aesthetics

[jmak]

On Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 10:47 AM, Vincent <mailinglists at vinnl.nl> wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 2:35 PM, jmak <jozmak at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Here the point is: everything has a certain logic, regardless of the
>> circumstances. If you build a house, you cannot start with the roof,
>> but with the foundations, walls and so forth. If someone insists of
>> building the roof first, you know that this person has never built a
>> house before. But this can be rectified by explaining to him that the
>> right way building the house is by starting with the foundation. If
>> insists, you wont waiste your time on the project. This is the case
>> with graphic artists, they come, look around, register what's going on
>> make a few sensible recommendations and when see that nothing happens
>> they leave. I think many would stay if they could meaningfully
>> contribute to the project.
>
> OK, in general, I think we agree with you. However, what is your proposed
> solution? Who should do what? Who is currently doing what wrong? We don't
> just need a description of the problem, but also a proposed solution to make
> progress. I can't think of any.
>

Ok, here is the plan.

The most important thing would be to fix the usplash; if nobody on
this list can help with this, I will write to the maintainer, maybe he
can give me some clues about the solution.

Next decide on the icon theme. This we can do it right now.

The next thing would be deciding on the gtk theme. I recommend using a
flat design. To make things as smooth as possible, I recommend Unity.
This is a good compromise. It is already packaged and is in the Ubuntu
repository. Cimi is also working on brand new murrina engine and
themes, but it is not sure that will be ready for October. He said
that he will release them in September, but this is just a tentative
schedule. If the new murrina will come out we will replace unity with
murrina because they look topnotch. If not we are going to stick with
unity.  Jim is also working on something. Lets see what he will come
up with.

We can theme the panel only after deciding on the gtk theme because it
should reflect its color scheme. But we  can fine-tune the icon theme
by improving the icons appearance on the panel and removing label
backgrounds right away.

I've already published a version of the gdm but that is not the final
version. I've already created an improved version with text color
fixes of the login box; I also modified a bit the logo and the
background that will be the same as the wallpaper. Because nobody
reported any bugs (other than the text color) I assume that it works
ok.

And lastly, the wallpaper, which can wait until the more important
fixes will be implemented.

This is the code used to fix the icon appearance on the panel and
clean up the labels. We can fine-tune the text color later. And we can
add color to the panel when the gtk theme will be decided upon.

#label transparency

style "xfdesktop-icon-view" {
XfdesktopIconView::label-alpha = 0

base[NORMAL] = "#00ff00"
base[SELECTED] = "#5050ff"
base[ACTIVE] = "#0000ff"

fg[NORMAL] = "#ffffff"
fg[SELECTED] = "#ff0000"
fg[ACTIVE] = "#ff0000"
}
widget_class "*XfdesktopIconView*" style "xfdesktop-icon-view"

#panel icon improvement

style "panel"
{
xthickness = 0
ythickness = 0
}

widget_class "*Panel*"      style "panel"
widget "*Panel*"            style "panel"
class "*Panel*"             style "panel"