From the other thread…
@c-lobrano:
“so is using default gnome icons so bad?”
@frederik-f:
“Yes - that would be a bad idea.
If we were talking about apple OSX icons or similar inspired themes in the linux world like La Capitaine I would say yes, is this really necessary?
But we are talking about adwaita icons […]”
Here’s my personal opinion:
We talked about the pros and cons of “placeholder icons” on Github. But Yaru already has placeholder icons, which are taken from the default Gnome icon set. As Frederik points out, these are about as far from the Suru style as you can get.
Since you’re already using non-Suru icons in these positions, I think the acid test for shipping an icon should be: does it look better than the default Gnome icon, in the context of the Yaru-themed desktop?
Ideologically, I don’t think a very nearly Suru icon can be worse than a completely non-Suru icon. I don’t know anything about Ubuntu release schedules and freezes, but, for that reason - in terms of selfishly wanting my own desktop to look as complete as possible - I feel it would be good to include the icons we’ve been brainstorming and working on, as soon as they represent an improvement on using default Gnome (which doesn’t mean they can’t be improved further) and it’s practical to do so from a release schedule point of view.
snwh is a) rightly keen to assure the quality of his upstream set and b) not in favour of placeholders (or “stopgaps” as we were calling them at the time). I think his intervention on Github has been very positive because the icons look a hundred times better, now I’ve paid more attention to the guidelines and tried to follow them as closely as I can. But I suspect they still aren’t quite good enough for inclusion upstream (in fact, I now need to master gradient stops in drop shadows). Based on my current learning trajectory, I’m confident I will crack the guidelines and be able to produce 100% Suru icons. My original attempts look awful compared to the latest ones, and that was only a couple of weeks ago. In terms of working upstream, a bigger difficulty might be if snwh just doesn’t like the designs.
Speaking purely personally, I feel that the fairest approach is:
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Yaru includes the new icons as soon as they’re preferred to the default Gnome ones (release schedules allowing), but
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I also make a offer to submit them upstream to snwh (one per PR) and action his feedback until he’s happy to merge them upstream as well.
Then he can do his quality assurance at his own pace, but Yaru has some placeholders in the meantime. Which - even if they’re not 100% Suru - are at least passable forgeries by now. That approach would meet point a) above, IMO. In terms of point b), like I say - you’ve got to use placeholders of some kind, as long as upstream has gaps. Seems fair for Ubuntu to decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether to use default Gnome or a Suru clone when that happens, as soon as they want.
“But @jaggers could need more people to help him.”
I’m not a designer, and there are lots of gaps in my ability, but I’m happy to have a go at any outstanding vector work for Yaru. The worst case scenario is I have a go at something and just can’t make anything good enough, for that particular brief. That will probably happen But obviously, I’m an Ubuntu fan, and it would be great fun for me to make some contributions to the new default theme. So I’m always happy to at least try. Other than the icons I’m already working on, what outstanding vector work is there?
The last couple of weeks I’ve been playing with my icons every night, so the nightly progress is a good gauge of how much work I can do in one evening. Of course, I won’t always be able to work on vectors every night but Inkscape is one of my hobbies, so I’ll usually have time to give. I can also do mockups in GIMP, but the same caveats apply as above (i.e., as a hobbyist, there may be tasks I’m simply not up to).
EDIT: To aid the “acid test” of whether they look better in a Yaru context, I always mock up the launcher with the 48x48 version. Since we’ve made further revisions to the icons tonight, and the Cosmic Cuttlefish wallpaper has been released here’s the current state of play for our Suru clone icons:
I think Mahjongg, Aisleriot and Ubiquity are in a high state of readiness, with USB creator shortly behind. Mines and Transmission are not as good IMO.