Contents
GNOME2 keeps icons for system-wide and user themes in separate directories. For system-wide themes the icons are stored in either /usr/share/icons or /usr/local/share/icons and icons for user themes are stored in /.icons. These all contain a sub-directory for each theme installed on your computer. Inside each themes' directory is a description file named index.theme which contains the theme name, icon types, default sizes and so forth. The icons themselves and .icon files are also contained in the theme directory, categorized into sub-folders by size and type [, such as emblems & filesystems.]
Maybe need another paragraph here, or better flow from the first paragraph to this one..
GNOME2 icons should be created using one of the following formats:
- PNG
- SVG
- XPM
PNG is recommended for bitmap icons and SVG is recommended for vector icons. The XPM format is provided for legacy support, including themes supported by older GNOME1/Nautilus1 systems. There is no need to provide multiple sized versions of icons in the SVG format because they can be scaled to any size neccesary with no loss of quality. However, scaling and displaying SVG icons is more CPU intensive so older or slower machines might have problems running GNOME2 using themes that provide only SVG icons. For this reason, it is good practice to provide PNG versions of your icons as well as SVG.
Need another paragraph here, perhaps describing general things to do to prepare to make a new theme.. I suggest starting with another theme when creating a new theme and then replace the icons one by one. Creating a directory with the same name as your planned theme and creating the index.theme inside it is all that is needed to make the theme available in the Gnome theme manager.
Step 1. Creating an index.theme configuration file
To begin making your theme, create a folder of the same name as you wish to call your theme, or by copying another theme as suggested above, and then you will be ready to start setting up the theme.
The most important aspect of the icon theme is index.theme, an ini style configuration file which describes the theme in various sections. The main and most important section is broken down as follows:
This whole bit needs to be put into a user friendly, easily readable layout... ideas anyone? I accept/prefer actual code as a valid suggestion.
[IconTheme]
This section describes the layout of the theme in a very simple fairly intuitive way
Name = ThemeName
this field represents the name of the theme as should be displayed in the icons section of the Gnome Theme Manager, it is very important that the themes folder name matches this field
Comment = This is the theme comment
this field represents the comment of the theme as is sometimes displayed in Gnome Theme Manager
Directories = iconsize/iconcategory1, iconsize/iconcategory1, iconsize2/iconcategory1
this field represents the directories which contain the actual icons
Inherits = RootTheme
this field represents the root theme from which this theme inherits. If the theme does not supply a particular icon, GNOME will look in this root theme for icons before falling back on the system defaults.
Each directory as listed in the IconTheme section will also need its own section to describe icon size and type :
[Directory]
this section describes the characteristics of the icons located in this directory
Size = IconSize
this field represents the size of the icons located in this directory if they are bitmap icons (PNG or XPM), or the default scale if they are scalable icons (aka SVG)
MinSize = IconSize
this field represents the mimimum size that scalable icons (SVG) located in this directory can be scaled to.
MaxSize = IconSize
this field represents the maximum size that scalable icons (SVG) located in this directory can be scaled to.
Threshold = SizeThreshold==
this field represents the maximum size threshold that bitmap icons (PNG/XPM) located in this directory be used for if the icon type is Threshold.
Context = IconCategory
this field represents the category or context in which these icons are used. This value can be FileSystems (for Folder orHardDrives), Emblems, Applications, Devices, or MimeTypes
Type = IconType
this field represents the type of icons located in this directory, it can be Scalable for Scalable Icons (SVG), Threshold or Fixed(I have seen Scaled used as well, is this valid?!) for Bitmap Icons(PNG or XPM)
See the HighContrastTheme index.theme file as an example.
Step 2. General Directory and Icon Layout
Once you have a basic index.theme, the next step is to make the actual icon directories, and place the right icons in the right directories. First off, it should made apparent that the Directory entries you put in Index.theme are the actual names of the directories, so if you have a 48x48/filesystems section in the index.theme, you should have a corresponding folder 48x48/filesystems, and so forth. So, for the above example your should have a directory layout something like this:
HighContrastLargePrint/ 48x48/ actions/ apps/ devices/ mimetypes/ scalable/ actions/ apps/ devices/ mimetypes/ index.themeAs you can see the actual directory layout is the same layout as is described in the index.theme, making both updating the directory to match the index, or the index to match the layout very very easy.
Once you have created the directories you need, you need to organize the icons first by size and then by context, again exactly as is laid out in the index. So any 48x48 icons will go somewhere into the 48x48/ subdirectory tree by context.
Step 3. Icon naming & organization
In general icons are simply and intuitively named, and in fact the general name format is quite similar to that of the original Nautilus icon names - each icon has a root name representing the specific use it is intended for, 'directory' for directories, 'ftp' for ftp folders, 'blockdev' for block devices etc, and a prefix representing the desktop it is intended for, such as 'gnome-' for GNOME. Depending on the icon and the context within which it is used, the actual icon name may also have a prefix representing that context, and possibly multiple other prefixes representing more specific sub-contexts. For each root name, there may also be multiple icons, where each will also include a suffix representing the additional states a particular icon is intended for.
To summarize, in general an icon will be of the format :
desktop-[context-][subcontext1-,...] specific use [-icon state]
A simple example of this format would be 'gnome-fs-directory', where 'gnome-' represents the target desktop, 'fs-'represents the general context, FileSystem; and 'directory' is the specific use, aka directories. Another example of an icon name is 'gnome-mime-application-pdf', where again 'gnome-' represents the target desktop, 'mime-' represents the general context MimeTypes, 'application-' represents a subcontext, aka what "kind" of MimeType; and 'pdf' represents the specific use, in this case pdf documents.
the specific breakdown of the icons by context is as follows :
Filesystem
The FileSystem context is for icons intended to be used by a FileManager, such as Nautilus, to represent the core parts of a directory tree, essentially such icons as would be used to represent Folders, Network Servers, Network workstations, Fifo's, Character Devices, Executables and so forth.
For this context, every theme should probably have an icon representing
Name | File Name | Description |
Block Devices | gnome-fs-blockdev | list common block devices, and have an example block device icon, perhaps from the gnome or HighContrast themes. |
Bookmarks | gnome-fs-bookmark | list common uses for bookmarks, and have an example of both icons |
gnome-fs-bookmark-missing | if a boomark is missing/removed etc the missing icon will be displayed instead. | |
Character Devices | gnome-fs-chardev | list common character devices, and have an example character device icon, perhaps from the gnome or HighContrast themes. |
Directories | gnome-fs-directory | the accept icon is for when dragging items over/into the folder etc.. |
gnome-fs-directory-accept | ||
Executables | gnome-fs-executable | |
fifos | gnome-fs-fifo | |
ftp directories | gnome-fs-ftp | |
home directories | gnome-fs-home | |
network neighborhood | gnome-fs-network | |
network workstations | ||
network shares | gnome-fs-share | |
network servers | gnome-fs-server | |
mounted nfs shares | gnome-fs-nfs | |
mounted smb shares | gnome-fs-smb | |
sockets | gnome-fs-socket | |
empty trash can | gnome-fs-trash-empty | |
full trash can | gnome-fs-trash-full | |
gnome-fs-loading-icon | ||
gnome-fs-regular | ||
gnome-fs-ssh | ||
gnome-fs-web | ||
Put more descriptive breakdown here about the icon names, describing what each icon is used for. It shouldn't need much as the names are farely self-explanatory...
Devices
The Device context is for icons intended to be used to represent commonly used devices, such as CDROM, DVD, Floppy etc, from within a Desktop Manager, and/or a FileManager to diplay mounted hardware devices. These icons will usually have a context prefix of 'dev-'(i.e. cdrom = gnome-dev-cdrom).
For this context, every theme should probably have an icon representing
Name | File Name | Description |
cdrom-audio | gnome-dev-cdrom-audio | |
cdrom | gnome-dev-cdrom | |
dvd | gnome-dev-dvd | |
floppy | gnome-dev-floppy | |
harddisk | gnome-dev-harddisk | |
jazdisk | gnome-dev-jazdisk | |
memory | gnome-dev-memory | |
zipdisk | gnome-dev-zipdisk |
Put more descriptive breakdown here about the icon names, describing what each icon is used for. It shouldn't need much as the names are farely self-explanatory...
MimeTypes
Icons for MimeTypes such as msword, html or pdf will go into the mimetypes folder, the folder in the index matching the Size = 48, and Context = MimeTypes. In the case of this example the mimetypes folder is "mimetypes".
Clean this sentance up, the whole gnome- vs gnome-mime- is a bit confusing..
Icons in this folder are all named essentially like the FileSystem icons, except that mimetypes use mime- instead of fs-, except on system types such as package or library, where niether is needed, in other words each icon is expected to be prefixed with gnome-, and mimetypes with gnome-mime-. More specifically here are a handefull of the 120 standard icons such as are set by the default Gnome icon theme :
Name | File Name | Description |
gnome-compressed | ||
gnome-library | ||
gnome-mime-application-msword | ||
gnome-mime-application-pdf | ||
gnome-mime-application-pgp-encrypted | ||
gnome-mime-application-pgp-keys | ||
gnome-mime-application-pgp | ||
gnome-mime-application-postscript | ||
gnome-mime-application-qif | ||
gnome-mime-application-rtf | ||
gnome-package |
Put more descriptive breakdown here about the icon names, describing what each icon is used for. It shouldn't need much as the names are farely self-explanatory...
Applications
Application icons, usually for GNOME specific applications such as gnome-starthere, will go into the applications folder, the folder in the index matching the Size = 48, and Context = Applications. In the case of this example the applications folder is "apps".
Icons in this folder are all named essentially like the FileSystem icons, except that the fs- is not needed, so each icon is expected to be prefixed with gnome-. More specifically here are those standard icons such as are set by the default Gnome icon theme :
Name | File Name | Description |
gnome-desktop-config | ||
gnome-server-config | ||
gnome-starthere | ||
gnome-system-config |
Put more descriptive breakdown here about the icon names, describing what each icon is used for. It shouldn't need much as the names are farely self-explanatory...
Emblems
Emblems
Put more descriptions about the icon names expected here, including a list of the most common emblems.
What about ACTIONS, what is the proper layout?
Stock Icons
As of GTK2.4, stock icons (the icons used in toolbar buttons, menu items, and other widgets) can be defined in the icon theme.
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