SVG is capable of reading outside stylesheets (like CSS), right?
So theoretically it would be possible to convience KSVG to read the colour scheme currently in use by KDE. This way the icon styles could match the whole look and feel of KDE better. Some of the colours in the icon would be already defined in the svg, but others would be defined by the colour scheme in use. Of course the artist who made the icons could decide which colours he will "hardcode" and which he'll make "schemable".
Of course this idea could not be just restricted to KDE coulour scheme files - which some people made me understand actually wouldn't be too useful except for shadow, fade or glow effects. A very good way to use this awesome feature of SVG would be to make "theme files" for each individual iconset. This way you could download an iconset and in it decide which colour-setting of it you'd like to use - imagine noia (or even lila, flat, ...) in 5 different colour schemes!
p.s. the "download" is just a link to http://kde.svg.orgLast changelog:
TODO: * mockup (still too busy!) * find people to realise the idea (i'm no artist and no coder!)
ChangeLog: * added idea for individual iconsets themes (instead of restricting it to the KDE colour scheme files)
There was also a little discussion about this on http://dot.kde.org/1103326589/.
I even tried to add the CSS2 system colors to the svg icon renderer, but at some point I gave up because (1) some functions needed access to a KApplication, which the icon renderer doesn't use, and (2) because it was slightly too late to add new features for 3.4 anyway ;)
If this problem is solved, the rest is fairly trivial. It's not necessary to add full support for CSS(2), just define color constants like "Background" etc.
This feature could make more sense for SVG background because backgrounds are more about design, whereas icons should be easy to recognize. I'm not sure I want all my icons to use similar colors. But otoh I know that other people do...
I think it's not going to be hugely beneficial for icons to be able to access the 'desktop' colours except for maybe for highlights and shadows? extra tint colours for the icons would be nice to have though.
It would also be great if widgets and borders could be drawn using SVG, and they would need to know about desktop colours.
Anyhow, product a mocup to nail down your ideas.
...actually already been thought of. It was being worked on by the guys behind the lila iconset. It would be a good idea to contact them. Since then, the project has rather taken a backseat because of more pressing tasks.
hmmm, could you link to that page?
All i could find was an app that *changes* the colours *in* the SVG.
I'm thinking of making the SVG use an outside file to read the colours (and styles for the lines, etc) in the first place.
If there's a similar project, please tell me - no reason in reinventing hot water, is there?
I think they ideally wanted to do dynamic changing of colours with css etc but were limited by what the svg engines were capable of. Hence they had to go with the script.
I only say to contact them because you have many of the same ideas and they know all the pitfalls you'll run into.
Thanks for your concern.
I'll contact them, but I am completely aware that this is a "problem" with ksvg and that they are the guys who can solve it and need convincing.
actually, the beauty of it is, that if the icon designers work as they did untill now, it won't change anything - the iconsets will work as they do now.
they only have an nice new option that they can use. ...but, of course, if there's noone to make such icons, there's no reason for it.
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There was also a little discussion about this on http://dot.kde.org/1103326589/. I even tried to add the CSS2 system colors to the svg icon renderer, but at some point I gave up because (1) some functions needed access to a KApplication, which the icon renderer doesn't use, and (2) because it was slightly too late to add new features for 3.4 anyway ;) If this problem is solved, the rest is fairly trivial. It's not necessary to add full support for CSS(2), just define color constants like "Background" etc. This feature could make more sense for SVG background because backgrounds are more about design, whereas icons should be easy to recognize. I'm not sure I want all my icons to use similar colors. But otoh I know that other people do...
I think it's not going to be hugely beneficial for icons to be able to access the 'desktop' colours except for maybe for highlights and shadows? extra tint colours for the icons would be nice to have though. It would also be great if widgets and borders could be drawn using SVG, and they would need to know about desktop colours. Anyhow, product a mocup to nail down your ideas.
True, and thanks for making me remember that - I've changed it in the description (still found no time for a mockup though ~_~)
...actually already been thought of. It was being worked on by the guys behind the lila iconset. It would be a good idea to contact them. Since then, the project has rather taken a backseat because of more pressing tasks.
that's great :D ...thanks for the info, i'll contact them asap.
hmmm, could you link to that page? All i could find was an app that *changes* the colours *in* the SVG. I'm thinking of making the SVG use an outside file to read the colours (and styles for the lines, etc) in the first place. If there's a similar project, please tell me - no reason in reinventing hot water, is there?
I think they ideally wanted to do dynamic changing of colours with css etc but were limited by what the svg engines were capable of. Hence they had to go with the script. I only say to contact them because you have many of the same ideas and they know all the pitfalls you'll run into.
Thanks for your concern. I'll contact them, but I am completely aware that this is a "problem" with ksvg and that they are the guys who can solve it and need convincing.
... but shouldn't the link be http://svg.kde.org/? Maybe someday. :-) Greetings, Martin
done, but the thing is that you need to make an upload (unless the kde-look system changed lately) and that's a nice work-around
but the icondesigners whould have to support it...
actually, the beauty of it is, that if the icon designers work as they did untill now, it won't change anything - the iconsets will work as they do now. they only have an nice new option that they can use. ...but, of course, if there's noone to make such icons, there's no reason for it.