Think it is time again for a new Icon Wunschkonzert, but this time for AISS images.
This round is not only for developers! Maybe some of them get inspired by your request to start a new project...
Different rules as for the first two rounds:
1) Please have a look at the docs if the icon allready exists 2) Three icon request per member 3) General toolbar sets (e.g. tapedeck) are possible
As allways I will try to do them asap!
1) by TSK: listview images, listview video, listview text 2) by Salass00: play selection, zoom to selection, zoom out full (done) 3) by J?rg & Chris: pointer images for OWB and Netsurf (done) 4) by Wanderer: HD-Rec images 5) by ShInKurO: replace all, go to line, Fn key (done) also added some additional key images 6) by centaurz: cd burn, cd rip (done)
Edited by Mason on 2008/9/6 17:29:06 Edited by Mason on 2008/9/19 23:20:41 Edited by Mason on 2008/9/20 13:25:58 Edited by Mason on 2008/9/20 21:35:16
I know this isn't directed strictly at AISS, but if Dave Norris is looking in on this, any chance the he could update his AISSView program to suit the new AISS images. The version I have seems to miss out on quite a few (the OS4Depot version).
It's a great piece of software for managing Masons huge library of images, it just needs to be kept up to date.
1) Please have a look at the docs if the icon allready exists 2) Three icon request per member 3) General toolbar sets (e.g. tapedeck) are possible
As allways I will try to do them asap!
Not toolbar images, and much more than 3, but what I'd need for OWB, and probably the NetSurf porter as well, are mouse pointers. AISS style replacements for example for everything with "Cursor" in the name in http://www.sand-labs.org/svn/trunk/WebCore/Resources/ and a few more. Ideal format would probably the one OS4 itself supports for 32 bit pointers, i.e. a single image OS4 icon with XOFFSET and YOFFSET tooltypes for the hotspot, in a PNG image the hotspot offset would be missing. Even better would be 2 versions of each pointer: a 32 bit one for radeon gfx cards (or using SOFTSPRITE=YES) and black/white one for all other gfx cards.
For SoundED I could use some AISS icons for "play selection" and "zoom to selection" functions also maybe a "zoom out full" icon would probably be nice. Thanks in advance.
joerg wrote: Not toolbar images, and much more than 3, but what I'd need for OWB, and probably the NetSurf porter as well, are mouse pointers. AISS style replacements for example for everything with "Cursor" in the name in http://www.sand-labs.org/svn/trunk/WebCore/Resources/ and a few more. Ideal format would probably the one OS4 itself supports for 32 bit pointers, i.e. a single image OS4 icon with XOFFSET and YOFFSET tooltypes for the hotspot, in a PNG image the hotspot offset would be missing. Even better would be 2 versions of each pointer: a 32 bit one for radeon gfx cards (or using SOFTSPRITE=YES) and black/white one for all other gfx cards.
Absolutely agree, and I was going to suggest the same thing. Unfortunately I don't think I can read 32-bit pointer imagery (SDK too old as usual - that's really bugging me now), and I've currently got some simple custom format for four-colour old-style pointer images (info here). I would therefore suggest two versions of each, however one should be 32-bit and the other should be old-style four-colour (probably in pointer prefs format), which I trust old gfx cards can cope with even if they down-convert to monochrome themselves.
Required ones are Caret, Menu (to indicate selection menu area), Move (for page dragging) and Point (link selection). There are lots of others, but the above is all that seems to be in use. For completeness the full list is:
Blank, Point, Caret, Menu, Up, Down, Left, Right, RightUp, LeftDown, LeftUp, RightDown, Cross, Move, Help, NoDrop, NotAllowed, Progress, Wait (never used - selects OS default busy pointer), Default (never used - selects OS default pointer).
Absolutely agree, and I was going to suggest the same thing. Unfortunately I don't think I can read 32-bit pointer imagery (SDK too old as usual - that's really bugging me now),
I could implement it in a small link library.
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I would therefore suggest two versions of each, however one should be 32-bit and the other should be old-style four-colour (probably in pointer prefs format), which I trust old gfx cards can cope with even if they down-convert to monochrome themselves.
No, they don't, and most gfx cards only support 2 colours (+ transparent part). Some support 2 colours and if the bits for the 3rd are set these parts of the mouse pointer invert the background, but hardly any supports 3 colours. AFAIK there were only 2 classic Amiga gfx cards which did and one of them was the Merlin gfx card, i.e. only a single one may have been a common one.
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For completeness the full list is:
Blank, Point, Caret, Menu, Up, Down, Left, Right, RightUp, LeftDown, LeftUp, RightDown, Cross, Move, Help, NoDrop, NotAllowed, Progress, Wait (never used - selects OS default busy pointer), Default (never used - selects OS default pointer).
The complete list for OWB is pointer (not required, I'll use the AmigaOS one), cross, hand, move, iBeam, wait (not required, using the AmigaOS busy pointer as well), help, eastResize, northResize, northEastResize, northWestResize, southResize, southEastResize, southWestResize, westResize, northSouthResize, eastWestResize, northEastSouthWestResize, northWestSouthEastResize, columnResize, rowResize, middlePanning, eastPanning, northPanning, northEastPanning, northWestPanning, southPanning, southEastPanning, southWestPanning, westPanning, verticalText, cell, contextMenu, noDrop, notAllowed, progress, alias, zoomIn, zoomOut, copy and none.
Don't rely solely on AISS imagery though and provide your own backup ones. AISS cannot be shipped with OS4 due to the AISS license so relying on AISS would stand in the way of making OWB a part of OS4, if that is desirable, since the user would have to download AISS separately. We don't want the OS to become a 'download this too' to get it to work properly.
Maybe a requester can be brought up at the time of installation for the OS with a download/install-script for AISS. That way it could, to a certain extent anyway, be part of the recommended default settings for Amiga OS.
I have done a pointer set for OWB and Netsurf (also some additional pointes). Will send them right after this post. Hope they will fit!
@orgin
The problem is not the licence of AISS! Imho the one and only problem was the complexity of AISS! Even I said it is better NOT to add it to OS4.1. If a change of the icon style is needed in 4.2+ you have to change that 2000 AISS icons too.
There is also no problem to use AISS images without general AISS support. Just ask for permission and I am sure it will be granted. Imho the best solution to deal with this issue is used by Epistula from Slash. It comes with generic Glowicons toolbar images and AISS support is provided by changing the prefs.
I have a couple of suggestions for AISS: 1. The images are rather small. A scaling solution would be really handy, would also make listview-images obsolete, since you could use any image in small size I can offer an algorithm to scale GUI-Image-friendly and prepare an example preview if you are interested.
2. For being painted 1:1, they seem to be a bit blurry to me, see the comparism on the image above with the original HD-Rec images.
3. They are also quite pale for my taste, they could need a bit more contrast.
4. The selected state is almost no difference in many of the images, at least the ones I tried. E.g. see the tool bar in the notator window, it is impossible to see which tool is activated.
5. Missing images For HD-Rec, I would need a couple of images more. Best is if you would install it and check. Most missing is something for the waveeditor, the notes, solo/mute buttons for the mixer.
6. The tape-play images are not clear enough for my tast. Compare them with HD-Rec tape-play images.
7. If you have buttons which are very likely to be placed together, like zoom in, zoom out and zoom fit, it is too much to have multiple magnifiers glasses. Looks kind of strings, see the right/bottom edges of HD-Recs windows.
In HD-Rec, I will also add the functionality to "stamp" the images onto a blank button, like Aqua oder simple rectangle. Maybe this could also be an idea for AISS.
Here is an example of the scaling alogrithm. I used it on various Icons. They are not really painted scaling friendly, too much 1-Pixel Details, but it makes clear what the algorithm can do.
If you take a look:
a) no interpolation keeps the colors correct (black text stays black) and doesn't blur. But it looses Details (see the "T" in the "Text") and causes ugly aliasing (see the round explorer logo get scrambled).
c) this is what ArtEffect4 would do. There is no aliasing, and round things stay round. But it doesnt keep the colors right (black Text gets grey) and get sometimes very blurred, e.g. the "Trashcan".
b) Well, that's my algorithm. Doesn't blur, and doesnt loose details. It is based on window interpolation, but doesnt mix all pixels in the window equally. Pixels that will give a higher contrast compared to the neighbour pixels are weighter higher.
1. The images are rather small. A scaling solution would be really handy, would also make listview-images obsolete, since you could use any image in small size I can offer an algorithm to scale GUI-Image-friendly and prepare an example preview if you are interested.
Please note: AISS is just an environment to store and maintain images. There is no program code added - just the environment to access the images will be set up.
I do not like the idea of image scaling. The main point is not the quality of the images, but the quality of the expression. You have to reduce the details of the big images to a minimum as they will look bad in scaled down versions of the icon.
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2. For being painted 1:1, they seem to be a bit blurry to me, see the comparism on the image above with the original HD-Rec images.
That's because they have no 'hard' border. This icons are based on Matt Chaputs Glowicons series witch use the same style of visualisation.
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3. They are also quite pale for my taste, they could need a bit more contrast.
See above...
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4. The selected state is almost no difference in many of the images, at least the ones I tried. E.g. see the tool bar in the notator window, it is impossible to see which tool is activated.
I have to agree! But even there is an answer. Most developers use a button with the image that indicates that the image is pressed. Even if all imge set would have a different selected state it would be impossible to know whitch state shows if the button is pressed or not. Maybe it would be possble to add an indicator that a icon is pressed or activated.
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5. Missing images For HD-Rec, I would need a couple of images more. Best is if you would install it and check. Most missing is something for the waveeditor, the notes, solo/mute buttons for the mixer.
I've had an first look at it. Think it could be done - but please be a little patiant as I am not very experianced with sound programs...
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6. The tape-play images are not clear enough for my tast. Compare them with HD-Rec tape-play images.
Maybe they look better with another background or some kind of button.(Please see answer about "stamp" buttons.
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7. If you have buttons which are very likely to be placed together, like zoom in, zoom out and zoom fit, it is too much to have multiple magnifiers glasses. Looks kind of strings, see the right/bottom edges of HD-Recs windows.
Wow that's the biggest amount of magnifier glasses I have seen in a single window so far. In a first attempt I would suggest to use the "add" and "remove" images for zoom in and zoom out.
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In HD-Rec, I will also add the functionality to "stamp" the images onto a blank button, like Aqua oder simple rectangle. Maybe this could also be an idea for AISS.
Nice idea and it would be easy to add some bubble images. I suggest to arrange a bubble button with 3 layers: The first layer is the background of the bubble, then the AISS image and on top a third image.
Please note: AISS is just an environment to store and maintain images. There is no program code added - just the environment to access the images will be set up.
I know. But you did something that the same assign can access two different directories. OR what is the AISS program doing in the WBStartup? I thought you added some kind of handler, who transparently selects the correct image. That handler could also create the images in the correct size on demand, just like opening a font. But I think it is just a double assign...
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I do not like the idea of image scaling. The main point is not the quality of the images, but the quality of the expression. You have to reduce the details of the big images to a minimum as they will look bad in scaled down versions of the icon.
I know, it is hard for the artist to watch the painted details getting trashed. But from the user/app-developer point of view this is really handy. E.g. if you have a listview, the size of the images should depend on the size of the font. If the fontsize doesnt match the size of the icons, it looks very ugly or is wasting space.
Maybe I should write an aiss.library. Doing something this:
I could do that quite fast. (68K) If people are interessted, they can port it to C. If I have time, I could port it to C as well, but I have all the code in AB3 and time is so precious...
P.S.: how do other developers need access to the image? Is an ARGB bitmap ok?
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That's because they have no 'hard' border.
Yes and no. They have to hard border, which is ok for me, but some look a little bit over-anti-aliased.
I also agree that it is hard to reflect a selected state in the image, other than changing the color. Therfore, the idea with the background would be really good. You can also offer different styles, Aqua-round, rectangle, simple etc. The composing process could also be integrated in the aiss.library.
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Wow that's the biggest amount of magnifier glasses..
Yes, but you need them if X/Y can be zoomed individually, plus "fitting" button.
I like the idea with the bubble image too, especially because they can make the buttons "physically" bigger.
As stated above, the bubble should clearly indicate the state, e.g. by changing the whole color from neutral to red, blue or something. Different styles would be cool.
I have to agree! But even there is an answer. Most developers use a button with the image that indicates that the image is pressed. Even if all imge set would havea different selected state it would be impossible to know whitch state shows if the button is pressed or not. Maybe it would be possble to add an indicator that aicon is pressed or activated.
Perhaps the "selected" state in all your images could have a glow effect?