[Qgis-developer] Cast your vote: Default icon theme for QGIS 2.0

[Larry Shaffer]

Hi Robert,

I like the consistent look of your icon set. The results of Tim's poll
clearly show many wish to switch to your set right away [0].

Since QGIS is icon- and toolbar-heavy in overall look (in default
configuration), whatever you can do to improve the definitive visual
change from the old default icon set to a new one will greatly help.
This way users will clearly 'see' why the switch was made.

Just as a suggestion, what do you think about converting your icon set
to 2.5D from their current 2D version? I have attached two quick
mock-ups to illustrate, essentially adding just enough drop shadow to
have the icons 'pop' a little more from the toolbar. Too much shadow
effect and it starts to degrade the sharpness of some thinner aspects,
meaning a single shadow calculation won't work across the set.


Also, there has been discussion on condensing some icon groups down to
one entry icon that has a popup menu (Qt's InstantPopup or
MenuButtonPopup [1]). A few toolbar icons use this now, e.g. Feature
Selection tool. Using that technique and condensing functionality into
better dialogs (see Nathan's import dialog [2]) will go a long way
towards thinning the current icon-heavy look.

When considering condensing such items care has to be taken not to
introduce extra clicks for tools that should be only one click away,
e.g. Pan and Zoom tools. Though group entry icons are very similar to
menubar menus at that point, they have the added advantages of being
language-agnostic and visible when users switch to full screen mode,
which usually hides the menubar.

So, there may need to be some new icons made that represent tool
groups, though some discussion on condensing tools has to happen
first.

[0] http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=4ffb5dfae4b08ad9dfac3f70
[1] ToolButtonPopupMode: http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.7/qtoolbutton.html
[2] http://osgeo-org.1560.n6.nabble.com/Cast-your-vote-Default-icon-theme-for-QGIS-2-0-tp4987108p4987577.html

Regards,

Larry Shaffer
Dakota Cartography
Black Hills, South Dakota


On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 6:37 AM, Robert Szczepanek <robert at szczepanek.pl> wrote:
> My answer was too fast...
>
> On 26.07.2012 14:27, Robert Szczepanek wrote:
>>
>> Hi Matthias and Tim,
>> On 26.07.2012 14:10, Matthias Kuhn wrote:
>>>
>>> But I just noticed this inconsistency between the "Map Navigation"
>>> toolbar and the print composer. The pan tool in the "Map Navigation"
>>> consists of four arrows into all directions. In the print composer it is
>>> one arrow with a square behind it.
>>
>>
>> You are right. We should select just one of them. One arrow seems for me
>> at this moment better choice. Expanation - below.
>
>
> I was wrong and those are two different functions - pan (in navigator) vs.
> move and pan in composer.
> So 'one arrow with a square' in composer should be replaced with 'for
> arrows' from map navigator.
>
> sorry for noise ...
> Robert
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