Waterleaf icon theme

Jaerrib · 2019-07-24 17:08

For those who are unaware, the Waterleaf icon theme has replaced Paper-Q4OS in Centaurus. It is a direct fork of that theme but is now being maintained as an additional project. The files are hosted on Github. After some discussion with the Q4OS team, I will be maintaining two branches, a development branch, where initial changes will be made and tested, and a stable branch, which will be used for packaging. The latter will be what Centaurus uses for its updates.

One of the reasons the icon theme was moved to an external project was to welcome contributors other than myself to work on it. The primary goal is to fill in the gaps that currently exist when using the theme with Trinity, but other desktops will continue to be supported as well. Please consider this an open invitation to contribute! If you or another user has suggestions, bugs reports, etc. or just want to help out, please let me know here or via Github.

q4osteam · 2019-07-30 08:32

Would you add our team "q4osteam" as a GitHub collaborator to the development branch, please. We are going to push some updates.

Jaerrib · 2019-07-30 23:37

q4osteam wrote:

Would you add our team "q4osteam" as a GitHub collaborator to the development branch, please. We are going to push some updates.

Added! Thanks in advance for the help

q4osteam · 2019-08-01 11:21

It looks the access is still disabled, see attachment ?

Attachments:

ghpush.png, Size: 25.91 KiB, Downloads: 705

Jaerrib · 2019-08-01 23:50

I'm new to adding collaborators on Github. The attached screenshot is what I see when I go into the settings. Am I missing something? Here's the invite link that should have come through: https://github.com/jaerrib/waterleaf-ic … nvitations

Attachments:

github_collaborators.png, Size: 49.92 KiB, Downloads: 696

q4osteam · 2019-08-02 09:23

We were able to accept invitation using the link provided. Thanks.

Jaerrib · 2019-08-04 15:46

I merged the various changes since adding the development branch. I'll publish the release later today. The stable release is available here.

On a side note, it appears that the Papirus icon theme is adding support for TDE. Check out the notes on their recent release.

Last edited by Jaerrib (2019-08-04 16:51)

Jaerrib · 2019-08-06 02:28

Jaerrib wrote:

On a side note, it appears that the Papirus icon theme is adding support for TDE. Check out the notes on their recent release.

Here's a link to the issue tracker which highlights some of the commits already made on their repo. I'm mentioning this primarily because, aside from the folder color differences, I wonder if I'm duplicating the work of a larger project. Would it be worth trying to submit TDE specific icons to the Papirus project versus maintaining the current one?

q4osteam · 2019-08-06 07:37

Yes, the Papirus project could adopt most of TDE icons from Waterleaf, so it would be worth trying anyway. However, from our point of view, the Waterleaf icons integrates better with the Debonaire theme, and apart from that, they are much more tested out then the Papirus icons in TDE. So we would prefer continue to work on Waterleaf definitely, while sharing as much as possible with Papirus. Oppositely, we can receive as much as possible TDE icons from Papirus.

Jaerrib · 2019-08-07 02:39

q4osteam wrote:

Yes, the Papirus project could adopt most of TDE icons from Waterleaf, so it would be worth trying anyway. However, from our point of view, the Waterleaf icons integrates better with the Debonaire theme, and apart from that, they are much more tested out then the Papirus icons in TDE. So we would prefer continue to work on Waterleaf definitely, while sharing as much as possible with Papirus. Oppositely, we can receive as much as possible TDE icons from Papirus.

Thanks. I appreciate the input. I didn't want to feel that I was wasting effort. I'll keep an eye on the TDE related development over on the Papirus project. I'm not opposed to incorporating some of their work. They may actually save me some time by addressing some of the issues we've observed more quickly than I could just due to having more contributors. From the standpoint of integration, the color pallet of their icons could be adjusted to match the Paper theme. Papirus tends to be more Material design compared with the softer overall look of Paper.

Jaerrib · 2019-09-01 22:32

After a bit of a lull, I was rather busy today pushing some changes to the Waterleaf development branch. To that end, I published a development snapshot for testing before I push everything to the master branch for the next stable release.

Aside from all of the original icons I had submitted for Paper-Q4OS being touched up to match the Paper color palette, I created multiple symlinks and incorporated some icons from Papirus to help fill out some of the TDE specific icons that were missing.

Here's a link if you want to check it out:
https://github.com/jaerrib/waterleaf-ic … 190901-dev

Last edited by Jaerrib (2019-09-14 20:44)

q4osteam · 2019-09-01 22:39

Great, we will perform some testing and post a feedback as soon as possible.

Jaerrib · 2019-09-07 01:05

With the last update to the development branch, a lot of the rework has been done so far as recoloring my original icons to better suit the Paper color scheme and adding some symlinks. If anyone spots something out of sorts or if a particular icon is missing, please let me know. In addition, if there are any TDE specific applications that need some attention, let me know that as well. Whatever helps the overall polish and presentation of the desktop is worthwhile in my opinion. I'm actually considering working on icons for Amarok if anyone is interested in that sort of thing.

q4osteam · 2019-09-09 12:37

Jaerrib wrote:

... I published a development snapshot for testing before I push everything to the master branch for the next stable release.

We have checked the https://github.com/jaerrib/waterleaf-ic … g/20190901 development release. The changes bring overall improvement, the majority of icons have been improved, although a few possible regressions have been identified:

1. q4os-updatemgr.svg
- The 16,24,32 sizes should have no color transitions.
- Icons have lost more proper whitespacing.
- The original 16size icon had simpler, more schematic look with thicker lines and less colors, please make it in the same way.

2. desktop-profiler.svg
- The new icon has got shadows for 32 size, it shouldn't have.
- The lines for 16 size are now thinner.

3. configure.svg
- The original 16size icon had simpler, more schematic look with less colors, please make it in the same way.

All in all, this release makes a great progress and the overall look improvement is obvious, thanks for that.

---

Finally a few rules for the new and the icons being reworked:

A. We would need to redefine "Whitespace" as discussed before in another topic. The whitespace should increase proportionally along with the icon size - no whitespace for 16, and cca 20% for size 128. Almost all icons in the Waterleaf theme don't follow this property, so they could be reworked ocassionally, step by step.

B. Shadows, effects, color blending and transitions should be applied from 48 size and above only.

C. The 16 size icons should be simplified and a bit more "schematic" with thicker lines, less colors and no whitespace, to be better distinguishable.

deanr · 2019-09-10 19:01

Thanks for the continued work on this theme.

I'm new on Q4OS and it's a very attractive set of icons.

Jaerrib · 2019-09-10 21:41

q4osteam wrote:

Jaerrib wrote:
... I published a development snapshot for testing before I push everything to the master branch for the next stable release.
We have checked the https://github.com/jaerrib/waterleaf-ic … g/20190901 development release. The changes bring overall improvement, the majority of icons have been improved, although a few possible regressions have been identified:
1. q4os-updatemgr.svg
- The 16,24,32 sizes should have no color transitions.
- Icons have lost more proper whitespacing.
- The original 16size icon had simpler, more schematic look with thicker lines and less colors, please make it in the same way.
2. desktop-profiler.svg
- The new icon has got shadows for 32 size, it shouldn't have.
- The lines for 16 size are now thinner.
3. configure.svg
- The original 16size icon had simpler, more schematic look with less colors, please make it in the same way.
All in all, this release makes a great progress and the overall look improvement is obvious, thanks for that.
---
Finally a few rules for the new and the icons being reworked:
A. We would need to redefine "Whitespace" as discussed before in another topic. The whitespace should increase proportionally along with the icon size - no whitespace for 16, and cca 20% for size 128. Almost all icons in the Waterleaf theme don't follow this property, so they could be reworked ocassionally, step by step.
B. Shadows, effects, color blending and transitions should be applied from 48 size and above only.
C. The 16 size icons should be simplified and a bit more "schematic" with thicker lines, less colors and no whitespace, to be better distinguishable.

Thank you for looking over the development snapshot. I appreciate the feedback. In particular, I had forgotten about some of the tweaks that were made to the 16 size icons. I'll go back through and make the suggested changes sometime this week.

With regard to the whitepace, I'm aware of the inconsistencies. I had created a general guideline at one point based on some of the existing Paper-Q4OS icons, but I know many of the icons do not follow this. I'll start working on those updates after the specific design suggestions you've made have been pushed to the dev branch.

Jaerrib · 2019-09-10 21:49

deanr wrote:

Thanks for the continued work on this theme.
I'm new on Q4OS and it's a very attractive set of icons.

Thank you! Like many open source projects, I'm certainly standing on the shoulders of others. Waterleaf continues the Paper-Q4OS theme, but even that contained portions of the Paper, Papirus and Deepin icon sets. Using Q4OS has been a great experience for me personally. I'm not a programmer so I decided to help out where I could in return. I'm happy that the team and community have been receptive to my contributions.

Jaerrib · 2019-09-11 23:50

q4osteam wrote:

We have checked the https://github.com/jaerrib/waterleaf-ic … g/20190901 development release. The changes bring overall improvement, the majority of icons have been improved, although a few possible regressions have been identified:
1. q4os-updatemgr.svg
- The 16,24,32 sizes should have no color transitions.
- Icons have lost more proper whitespacing.
- The original 16size icon had simpler, more schematic look with thicker lines and less colors, please make it in the same way.
2. desktop-profiler.svg
- The new icon has got shadows for 32 size, it shouldn't have.
- The lines for 16 size are now thinner.
3. configure.svg
- The original 16size icon had simpler, more schematic look with less colors, please make it in the same way.\

The above changes have been made and pushed to the development branch.

q4osteam · 2019-09-12 14:44

Yes, the changes look perfect. The only remaining glitch we see, is the whitespace for "q4os-updatemgr.svg" icon. Please compare, the 32 icon has larger whitespace in comparison to 48. Actually, 48 and above seems to be somewhat large, relatively to the image size.

In general, feel free to make the whitespace for 16 icons just zero, or almost zero. 48 and above icons could have the same whitespace for the first approximation, in order to simplify work.

We know, it's a bit experimenting, we would need to find the right standard for the icons treating. We will try to compile a more exact documentation to specify how to deal with whitespaces for the particular icon sizes. Anyway, thanks for the great work and patience.

Jaerrib · 2019-09-12 23:50

q4osteam wrote:

Yes, the changes look perfect. The only remaining glitch we see, is the whitespace for "q4os-updatemgr.svg" icon. Please compare, the 32 icon has larger whitespace in comparison to 48. Actually, 48 and above seems to be somewhat large, relatively to the image size.

I pushed some changes to sizes 48, 64 and 128 for q4os-updatemgr using the whitespace guideline I had come up with from looking through some of the Paper-Q4OS icons awhile back.

q4osteam wrote:

We know, it's a bit experimenting, we would need to find the right standard for the icons treating. We will try to compile a more exact documentation to specify how to deal with whitespaces for the particular icon sizes. Anyway, thanks for the great work and patience.

Any suggestions are certainly welcome! In the meantime, here's the basic guide I mentioned above (listed as icon size (the "canvas") - max height or width of the icon element - percent of space used (rounded up)):

16   15.5  97%
24   19    79%
32   26    81%
48   39    81%
64   50    78%
128  100   78%

q4osteam · 2019-09-13 09:40

Jaerrib wrote:

I pushed some changes to sizes 48, 64 and 128 for q4os-updatemgr ...

Looks perfect now.

Jaerrib wrote:

... here's the basic guide I mentioned above (listed as icon size (the "canvas") - max height or width of the icon element - percent of space used (rounded up)) ...

Yes, it's sufficient so far. Again, 48 and above icons could have, however must not, the same whitespace (the 48) for now, in order to simplify work. We will make and publish some documentation to standardize whitespaces and other iconset properties.

Jaerrib · 2019-09-14 16:10

q4osteam wrote:

Looks perfect now.

Thanks. I set up a pull request for the last batch of updates on the development branch. Review at your leisure. Once they're on master, I'll do the next stable release.

q4os wrote:

Yes, it's sufficient so far. Again, 48 and above icons could have, however must not, the same whitespace (the 48) for now, in order to simplify work. We will make and publish some documentation to standardize whitespaces and other iconset properties.

Any help in creating standards is a huge help and much appreciated. My "guideline" was just a rough concept and wasn't strictly adhered to. On a related note, the Elementary team have some good documentation for iconography on their Human Interface Guidelines. Maybe that could be used as a starting point for creating standards for Waterleaf.

Jaerrib · 2019-09-14 20:45

Newest stable version (20190914) released:
https://github.com/jaerrib/waterleaf-ic … g/20190914

q4osteam · 2019-09-18 08:09

Jaerrib wrote:

Newest stable version (20190914) released:
https://github.com/jaerrib/waterleaf-ic … g/20190914

Great release, thanks.

Jaerrib wrote:

If anyone spots something out of sorts or if a particular icon is missing, please let me know.

There are two identical icons in TDE Control panel, "Appearance and themes" and "System administration". A new "Appearance and themes" icon would need to be designed. Also, the command "sudo kcmodules --unlock" unveils another identical icons in Control panel, that would need to be distinguished.

Jaerrib · 2019-09-19 00:12

q4osteam wrote:

There are two identical icons in TDE Control panel, "Appearance and themes" and "System administration". A new "Appearance and themes" icon would need to be designed. Also, the command "sudo kcmodules --unlock" unveils another identical icons in Control panel, that would need to be distinguished.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll take a look at the various identical icons and work on some ideas for replacements.

Q4OS Forum

#1 2019-07-24 17:08

Waterleaf icon theme

#2 2019-07-30 08:32

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#3 2019-07-30 23:37

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#4 2019-08-01 11:21

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#5 2019-08-01 23:50

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#6 2019-08-02 09:23

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#7 2019-08-04 15:46

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#8 2019-08-06 02:28

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#9 2019-08-06 07:37

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#10 2019-08-07 02:39

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#11 2019-09-01 22:32

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#12 2019-09-01 22:39

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#13 2019-09-07 01:05

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#14 2019-09-09 12:37

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#15 2019-09-10 19:01

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#16 2019-09-10 21:41

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#17 2019-09-10 21:49

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#18 2019-09-11 23:50

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#19 2019-09-12 14:44

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#20 2019-09-12 23:50

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#21 2019-09-13 09:40

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#22 2019-09-14 16:10

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#23 2019-09-14 20:45

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#24 2019-09-18 08:09

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

#25 2019-09-19 00:12

Re: Waterleaf icon theme

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