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List:       kde-artists
Subject:    Re: K-ARTIST:Mime icons usability & visibility ;-)
From:       ante <vitanova () softhome ! net>
Date:       2002-04-19 9:49:57
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On Thursday 18 April 2002 16:28, ante wrote:
> On Thursday 18 April 2002 16:05, Julien Olivier wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I think the best way to help artists without leasing users is to make an
> > application able to make icons using pre-defined symbols.
> >
> > For example, you would have some libraries containing MIME type symbols
> > that you could automatically place on your hand-drawn icon background.
> > Press "generate icon-set" and you get a complete mime-type set.

Well, programs able to do things like this already exist. Both photoshop and  
the gimp have batch operations. 

Take, make a directory with 2 subdirectories, Mime-background and 
Mime-elements. In the first you put one file, the background, in the other 
all elements you want to paste over the background. It is best if the pencil 
is allready called txt.png, if you want to make the txt icon with it, etc. 
Make a multilayered file with the background in a low layer. Now in a batch 
operation you load this file, load an element in a layer above, position it, 
add a drop shadow, what you like, save it multilayered and export it to png, 
in an other directory, under the name of the element, start all over with the 
next element.

This way, be using different backgrounds, diffferent element sets, playing 
with positioning, etc, you can create sets of mimetypes. When you do things 
automatically, there probably is a lot to repair too, here the multilayered 
files come in handy. 

Photoshop has a recorder, so, without coding any artist can record his steps. 
I do not know if it is easy to combine with a batch operation. The GIMP does 
not have a recorder, a script is needed to do things like this. My guess is, 
it takes less than 30 lines.

True, this does not give the user these possibilities. It does make testing 
things out easier for artists. It's no problem creating Mime themes. 

Oh, with batch operations, always work with copies! You can batch everything 
away too. Like, all files end up with the same filename, they overwrite each 
other, in the end there is only one file left, hey, where are all my 
files???? (Speaking from experience :-)

Cordialemente,

Ante

> No, you're not off topic. In a way this does exist. Take the GIMP, put the
> empty mime in a low level layer, put the symbols in the layers above, and
> by hiding and showing the layers you get the icons, while you can change
> the background. Actually, it is the way we should work :-)




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