

http://openamiga.org/?function=viewproject&projectid=31

@orgin

The idea of Scalable icons interests me (big surprise there).

I've been playing around with a program called Inkscape to see what's possible with svg images. So far, the images are a little more "cartoony" than I'd like, but I've only just started.

Having said that, based on past experience, I'm not sure how much time I want to burn on this.

@klesterjr

burn? what past experience? i mean, i know you have experience, but.. what's the problem?

@spotUP
Quote:

No problem, per se. I just have a tendency to get carried away and "burn" up a whole lot of time on this stuff!

I spent just about every free moment the first half of 2007 on the DualPNG stuff -- I could easily see doing the same thing here.

@orgin

someone did a vector thing allready (datatype), iirc it was fredrik and its on os4depot, can't that be used for your task?

EDIT:
http://os4depot.net/index.php?functio ... datatype/image/svg_dt.lha

Hi,

@klesterjr

sorry to say this .. but you have spend time in a dead horse
on OS4 .. PNG was NOT and is NOT planed to be the icon standard
on THIS system ...
[on a other system it IS the icon standard ....]

So i am not surprised that it is dying ...

It was only a tollerated icon format.

R-TEAM

@ToAks

It's LGPL, so it depends on whether a future project manager thinks it's feasible/worth the hassle. All in all it is desired that OS components produced by OpenAmiga does not use lgpl stuff, unless it's already in the OS or a candidate for being included in the OS. And above all, OS components must by no means use "download this too" stuff to function.

Using a datatype to render the icon images is not a good solution though (slow and you have to deal with the datatype system problems). The icon plugin should have its own rendering code, or use a library for rendering, without having to go through the datatype system.

If might perhaps be better if a library was created that can do svg Porter/Duff rendering. (Absolutely not a Shared Object though, it must be a real amiga library or it's not a candidate for an OpenAmiga project). The icon plugin can then use the library for its rendering. The plugin using an Open Amiga license, while the library stays lgpl.

Though I recommend taking a look at OS4.1 cairo to see what functionality it provides. Perhaps it already includes libsvg making the whole discussion moot since you then already have all parsing and rendering capability build into the OS and it's just a matter of wrapping it up in the icon plugin.

Using xml data inside the icon format might not be desired though (svg) since it's complicated and slow to parse, but that's up to whomever takes the task to decide.

@R-TEAM

Relax a few notches please. There's nothing 'dying' here. klesterjr just meant that he easily gets absorbed into the projects he gets himself into, not that he feels that his work was done in vain. And he doesn't even have OS4 in the first place so no one can blame him for using a format that is available on the platform he's decided to use.

Besides PNG icons can easily be converted into OS4 native icons using this tool. So klesterjrs' icons can be used just fine on os4 without using the png plugin.

@orgin

Quote:

It would be better to use an existing IFF structured art format, such as DR2D or whatever DrawStudio's one uses. Either format might need to be extended a bit, but that's easy enough with IFF anyway.

@R-TEAM
Quote:

I painted "DualPNG" icons, not PNG icons. Mine were two- state images (just like the original AOS icons).

They were never intended to be a new standard for OS4 -- they were intended to be a new standard for OS3!

OS4 users already had Mason's icons -- we didn't have anything!

Now we do!

@klesterjr

you've done a great job so far. way better than most whiners.
please get absorbed into this vector icons thingie, afterall, whats half a year? ;)

@klesterjr

Quote:
At least you can edit your system icons. I find it really irritating that the OS4 System Icon Editor can be used to edit the current System Icons. Before I upgraded to ?A1/OS4 I used to spend hours drawing/modifying icons to suit my tastes. Now I just have to accept somebody elses icons as they are. It sucks. How are they drawing these new system icons? How can I modify them?

I'm really pissed off about the new OS4 programs that force you to install TBImages and don't seem to give you any way to replace them with your own. I really had fun creating my own images for YAM, IBrowse etc. to replace some of the ones I didn't like. If you're going to give us some new type of icons for Amiga, give us a way to draw/edit them as well. Otherwise, I'm not really interrested.

Hi,

@Orgin

sorry- i have missunderstand this.
I thinked he his angry his work is burnt in the new icon system
as his past work for PNG in the OS4 icon system.

@klesterjr

you have done a great GFX job and sorry too,for my missunderstand.
But i was never a friend of PNG icons [normal or Dual] on
my REAL Amiga, it is to much slowing down the system, even
on 060/66 and CV64 ....
So it was/is only for WinUAE and MOS user a good source.

I like parts of your Icons more as Masons and turned around ;)


@xenic

I think the best way icons drawing is in an paint prg, all
prg. i have seen this on k1.3-3.9 was more or less trash ...

Best use PPaint for 8Bit icons [i use this].
24bit Icons i have never drawn [have no OS4] but i would
prefer TVPaint [it have a good zoom window].

A basic icon draw tool like the 3.9 tool is good, with advanced
Image loading possibilitis and Icon converting [newicon/oldicons/
glowicons/PNG{Dual}-Icons to OS4 icon format]

R-TEAM

@klesterjr

Quote:

Now I am scared! I did the same some time ago and I came to the same result that the svg icons will look like a comic. I am not sure if it is worth the work...

@Mason

Great minds think alike!

@xenic

Editing icons on os4 is fairly easy, just pick your paint program of choice and as long as it supports the clipboard then it will work.

To load an icon just call up it's information in RAWBinfo and hit r-amiga c and the first image is copied to the clipboard, paste that into your pain program...

To copy the selected image, click on the icon image in RAWBinfo before pressing r-amiga c.

Just reverse the process to 'save' the icon, copy it in the paint program and paste it into RAWBinfo and save.

@Severin

You can also load an image in the menu.

@ken&mason

How about a sneak peek at your cartoon-styles?

CU,
Mario