Icons with higher Resolution, Custom imagebox on button of component

Hello,

its Saturday and I'm using the cold outside to work on my plugin. Besides all the fun part of coding, I really need to solve on how to draw good icons. I probably spend already 10-15 hours of my spare free time only to find out how to make some good tiny 24x24 icons, and I'm really getting frustrated with it. Probably there is a high chance that I'm quite unskilled with icon-design, and that I will ignore icons at all. :)

Is there maybe a possibility to write a custom component (c#) having an image-box attached. In order to explain my plugin functionality I need higher detail, and I don't have fun in downscaling vectors to this tiny .png size.

So the idea is to put a imagebox on button of my component.

I probably have to create a custom component attribute in order to add an image-box.

But how would that work exactly?

Has somebody tried something similar?

Besides that, is there any chance in higher res icons for further gh releases?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on January 7, 2017 at 8:21am

You can override the display of components if you want to include large image boxes. I don't recommend deviating from the standard look though except in cases of emergency, and I don't think this qualifies as such. Component layout is a complicated algorithm and you'll end up writing a lot of code if you want to change some small part of it.

You say you already have vector icons but can't export them as 24x24 bitmap images?

It is also possible to override the help page for your component if you want to include higher res images and text. The help is just an html page so you have access to a large layout and typesetting feature set.

------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, if you sketch what it is exactly you're after, I can maybe type up some example attribute code.

Besides that, is there any chance in higher res icons for further gh releases?

Yes. GH2 is build using context-aware algorithmic icons. It will still be possible to use bitmaps or even vector graphics if you want, but in the end each icon is a tiny program that draws itself. I felt this is the only sensible solution. SVG or PDF vectors just aren't flexible enough to really do all the things I want icons to be able to do.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on January 9, 2017 at 3:09am

No, I can save them as 24 x24 bitmaps, but after .png conversion its not looking good anymore due to limited pixels. I have read some icon tutorials and they all saying that for small icons vector-pixel conversion tends to work unsatisfying.I tried 2 methods.

I see. Yeah, you have to be pretty specific about your vector shapes when you downscale. They must be aligned exactly with the target pixel grid, otherwise you get blurry results. I admit it's a bit of a skill that a lot of programmers can't really afford to learn. Time constraints and all that.

You are right, I might dispose the idea with the imagebox, because I still need to draw 24x24 icons then anyway. I probably will work more with Inkscape. I might also abstract it more, and probably spend more time onto good documention.

If you don't like your icons, you could always set the icon display mode of your component to NickName in the constructor. But that wouldn't help with the icons on the tabs and panels obviously, but then nothing will.

Another possible way forward (still not recommended, but that's just my opinion) is to adjust the component layout to use larger images for your components. Say 48x48, or 64x64. If that's something you'd be interested in, I can have a look at what it would take.

RSS