Work on modern icon theme

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chrisb
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

Post by chrisb »

obelisk79 wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 6:00 am I believe those markers are pixmaps hard coded into FreeCAD and not easily customized.
There is currently a discussion about the constraint icons, perhaps they can be made more flexible:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 19#p467619
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 18#p467618
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Meetlat
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

Post by Meetlat »

Hi @st_phan how are you doing? Did you find any time to work on the icons? Perhaps if you share a style guide we can help making the icon set complete?
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st_phan
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

Post by st_phan »

Hey all, a small "update".

Just wanted to say my work on this is not dead, I just want to be transparent, because I think it will also give myself some relief, too.

Since my last real post here, there was actually quite some progress:
I created a script (which I am planning on publishing separately) that automates some of the manual work you have to do when properly preparing icons for export.
That together with some cleanup also made it easy to generate differently themed variations, e.g. a dark theme which can be seen here.

It would be basically only a few hours until that stuff is complete.

However in the recent weeks/months I just feel super drained – not only about contributing for FreeCAD, but life in general. When I talk to friends they feel similar (due to the whole Covid/lockdown-situation). One friend sent me this article by the New York Times which calls this mood "Languishing".

So what does this mean: That I'll post here once I can find some motivation again.
Thanks already for all the kind words and the interest in my work :)
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Kunda1
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

Post by Kunda1 »

Thanks for sharing. I've seen this article circulating and it's good that more people are aware of this condition. I'm sure others online especially in our niche of Free Libre Opensource software are also feeling it. Thank you so much for checking in. Feel free to reach out and let us know if you need anything.
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Zolko
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

Post by Zolko »

st_phan wrote: Sun Apr 25, 2021 12:37 pm However in the recent weeks/months I just feel super drained – not only about contributing for FreeCAD, but life in general. When I talk to friends they feel similar (due to the whole Covid/lockdown-situation).
I feel the same, though it's more the "lockdown" than the "covid" which affects me.
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Meetlat
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

Post by Meetlat »

Hi st_phan, how you doing? I hope you and your loved ones came thought the covid crisis healthy. I wonder if you could share a updated Figma file. The copy vanuan shared is outdated I think? (https://www.figma.com/file/g7WmhiormDyP ... id=162%3A0) I would like to use it for a UI concept.

Thanks
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Kunda1
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

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Bumping :mrgreen:
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

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Bumpy Bump!
peanutorang
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

Post by peanutorang »

st_phan wrote: Sun Apr 25, 2021 12:37 pm
So what does this mean: That I'll post here once I can find some motivation again.
Thanks already for all the kind words and the interest in my work :)
Hope you're doing well, eagerly looking forward to a release. I come from Shapr3d instead of Fusion/SW like some others, and your icons look so much better than the default ones in terms of usability (familiarity and being visually descriptive) ;)
Thanks again.
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st_phan
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Re: Work on modern icon theme

Post by st_phan »

Thanks all for the kind words and that there is still interest – really cool :)
———

Update: Research
I do have an update, but it's more research focussed. (But ideally until Sunday evening I am gonna have much more ready – fingers crossed.)

I paused the contribution due to personal struggles, lack of motivation (I think everyone can relate), but also doubts about a proper structure.
I want to share some insights about the last part.



Learning from others
A while ago I read this long, but great essay by Andy Matuschak and Michael Nielsen. One part of the essay (about tools for thought, but it applies here) that it takes large sums to invent something completely new, but afterwards (for competitors) it's much cheaper to create something similar.

It might seem like a stretch to treat icons like this, but there is a surprising amount of hidden complexity.
I designed many icons in my life, but adding a few icons to a set is a different story than building a new one.


Size and safe area:
I took icons from icon sets that I find well designed and analysed how they are designed. Specifically the artboard size and padding/safe area:
Analysis Icons.png
Analysis Icons.png (218.22 KiB) Viewed 2718 times

Usage in apps:
I looked at two CAD-Apps that I think are well designed – OnShape and Fusion360 – to see how those handle icons.
App Analysis.png
App Analysis.png (452.69 KiB) Viewed 2718 times

Automatic processing
I did some work for and with the people behind OpenMoji. They have really impressive pipeline where they e.g. generate all the skin tone combinations for the hand shake emoji via code. I am helping them automate outlining the emojis for dark mode usage. Similar principles could be handy for handling icons.
OpenMoji Dark Mode.png
OpenMoji Dark Mode.png (296.52 KiB) Viewed 2718 times

Customization
One fear I had when designing the icons so far is that you are then stuck with exactly the icons as designed, since they are just images. It's much easier to theme the window of an app, than its icons.

Apple has a really interesting system for their SF Symbols. They are available in multiple thicknesses, but also in multiple styles – most notably monochrome, hierarchical and multicolor.
Apple Customization System.png
Apple Customization System.png (87.75 KiB) Viewed 2718 times

They use a fairly limited set of colors that works across a huge range of icons. This limited and predefined set of colors means, that it's easy to theme them – they have a dedicated app for that purpose?!
Apple Icons Colors.png
Apple Icons Colors.png (108.59 KiB) Viewed 2718 times

Conclusion
Those two aspects (the right design size + theming capabilities) were those I really wasn't sure how to approach best.
But I think taking the best bits from what those companies are doing and adjusting them where needed, is gonna work nicely :)
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