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= I C O N I T E =
Icon Replacement Project
---
Public Release 1.0
Public Domain
by Peter Bornhall
· Introduction ·
Why YET another icon package? Well, I began working on this for my own sake,
as I wasn't really fond of the MagicWB icons, nor the NewIcons. Although the
NewIcons concept is great, I think the icons look kind of ugly. Not that they
aren't artistic, Roger McVey has created a great set of icons, no doubt about
it. But, I'm not very fond of the square look of them, my preference is more
of a rectangular box, similar to the aspect of a TV or monitor. So I created
it. Let me remind you though, that this is in no way a finished package, and
you can't use it like you would any normal "icon package".
So what's with this icon package then? From the start, I had an intention of
creating icons with some kind of color or image-tag, making it easier to see
which type of program/data/whatever an icon is referring to.
Also, please note that this release is just a "teaser", or a beta release if
you will. The idea is to make it available to the public, so more artistic
persons can create some stunning icons. So, any comments, suggestions, images,
icons are encouraged and welcomed! Send mail! Send e-mail! Send me your wife!
...ehhrm, better not send your wife, unless you send a picture of her first and
clear the transfer...;) Oh, the address, yes, see below...
· Appearance ·
So, after some experimenting, I decided for a size of 52x34, or 60x40 with the
frame accounted for. It's small enough for a 640x480 screen, and big enough for
greater resolutions, like 800x600 and higher. How do I color-code them then?
After some more experimenting with frames, colored shapes and stuff, I decided
to go for an inner frame using a light-grey and a dark-grey scheme. The inner
frame is one of the things I *REALLY* dislike with icons, but without it they
tend to look completely flat and boring. So, this slightly "dimmed" frame does
the job pretty well. Color-coding... Alright, I settled for a triangle in the
upper left corner. I considered some sort of tilted square, but that just
looked messy. With an 8-color palette, we get 7 color-coded icons (or 8, if you
really want to use the background color). The triangle is constructed so that
it will appear to recess somewhat on the selected image.
· Palette ·
The palette originates from the MagicWB-palette, but I've since changed it to
a darker grey scheme, with increased brightness on the yellow and reddish
colors. These are the colors;
color 0 Middle grey (background)
color 1 Black
color 2 White (or very light grey)
color 3 Blue (more or less the original blue)
color 4 Dark grey
color 5 Light grey
color 6 Yellowish
color 7 Reddish
I don't really like the idea of a set palette, but I haven't had the time to
test the icons using NewIcons. I would prefer if these icons used NewIcons, but
until that day I'll settle for this. If someone else wishes to use these icons
with NewIcons, go right ahead! As a rule I do not use too strong colors for
icons, as they tend to get really annoying to the eye after a while. Bright
colors are alright if you've got a true-color display to play with, but...
· Icon Types ·
This is something I haven't fully decided upon yet. I have created a template
for the commodity type icons, with a yellowish triangle and 'CX' overlayed upon
it. I'm satisfied with this for now, but any suggestions/improvements are
welcome. I'll just go through it briefly;
Commodities Yellow triangle
Tools & utilities Red triangle
Applications Light grey triangle
Prefs program Dark grey triangle
Projects Black triangle
Devices & drivers White triangle
Disks & other media Blue triangle
These colors fits quite good, and with the addition of a small image of some
kind, they perform their job very good. Look at the included pictures for
examples of this. Unfortunately, my imagination runs dry pretty quick, and
besides, I'm not very artistic. So, imagery that fits in the top left corner
(about the size of the triangle) is more than welcome.
· Included Files ·
Here's a brief explanation of the files;
Iconite.doc THIS small document! :)
Iconite.doc.info And its accompanying icon.
Iconite_Apps.iff Examples of application icons
Iconite_ClipArt.iff Some clipart you can use
Iconite_ClipArt2.iff Some MORE clipart you can use
Iconite_Commodities.iff Some examples of commodities icons
Iconite_Devices.iff Examples of device/driver icons
Iconite_Disks.iff Very few examples of disk icons
Iconite_HowTo.iff Some tips on creating the icons
Iconite_Prefs.iff Prefs examples
Iconite_Project.iff Project examples
Iconite_Tools.iff Tools examples
Check out the examples with your favourite picture viewer right away! There
you'll find the icons I currently have finished and use on my own system along
with various other icon packages like MWB and NewIcons.
· Acknowledgements ·
Tom Ekström, Nicola Salmoria, Roger McVey, MagicWB author and everyone else
who in some small pixels might have contributed to this package.
· Author ·
The entire package is put in the Public Domain, but I would appreciate if you
at least acknowledged me if you use parts of the package.
I can be reached by;
Snail: Peter Bornhall
Back 5
S-46598 NOSSEBRO
SWEDEN
e-mail: bornhall@karkis.canit.se
FidoNet: 2:201/417.41
InfoNet: 42:105/106.41
or fax: +46-512-53382 (mark it "attention: Peter" please)
- Live long and prosper!