Giving PhotoLine icons some touch

[ono]

Almost everyday I have been looking at blurry PhotoLine toolbar icons, especially zoom (magnifying glass), stamp and scroll (hand). So I've decided to give them minor touch, pixel aligning them, making them look more contrast etc. etc. These changes are small, but I think they make PL look more professional.

All you need is to replace http://www.nanoant.com/download/photoline/Pictures.pld with the one in your PL installation dir, or in PhotoLine.app/Contents/Resources on Mac.

All mods are made by myself and copyleft, so feel free to use it and of course I'd be glad if these mods were accepted by PL maintainers too.

Preview of the modified toolbar vs old one:
vs old

Preview of the modified layers pane vs old one:
vs old

What has changed (layers of Pictures.pld):
1. Toolbar > Lupe icon template
2. Toolbar > Pipette icon template
3. Toolbar > Coulour picker icon template
4. Toolbar > Radiergummi
5. Toolbar > Stift
6. Toolbar > Mask (giving it more serious look)
7. Eye
8. Info
9. Function
10. Mask
11. Filter
Non template modifications:
* 12307 (Zoom tools)
* 12361
* 12426
* 15003 (Gradient tool)
* 15007 (Flood fill tool)
* 15009 (Stamp tool)
* 15012 (Smudge tool)
* 15020 (Pincers tool)
* 15023 (Glue tool)
* 15030 (Hand tool)
* 15036 (Text tool)
* 15074 (Ruler tool)
* 15150 (Ruler)
* 15030 (Hand tool) wow old one was really bad
* 15037,15038,15057,15028,15026,15025,15024 (Shapes)
* 200034 IDP_CHECK (checkmark)

Next maybe I'll give the app icon some try Cheers.

[frankenstein]

Thank you, works perfectly.

[ono]

Now, here's my idea for PhotoLine icon replacement:


Done entirely in PhotoLine 17 within 5 hours . Full Mac icon available at http://www.nanoant.com/download/photoli ... oLine.icns

[greenmorpher]

Clever stuff, Adam, both install without a problem and work fine.

The icon is clever -- a lens produced with the vector tools pointing to both sides of PhotoLine's capabilities. I do have two suggestions about that, though. One of the things the PL icon incorporates is an indication of two kinds of color -- RGB and CMYK -- again a reference to the two sides of it. I like that. However, I can't see how you could incorporate that notion into your icon but I would like to see some color in it.

The second thing is the "PhotoLine 18-120". The figures and have reference to PhotoLine, the name unnecessary and neither can be deciphered in the most common uses of the icon (at least on a Mac), in the dock or in the app listing in the finder window. I would suggest replacing them with "32+64", somewhat larger, which are highly relevant to PL, perhaps in the lower bright band.

Cheers, geoff

Geoffrey Heard
The Ad-Doctor-Online
http://www.ad-doctor-online.com

[greenmorpher]

Clever stuff, Adam, both install without a problem and work fine.

The icon is clever -- a lens produced with the vector tools pointing to both sides of PhotoLine's capabilities. I do have two suggestions about that, though. One of the things the PL icon incorporates is an indication of two kinds of color -- RGB and CMYK -- again a reference to the two sides of it. I like that. However, I can't see how you could incorporate that notion into your icon but I would like to see some color in it.

The second thing is the "PhotoLine 18-120". The figures and have reference to PhotoLine, the name unnecessary and neither can be deciphered in the most common uses of the icon (at least on a Mac), in the dock or in the app listing in the finder window. I would suggest replacing them with "32+64", somewhat larger, which are highly relevant to PL, perhaps in the lower bright band.

Cheers, geoff

Geoffrey Heard
The Ad-Doctor-Online
http://www.ad-doctor-online.com

[Juan]

Finally a decent "mask" icon

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers
Juan

[ono]

Clever stuff, Adam, both install without a problem and work fine.

Thanks.

The icon is clever -- a lens produced with the vector tools pointing to both sides of PhotoLine's capabilities. I do have two suggestions about that, though. One of the things the PL icon incorporates is an indication of two kinds of color -- RGB and CMYK -- again a reference to the two sides of it. I like that. However, I can't see how you could incorporate that notion into your icon but I would like to see some color in it.

Well my initial concept was to somehow rework existing colorful icon, like I did for UI/toolbar ones. But after few attempts (won't show them, as they are really bad), I've decided to make something else that has strong connection with program title and it is something real. I really like icons that look like a real thing.

The second thing is the "PhotoLine 18-120". The figures and have reference to PhotoLine, the name unnecessary and neither can be deciphered in the most common uses of the icon (at least on a Mac), in the dock or in the app listing in the finder window.

It wasn't my intention to make it visible at Dock size level, but rather to put "something" in that place, so it resembles real camera lens from the distance. On some of my Canon lens there's "Image Stabilizer" there. I have also decided to make it silver, so it looks good on bright and dark backgrounds, even most of small lens are rather black (eventually white for big pro lens). So BTW colorful lens would look rather unusual.

Also I do not think that everyday user has to be reminded by the icon that the program has CMYK capabilities and it is 64-bit (most of Mac programs are nowadays). The good counterexample is TextMate 2 great icon, a purple flower (see below), that is kinda meaningless, but it looks IMHO great.

But I think that CMYK bars would be cool underline for PhotoLine title in about box, where putting current architecture (i.e. 64-bit) is also relevant, so that could look like:

I would suggest replacing them with "32+64", somewhat larger, which are highly relevant to PL, perhaps in the lower bright band.

As I said above, I prefer to not overclutter the icon, but rather have something that looks decent together with other great icons.



Anyway thanks again for your feedback.

[Argonaut]

Hi ono,

just want to say: Cool thoughts, cool icons -> absolutely awesome work!

Many thanks for sharing.

Argonaut

[ono]

Updated Mac icns with better (call me "mr pixel perfect") 32x32 and 16x16 images. Anyone wants Windows ICO?

Available in previous location: http://www.nanoant.com/download/photoli ... oLine.icns

[addison]

Yes! Windows icons, please. Great job with these, by the way. I'd love to see more "fan"-based artwork for PL.

[ono]

Yes! Windows icons, please. (...)

Here you go: http://www.nanoant.com/download/photoline/PhotoLine.ico

[Gerhard Huber]

Done entirely in PhotoLine 17 within 5 hours .

thank you for spending so much time to create a new PhotoLine icon.
But if you created it in PhotoLine, why didn't you save it with PhotoLine?

I made a little screen shot of my Windows desktop:

WindowsIcons.png

I am not shure what icon I would prefer.
Your icon is very good, when it is displayed in a big size. But the small one...

Gerhard

[ono]

Done entirely in PhotoLine 17 within 5 hours .

thank you for spending so much time to create a new PhotoLine icon.
But if you created it in PhotoLine, why didn't you save it with PhotoLine?

Creating Mac ICNS is so much easier with built-in Icon Composer, just copying 512x512 raster from PhotoLine's web export window into it.

As for Windows icon, I had no clue how can I make separate subimages having same size but 32-bit, 256 palette and 16 standard color palette in PhotoLine. So I've exported PNGs, then imported them into IcoFx under Parallels.

I made a little screen shot of my Windows desktop:

WindowsIcons.png

I am not shure what icon I would prefer.
Your icon is very good, when it is displayed in a big size. But the small one...

Yeah, the small version isn't really charming there on Windows But I am sure I can work on making it better and less dull in small size, and more contrast overall. Like changing the overall angle of the object so the lens (glass) are more visible - pointing more towards the eye, add more reflections, this can make the icon more colorful too. Also the body color could be more bright, more like Canon Pro (L) lens. Maybe a red ring too.



So if you like the idea of having such an icon, I think this can be a great motivation for me to make make it look perfect.

[Argonaut]

So if you like the idea of having such an icon, I think this can be a great motivation for me to make make it look perfect.

Yes, I do like the idea.

Argonaut

[OldRadioGuy]

Adam,

You did a fantastic job on the PL icons!

Bob