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OS/2 - Technical => Applications => Topic started by: DavidG on 2007.10.08, 21:36:39

Title: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.08, 21:36:39
I finally found time to finish an icon theme based on the Amiga desktop.  It is similar, but I tried to enhance some of the icons.  Some things aren't possible to do.

I spent some more time adding to my theme and have uploaded and updated picture.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.08, 21:42:51
Looks awesome dude!
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.08, 21:50:16
Here is what the original looked like.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.08, 22:13:38
Amiga has UI transparency? I am jealous :(
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.08, 23:52:48
Chris W has candyfolder which brings you (pseudo)transparency for WPS-folders

http://www.os2world.com/cdwriting/index.htm

It's main drawback is that it does not work at screen resolutions higher than 1024x768.  If you try, it will either not work or lock up the WPS to were an archive must be reinstalled.

He has the source code on his web page if someone wanted to fix this problem.  This is really a nice class when it works.



Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.10, 19:51:54
I worked on my theme some more and replaced the original picture I uploaded with a new one.  See the original post.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.22, 07:26:09
I created a new desktop background image which I have included in revision 1 of my theme.  I have attached a screen shot.  It looks good on my laptop, but I don't know about a CRT screen.

Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.22, 07:46:16
A sneak preview of another theme I have been working on.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.22, 08:20:55
Thats pretty weird, and very awesome. Maybe the wall-paper should be a blue-print or some architectural draft :)
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.25, 02:53:33
Here is another theme I am playing around with. I call it "Blackboard.  It would need a white or black background, with black being the suggested background with white text.  Believe it or not, this is an extremely hard theme to develop due to the color limitations I am trying to impose.  I have even experimented with make this theme transparant.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.25, 03:08:57
Same theme with a white background with black text.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.25, 04:48:00
How do you do all of this? What tools do you use?
Whats the color/size limitations of the eCS icons. Can they support 16/24/32bit color, or are they only 8bit?
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: RobertM on 2007.10.25, 06:26:46
Rule of thumb I use in creating any controls for OS/2 is use the minimum amount of colors necessary for the desired look [most of my icons start out in 24bit and are then reduced to 8bit when I am finished working on them. I keep certain ones 24bit to use as templates to create others... for instance, when I create a folder set, I create an open folder, and a closed folder with no other graphics; then always keep that original 24bit set of files so when I create an "Assistance Center" folder (for instance), I can start with that 24bit folder, then put the question mark on it and convert THAT new set to 8bit. That means each icon has its own palette, but ends up being 8bit (or in some cases less) when completed].

I believe the limitation is dependent on the format used. I have 24bit icon files in OS/2 icon format that I use (though I wouldnt recommend it - it does use a lot more resources). In translating Windows icon files to OS/2 icon format, I've found that the programs I use (mostly PMView) do not properly read the transparency info and the transparent section is read as black and turned to black when saved in OS/2 icon format, instead of transparent)

PNG icons would be limited to the color limit supported by the format. The problem I have had with PNG icons is creating transparency regions (none of the software I work with seems to properly create PNG transparencies - or I am simply doing something wrong)... so I too am hoping David finds the time to answer your question too...

David?
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.25, 06:28:20
Hi Saijin

To begin, doing an icon theme is a lot of work.  I started messing with graphics when I figured out I would probably never be a programmer.  I then started playing with graphics and said "I can do this."  Everytime I do something, I learn a little bit more. Over the past 6 years, I have done animated mouse pointers, icon themes, and windows themes.

Grab the icon themes toolkit from here and read the html.

<http://www.ecomstation.com/edp/mod.php?mod=ecsfile&cat=4>

Look at the number of icons involved.  Then multiply this by 4.  eCS and OS/2 use multipage icons and have for years.  Each icon contains at least 4 icons of different sizes.  The multiplage icon can contain only 40x40 and 32x32 icons, however, this leaves the operating system to modify for the smaller sizes when needed.  The operating system does a poor job when it comes to resizing the system icons to small icons.  One of the things one needs to learn is how to use the icon editor that comes with eCS.  From experience, an icon can be 2 colors, 16 colors, 256 colors, and RGB.  For icons with lots of colors, you want RBG.  I started by using the templates in the toolkit.  From there I replaced their folders with my own.

I usually develop my theme in Windows using Photoshop Elements 3.0.  I bought version 4 and found it unuable.  I make templates of the folders in varing sizes.  I then do the additional modifications to the folders by creating templates of thesemodifications.  I then layer one over the other.

From here I boot to eCS and use PMView to copy the bitmap over to icon folder I am using as a template. I started with one from the toolkit.  I normally convert the graphic to 256 colors before copying it the multipage icon I am using for a template in the icon editor.  In the icon editor, I make an additional changes I need to and then save. 

One thing one must remember when doing icons for eCS is that any light color on the edge of the icon will show up as white on a dark background.  Thus, a lot of the time, I have to modify the colors to darker colors so the icon will look at least decent.

Aother thing to remember when copying a bitmap from PMView to icon editor to to copy a 40x40 bitmap to a 40x40 icon in icon editor.  If the sizes don't match, no telling what one will end up with.

Lastly, always convert to 256 colors before copying to the icon editor.

My first theme took me over a month and that includes working almost every day on it.  Now I can do one in around a week if I work everyday for as long I feel like it.  Doing a theme is so demanding that somtimes, I may walk away for months before coming back and finishing.

I started with windows themes when I first attempted graphics.  Windows themes would be an ealier route to try if you wanted to try somthing.  I created something in the neighborhood of 135 windows themes before I moved on to icon thems.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.25, 06:38:27
Quote from: RobertM on 2007.10.25, 06:26:46
Rule of thumb I use in creating any controls for OS/2 is use the minimum amount of colors necessary for the desired look [most of my icons start out in 24bit and are then reduced to 8bit when I am finished working on them. I keep certain ones 24bit to use as templates to create others... for instance, when I create a folder set, I create an open folder, and a closed folder with no other graphics; then always keep that original 24bit set of files so when I create an "Assistance Center" folder (for instance), I can start with that 24bit folder, then put the question mark on it and convert THAT new set to 8bit. That means each icon has its own palette, but ends up being 8bit (or in some cases less) when completed].

I believe the limitation is dependent on the format used. I have 24bit icon files in OS/2 icon format that I use (though I wouldnt recommend it - it does use a lot more resources). In translating Windows icon files to OS/2 icon format, I've found that the programs I use (mostly PMView) do not properly read the transparency info and the transparent section is read as black and turned to black when saved in OS/2 icon format, instead of transparent)

PNG icons would be limited to the color limit supported by the format. The problem I have had with PNG icons is creating transparency regions (none of the software I work with seems to properly create PNG transparencies - or I am simply doing something wrong)... so I too am hoping David finds the time to answer your question too...

David?

A good Windows program to create and modify Windows icons is IconLover.  This is a really nice icon program even though it does not handle OS/2 icons.  To create an eCS icon from a Windows icon, I would have to save each sized bitmp to another file format such as jpg.  I would then make changes to each size with Photoshop Elements and save.  Boot to Windows and each jpg from PMView to the icon editor and clean the graphic up even more.  There is no easy way to convert a Windows icon to a OS/2 icon.

I have never done PNG icons, so I can't comment on that aspect.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: lpino on 2007.10.25, 17:30:31
There are some icon convertion programs available at hobbes. I developed one of them and you could convert the icons from the Win format into the OS/2 format. The advantage of the one I did was that you convert all the icons placed in a folder and the 32x32 was converted into 40x40 without scaling just filling the border with background, that way you got an icon with 16x16, 20x20, 32x32 and 40x40. It supported 24 bits format and it didn't have the problem of PMView of painting the background black. It doesn't support PNG or any new windows format though.

The other program was very good one, and you could convert windows icon libraries into the os/2 format. The sources are also available so a programmer could include support for the new windows formats.

Leonardo Pino

Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.25, 23:11:11
Interesting. I was always wondering why the OS/2 icons were not high-color, I thought it was a limtation of PM or something, but if they can render RGB then there is potential for some very clean looking icons.

Do RGB icons really take that much more than 256 color icons?
Would you ever consider making a high-def and 256color distribution of your themes so people could choose?
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: davidfor on 2007.10.26, 03:05:43
Quote from: lpino on 2007.10.25, 17:30:31
There are some icon convertion programs available at hobbes. I developed one of them and you could convert the icons from the Win format into the OS/2 format. The advantage of the one I did was that you convert all the icons placed in a folder and the 32x32 was converted into 40x40 without scaling just filling the border with background, that way you got an icon with 16x16, 20x20, 32x32 and 40x40. It supported 24 bits format and it didn't have the problem of PMView of painting the background black. It doesn't support PNG or any new windows format though.

The other program was very good one, and you could convert windows icon libraries into the os/2 format. The sources are also available so a programmer could include support for the new windows formats.

I have a Rexx program that converts Windows themes to OS/2.  One of the steps was to convert the icons to OS/2 format and I used one of these two programs.   From memory, I was handling icon libraries, so it must have been the second one.

And I have to agree with David Graser, its a pain doing this.  There are so many icons and other settings to setup and get right.  I have seen some very nice icon sets for Linux and considered converting those, but the amount of work involved was just to much at the time.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.26, 17:19:14
Quote from: lpino on 2007.10.25, 17:30:31
There are some icon convertion programs available at hobbes. I developed one of them and you could convert the icons from the Win format into the OS/2 format. The advantage of the one I did was that you convert all the icons placed in a folder and the 32x32 was converted into 40x40 without scaling just filling the border with background, that way you got an icon with 16x16, 20x20, 32x32 and 40x40. It supported 24 bits format and it didn't have the problem of PMView of painting the background black. It doesn't support PNG or any new windows format though.

The other program was very good one, and you could convert windows icon libraries into the os/2 format. The sources are also available so a programmer could include support for the new windows formats.

Leonardo Pino



Did your icon conversion program handle the conversion of the new Windows multipage icons?  This would be a plus be because all one would have to do would be to go in and do some cleanup after the conversion.

I agree with you about PMView.  It is the only drawback I have with PMView.  To me, one should have the option of selecting either a black or white background.  I would chose the white.

I have noticed that a lot of the icons people have converted from other platforms are either 32x32, 40x40, or contain both sizes.  However, none I have found contain all four sized that are really needed to handle the smaller sizes except for the ones I have uploaded to Hobbes.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.26, 17:39:28
Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.25, 23:11:11
Interesting. I was always wondering why the OS/2 icons were not high-color, I thought it was a limtation of PM or something, but if they can render RGB then there is potential for some very clean looking icons.

Do RGB icons really take that much more than 256 color icons?
Would you ever consider making a high-def and 256color distribution of your themes so people could choose?

Most of the icons are 256 with a few RBG.  The ones that exceed 256 colors are the ones I convert to RBG.

As I have stated ealier, the work involved to create an icon theme package is tremendous, even when one cuts corners as I usually do.  I don't believe there would be much benefit to making all the icons RBG since eCS does not handle (don't know what the technical term is since I am just a hobbyist) antialiasing, transparency, or whatever it is called.  Remember, any light colored pixels on the edge of a OS2/eCS icon turn white when viewed.  That is why Windows icons have to be touched up after conversion which is just more work that must be done.

Think about it.  Beside the creator of iThemes, no one else has created any icons themes except for myself.  Again, I believe it is due to the amount of work involved.  My themes aren't perfect, but what does one expect from someone who does it as a hobby and does it for free.

By the way, I just finished working with someone on making another really nice theme for eCS.  This is the only time someone has done something and it was because he thought it was an awesome theme to convert over.  I have to agree with him.  After I helped him finish the conversion along with making improvements, I was really impressed.  I believe the eCS theme is much better than the MacOS or Linux conversions.  You all will just have to wait until it is released along with my drawingboard_blue theme. Due to his help, there will be a WarpIN installation of this theme also.  ;)
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: lpino on 2007.10.26, 18:26:03
Quote from: David Graser on 2007.10.26, 17:19:14
Quote from: lpino on 2007.10.25, 17:30:31
There are some icon convertion programs available at hobbes. I developed one of them and you could convert the icons from the Win format into the OS/2 format. The advantage of the one I did was that you convert all the icons placed in a folder and the 32x32 was converted into 40x40 without scaling just filling the border with background, that way you got an icon with 16x16, 20x20, 32x32 and 40x40. It supported 24 bits format and it didn't have the problem of PMView of painting the background black. It doesn't support PNG or any new windows format though.

The other program was very good one, and you could convert windows icon libraries into the os/2 format. The sources are also available so a programmer could include support for the new windows formats.

Leonardo Pino



Did your icon conversion program handle the conversion of the new Windows multipage icons?  This would be a plus be because all one would have to do would be to go in and do some cleanup after the conversion.

I agree with you about PMView.  It is the only drawback I have with PMView.  To me, one should have the option of selecting either a black or white background.  I would chose the white.

I have noticed that a lot of the icons people have converted from other platforms are either 32x32, 40x40, or contain both sizes.  However, none I have found contain all four sized that are really needed to handle the smaller sizes except for the ones I have uploaded to Hobbes.

I don't remember but I think it did. You always got the 4 sizes available. I converted a lot of icons and it was really fast. I think, back then I used Stardock's icons. But you can download it and check the readme file. I tried to explain how to use it. Years ago Mickael Kaply from Mozilla asked me for the code and I gave them the whole thing. Also Martin published the code under GPL .... I think.

I really wanted to use an scale algorithm that could expand the 32x32 to 40x40 (interpolation of some kind), but I never got the time to do it.
The icon files are just Bitmaps (bmp files), so all the attributes you can think for a BMP you can have it for icons (colors and more).

Leonardo Pino
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.26, 21:30:59
Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.25, 23:11:11

Do RGB icons really take that much more than 256 color icons?
Would you ever consider making a high-def and 256color distribution of your themes so people could choose?

The default folder icons for eCS 1.2 and above if I remember correctly are RGB icons.  The edges look blocky due to the way eCS handles the icon outlines.  Light colors are viewed as white.  This always has to be worked around unless your theme states it needs a light colored background for the icons to look OK.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.27, 12:10:24
I have finished my "blackboard" theme.  There is a preview of what it looks like.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.27, 12:17:41
I have also decided to try a different color scheme with the amiga cabinet style and am presently working on this.  I have no name for this modified version as of yet.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.27, 18:09:16
Liking the blackboard theme, It looks very clean, and a little retro, and I am all for that.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.27, 20:18:31
Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.27, 18:09:16
Liking the blackboard theme, It looks very clean, and a little retro, and I am all for that.

Thanks

Depending on how well it is like, I realized that I can make all kinds of color variations to the scheme.  Red looks good, along with blue and majenta.  Most of the work is done.  All I would have to do would be to replace the black with the color I want.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.28, 11:15:41
I just did a red version of the theme and applied it to the default eCS 2.0 backgrounds
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.28, 12:10:48
Pretty awesome :)
Gonna do the ROYGBIV thing?
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.29, 11:56:00
I have made warpin scripts of the most of my new themes.  I am awaiting premission to use a certain file that I need to update the themes.1st file in the ithemes directory.   Without premission, the file would have to be manually updated for each theme.  If all goes well, maybe by the upcoming weekend i will have the themes uploaded.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: RobertM on 2007.10.30, 04:17:01
For those who are following the forums and skip the home page, David has made one of his themes available - check here:

http://www.os2world.com/content/view/15040/2/ (http://www.os2world.com/content/view/15040/2/)

And much thanks to David Graser and Christian Hennecke for their efforts to make eCS prettier!!!

Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.30, 11:22:30
I have just uploaded four new icon themes to Hobbes.  Presently, that is all they are. All contain Warpin installs.  The bluefilecab is the Amiga theme I had uploaded previously.  Some of the icons in it have been replaced and it can now be installed and removed using Warpin.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.30, 18:20:18
Be aware that if you have more than one version of "rc.exe" on your eCS system, this can play havoc with ithemes.  With eCS 2.0 rc2, the version that works with itheme is found in your OS/2 directory dated

rc.exe  size 88,041 dated 2001/11/29

The IBM toolkit and Open Watcom install there own versions of this.  Certain programs build with different versions of rc.exe.  FM/2 is an example.  It requires its own version to build.  However, this version does not work with ithemes.

If the theme is updates, but all the icons do not, then you need to run
checkini /c
and
cleanini /c /delall /multipass /restart

Once done, select the theme again to reinsall and reboot

I don't know where cleanini can be downloaded.  I have used it for years and have had the same copy.

David
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.10.30, 21:39:45
Talk about contrast, this color scheme looks good on my laptop.  I guess I like bold colors.

Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.10.30, 21:59:16
Wow, thats bright!
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: magog on 2007.11.02, 16:56:15
What about a Tango Style Desktop?
http://tango.freedesktop.org/Tango_Desktop_Project
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.11.02, 20:07:51
Looks pretty good, but I think the lack of transparency AA on OS/2 will make those icons too jaggy, but it would be nice to see them anyway :)
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: RobertM on 2007.11.02, 20:59:17
Hey David,

All my machines in the office are running WSeB... so I am not sure what icons or such I would need - nor what the best format for the titlebar and window buttons I would need, but if you could outline what I needed, I could create a bunch of icon sets.

I have some custom ones (like the one I am currently running), as well as some from the Windows world from Deviant Art (which I already got permission from the authors to include as icon sets for OS/2), and would gladly create any missing icons or buttons to have complete sets for eCS.

In addition to that, I noticed in one of your icon sets, it looked like the titlebar buttons/controls responded to mouseovers... is that true? What other differences do I need to know about the way eCS/eStyler handles controls and such? (or is there somewhere I can find the info - I'll gladly look it up myself... just dont have an eCS installation here to check through the stuff or find the docs).

Something you said in an earlier post made me realize that we need some more efforts on icons and other theming components for eCS, and I'd be glad to put in the effort.

Thanks,
-Robert


Attached you can find a control/titlebar theme based off a WinVista/XP look hand created by me (took the colors from their control set and created matching gradients using Embellish, then created the control overlays such as close, roll-up, maximize, etc). Most of the icons in this theme are NOT mine... they're from a set on Hobbes, so ignore those... my custom folder icons are on a different machine.

Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.11.05, 01:49:04
Another new theme I plan to upload soon.
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.11.05, 06:10:40
I have just uploaded the basic folder theme for eCS 2.0 to Hobbes incoming for anyone interested in checking it out.  This is just an icon folder theme only.

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/basicfolder1-0-0.zip
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: DavidG on 2007.11.06, 00:12:03
I just found a mistake I made in the basicfolder package.  I had the java folder icons backwards.  Uploaded a rev1 to hobbes incoming.

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/basicfolder1-0-0_rev1.zip
Title: Re: New Icon theme for eCS 2.0 desktop
Post by: kim on 2008.03.06, 14:25:51
Speaking of icons; I don't know if this site, Iconspedia (http://www.iconspedia.com/), can give some inspiration regarding icon design and you're able to download the icons for free as well.