[GRASS-dev] default icon set in wxGUI

[Glynn Clements]

Michael Barton wrote:

> >> OK. I see Michael's points. One thing though:
> >>
> >>> Also, while the GRASS icons may seem large to some,
> >>
> >> They are too large.
> >
> > That depends upon your monitor resolution. Icons need to have
> > sufficient pixels and also need to be physically large enough on
> > screen. On a low resolution monitor, the pixel size tends to be the
> > limiting factor; on a high resolution monitor, the physical size is
> > the limiting factor.
> >
> > Ideally, you would have icons available in a range of pixel sizes, and
> > select the size based upon the monitor resolution, monitor size and
> > your eyesight. Windows has 16, 24, 32 and 48-pixel versions of most of
> > the shell icons, while Gnome/KDE apps tend to have 16, 22, 24, 32, 48
> > and 64 pixel versions.
> 
> In fact, wxPython can resize icons, within reason given their base  
> resolution, on the fly. I originally had the 'classic' icons resized  
> because of a bug in earlier versions of wxPython. That has been  
> dropped but looks like it could easily be reimplemented.

Ugh; rescaling icons tends to be ugly. You either get artifacts or a
blur, depending upon whether anti-aliasing is used.

It's much better to select from a set of icons which are either
hand-tuned, or rendered from scalable (e.g. SVG) artwork with hinting. 

If you are going to rescale images, it's best to just have a single
set of large (e.g. 64x64 or larger) icons, rather than rescaling e.g. 
a 32x32 icon which was itself generated by rescaling a 64x64 icon. Or
use SVG icons, if they are supported.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>