I have that a shot to - probably put more time into it than I should have. The killer is identifying gradients in order to detect shapes that are contiguous. Best results were simply finding a combination of channels in one or another color space that got you the most contiguous pixels up to a threshold. There are some neat matrix multiplication tricks you can do to get a gradient to cancel itself out, IF it is linear and IF you test folding it on itself at close to the right angle.
Some icons got to a tolerable starting place for editing using a hacked copy of potracej. But I wouldn’t say there’s much bang for the buck in trying to automate it, it’s just fun to play with. Re the issue of multiple designers, I think the trick does not have to be one designer does it, but to have a style guide - a sort of shared vocabulary of shapes, shadow thicknesses and angles, and color palettes. Funny, I wish Imagine were closer to really usable - the thing I’m really after with that is the thing I’ve wanted since I designed a lot of icons for NetBeans in ’99 (most soon replaced when Sun mandated everything had to have the Metal “flush 3D” look: I.e. an easy way to build up libraries for reusable visual elements that are exactly the kind of vocabulary I’m talking about. -Tim On Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 1:00 PM Eirik Bakke <eba...@ultorg.com> wrote: > I've tried various automated approaches to vectorizing the icons--they > don't produce very good results. Vectorizing algorithms don't work well for > low-resolution images (16x16 in this case), and pixel art scaling > algorithms (e.g. xBRZ or Kopf-Lischinski) don't work well for anti-aliased > images (as our bitmap icons are). > > > > See for example https://people.csail.mit.edu/ebakke/misc/icons2xBRZ.html > , which used the xBRZ algorithm. > > > > -- Eirik > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Eric Bresie <ebre...@gmail.com> > > Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2020 10:20 AM > > To: dev@netbeans.apache.org > > Subject: Re: Re: Status of converting icons to SVG > > > > Was just looking around and saw this link [1]. Seems to favor Inkscape but > there may also be ways to leverage gimp (another popular graphics tool - > not specifically vector based but has some abilities to export with a > little work). > > > > [1] https://askubuntu.com/questions/301540/export-image-as-svg-in-gimp > > > > Eric Bresie > > ebre...@gmail.com > > > > > On September 13, 2020 at 1:47:26 AM CDT, Jaroslav Tulach < > jaroslav.tul...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hello Eirik, > > > thank you for your reply and these lists... > > > > > > > [2] > > > > https://people.csail.mit.edu/ebakke/misc/netbeans-icons/prioritized. > > > > html [3] https://people.csail.mit.edu/ebakke/misc/netbeans-icons/ > > > > > > ...they are helpful. There was a question about the amount of NetBeans > > > icons to redraw inside of OracleLabs and it is great there already is an > answer. > > > > > > > Graphic designers on UpWork ... > > > > ... crowdsourced effort ... > > > > ... the ideal way to do this would be to crowdfund the effort ... > > > > > > Apache can certainly accept donations. If you guys organize a > > > crowdfounding effort and use the money to draw icons that are then > > > donated to Apache, then great! > > > > > > The effort would have to be supported by users of NetBeans, not > > > developers - at least that's what I get from comments like the one by > Matthias: > > > > > > > I still fail to see the difference between repetetive work on the > > > > code base working on source code and repetetive work on graphics. > > > > > > I also consider it unfair to pay a designer, but not pay me as an > > > architect > > > ;-) But if somebody wants to donate the money, then be it! > > > > > > > how to draw icons in > > > > Illustrator > > > > > > Again, if somebody pays for that fun, be it. However as others noted, > > > we are Apache and as such it would be better to adhere to open source > > > style. No Adobe, please, try [Apache > > > Draw](https://www.openoffice.org/) or at least [Inkscape]( > https://inkscape.org/). > > > > > > -jt > > > > > > > > > PS: A note on design... > > > > > > > If many people are working on the effort, a single > > > > > person will still ... > > > > > cleaning them up to a consistent standard > > > > > > People used to claim that [design cannot be done in a > > > committee](http:// wiki.apidesign.org/wiki/Teamwork). NetBeans is a > > > proof that it can be done - one just need to sit down and [specify > > > guidelines](http://wiki.apidesign.org/ > > > wiki/API_Design_Checklist). > > > > > > > * Programming and graphic design are two different skillsets > > > > > > I believe there are common meta-design principles behind API design > > > and UI/ icon design. As such guidelines (like > > > https://material.io/design/guidelines-overview) could help. Of course, > > > there is an overhead to it, but when the scale is large (there cannot be > a single designer for all Android apps, right?), there is no other way to > move forward anyway. > > > > > > Dne úterý 8. září 2020 19:14:41 CEST, Eirik Bakke napsal(a): > > > > In my opinion, the ideal way to do this would be to crowdfund the > > > > effort and have new icons be drawn by a single paid, professional > > > > icon designer. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this. > > > > > > > > In my experience, drawing an icon takes 30 minutes on average [1], > > > > after getting up to speed. Graphic designers on UpWork are perhaps > > > > $30-60/hour (we'd need to find someone who's qualified for this > > > > particular job). For an initial effort, there are about 160 icons that > should be converted [2]. > > > > Ideally, we'd find someone to do it who could later be called upon > > > > to do another 6-700 icons to cover most of the remaining interface, > > > > if the first project is a success. > > > > > > > > As an alternative, for a crowdsourced effort, I'd be happy to do a > > > > "training" session by Zoom to show contributors how to draw icons in > > > > Illustrator according to the style guide described in NETBEANS-2617. > > > > I'm swamped until February 2021, though... > > > > > > > > Some issues to consider: > > > > * Programming and graphic design are two different skillsets. > > > > Programmers do not always produce tasteful graphic designs. * In the > > > > long term, we'd want to convert at least several hundred icons, > > > > maybe thousands [3]. This may be beyond what is possible with a > > > > volunteer effort. * If too many different people work on this, we > > > > will get a hodgepodge of different icon styles. * Normally, cosmetic > > > > issues are not very important. But in this case, the purpose of the > > > > effort is to make NetBeans look good, so aesthetics is actually a > > > > primary concern. * From my own experience, it took about 4 hours of > > > > icon-drawing work in Illustrator (which I already had some > > > > experience > > > > with) before I was fully "up-to-speed" with designing new icons. If > > > > multiple people are working on the icons, each person will have to > > > > go through this learning curve. * You often end up copying and > > > > pasting shapes between different icons. If many people are working > > > > on the effort, they will end up redrawing shapes that others have > > > > already drawn. * There are lots of little issues that contributors > > > > will get wrong--e.g. how vertices are aligned to the pixel grid. A > > > > lot of familiarity with the drawing software is needed. * If many > > > > people are working on the effort, a single person will still end up > > > > having to go through all the Illustrator files and cleaning them up > > > > to a consistent standard, naming scheme etc. For the simpler icons > > > > (e.g. two rectangles), this takes up as much time as drawing the icon > itself. > > > > > > > > -- Eirik > > > > [1] See > > > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/HiDPI+%28Retina > > > > %29+imp rovements?preview=/110692909/110692926/vectorized.png [2] > > > > https://people.csail.mit.edu/ebakke/misc/netbeans-icons/prioritized. > > > > html [3] https://people.csail.mit.edu/ebakke/misc/netbeans-icons/ > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > > From: Jaroslav Tulach <jaroslav.tul...@gmail.com> > > > > Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 4:29 AM > > > > To: dev@netbeans.apache.org > > > > Subject: Status of converting icons to SVG > > > > > > > > Hello everyone, hello Eirik. > > > > > > > > It is a while since the [support for SVG > > > > icons](https://github.com/apache/ netbeans/commit/ > > > > 51a01eb9cbfc6f342a1827d47f0b37e1b2f070a3#diff-721be4afbc5aed18d39b11 > > > > 702d02c > > > > 9fd) landed into NetBeans code base. Is it used or is it just laying > around? > > > > > > > > I do remember there was an attempt to start a community supported > > > > conversion of the icons. What's the status of such conversion? Were > > > > some (at least those visible in the toolbar by default) icons > converted? > > > > > > > > Maybe we should ask guys that have a say in the wider community like > > > > Jirka Kovalský, Geertjan, etc. to make some buzz around the > > > > conversion? Have an "icon-a-hack-a-ton"? > > > > > > > > Last time I asked for help with reorganizing source files layout per > > > > cluster, the community reacted quite well. A lot of people contributed. > > > > Contributing icons shall be even easier and more fun, right? > > > > > > > > -jt > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@netbeans.apache.org > > > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@netbeans.apache.org > > > > > > For further information about the NetBeans mailing lists, visit: > > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Mailing+lists > > > > > > > > > > > -- http://timboudreau.com
