GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 519332
GOPA Short Term Task: Identify/Create 10 accessibility icon groups
Last modified: 2018-08-17 19:41:11 UTC
This is 1 of 5 similar short term tasks for GNOME Outreach Program: Accessibility. See bug 519313 for more information on the short term tasks. You need to complete 5 short term tasks in order to be eligible for prize money. The task is to work with the gnome-theme community to identify and create 10 icon groups for accessibilty. A single icon group consists of creating high contrast, high contrast inverse, and large print icon versions of a 'normal' icon. See http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/hig-diff/icons-design-accessible.html for more information on designing accessible icons.
Hey! So I'm gonna be taking a stab at some of these, just wanted to make sure I wasn't stepping on anyones toes!
(In reply to comment #1) > Hey! > > So I'm gonna be taking a stab at some of these, just wanted to make sure I > wasn't stepping on anyones toes! > Woo hoo! Go for it!
Ok, I was a _little_ headstrong (I really wanna play with inkscape!!) but I just wanted to clarify the specifics of what this bug wants. As I understand, its taking 10 existing icon themes, and making 3 variations of each (high contrast, high contrast inverse, and large print). Just wanted to make sure I understood the phrase 'icon group' implied (an icon theme in simple terms)
(In reply to comment #3) > Ok, I was a _little_ headstrong (I really wanna play with inkscape!!) but I > just wanted to clarify the specifics of what this bug wants. As I understand, > its taking 10 existing icon themes, and making 3 variations of each (high > contrast, high contrast inverse, and large print). > > Just wanted to make sure I understood the phrase 'icon group' implied (an icon > theme in simple terms) > I believe so. I just made up the name 'icon group' as a means to say given icon 'x', create the 3 accessible variations of it. The overall intent is to make sure we have accessible icons for GNOME. :-) I'm confused by icon theme vs. icon library vs. whatever, though, and how these fit together. :-( Can you tell me more about this all works (sorry to be so stupid, but that's part of why we need the help ;-))?
Hahaha, I really know just as little, here's what I know from a few minutes looking at how icons are packaged in debian/ubuntu. We have icon 'foo', which belongs to an 'icon theme'. The theme simply represents a collection of similarly-styled icons. In addition, a theme comes (generally) with rasterized versions of the icon at all the different sizes it might be needed. Or something like that... I just thought I was in _waaay_ over my head if you wanted 10 themes (as opposed to 10 original icons all made accessible in several ways.) Cheers! Kevin
(In reply to comment #5) > We have icon 'foo', which belongs to an 'icon theme'. The theme simply > represents a collection of similarly-styled icons. In addition, a theme comes > (generally) with rasterized versions of the icon at all the different sizes it > might be needed. > > Or something like that... I just thought I was in _waaay_ over my head if you > wanted 10 themes (as opposed to 10 original icons all made accessible in > several ways.) Yeah - what we really want is to make sure there are accessible forms of existing icons. So...say you take icons from Tango or nimbus as a starting point, I think we want you to identify the icons that are missing from the accessible themes and then create accessible icons for those themes. We need help from the gnome-themes people, though in figuring out which themes you need to focus on. From http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/hig-diff/icons-design-accessible.html, we see "The HighContrastLargePrint, HighContrastLargePrintInverse and LowContrastLargePrint icon themes are deprecated as of GNOME 2.12. New icons need only be added to the HighContrast, HighContrastInverse and LowContrast themes." So, we might need some confirmation from the gnome-themes folks about which themes are currently used for accessibility.
Alright! So what we are really looking for is icons that are missing from the HighContrast, HighContrastInverse and LowContrast themes (that exist in other themes) and adding them. I'll try to track down someone from gnome-themes later today and get some specific icons they might be looking for, otherwise, I'll just start making some that are missing.
(In reply to comment #7) > Alright! So what we are really looking for is icons that are missing from the > HighContrast, HighContrastInverse and LowContrast themes (that exist in other > themes) and adding them. I'll try to track down someone from gnome-themes later > today and get some specific icons they might be looking for, otherwise, I'll > just start making some that are missing. > Excellent. Thanks! The intent here is to increase the overall accessibility, so concentrating on the "really important" missing icons would be a great strategy. I don't know what the "really important" missing ones are, though (identifying them is part of this task ;-)). Thanks so much for jumping on this!
Haha, awesome! I'll gather a list today of the icons I'll be working on and post that here so anyone working on one of the other 4 instances of this bug won't step on each other. Tango will provide a benchmark of 'icons we would like to have if the world was perfect' (after anything not in the gnome default).
A little late, but here are the icons I'll be working on: * actions o document-page-setup (page with a sproket) o mail-replyall * apps o accessories-dictionary ( a book with letter A on the front in a serif font ) o preferences-desktop-keyboard (three keys with letters on them - one on the bottom , two on the top) * categories o applications-science (a beeker with bubles coming out of it...) o applications-utilities (a wrench and a screw driver) o preferences-system-network ( a network share icon mixed with a sprocket ) o system-help * devices o input-gaming (a controler and a wire...) o input-tablet ( a tablet and stylus )
Sooo, what exactly does a 'large print' icon consist of? I have both high contrast and high contrast inverse for my icons, but not sure about how to handle the large print...
Created attachment 110213 [details] Inital 10 icons - SVG Ok, heres my first attempt at some icons, I've only included the HighContrast ones (since I'm not sure how exactly to proceed wrt the lowcontrast/large print icons and the inverse high contrast will be script generated). Any feedback/thoughts?
Most of them look good to me... cc'ed Luca for any more input, he's the High Contrast SVG expert these days :) Just a couple of comments from me: accessories-dictionary: in general we don't use perspective on the high contrast icons, so would like to see a design that didn't use it. (I'm also a little concerned about the number of different fonts we seem to use in our HC icons: this one, preferences-desktop-font, accessories-character-map, tool-check-spelling all look different to me, at first glance anyway. Might be nice to have some more consistency... although I appreciate that there's an argument for maximising the differences between them all too.) applications-utilities: uses a different design of the same 'tools' from the ones in the cateogries/preferences-sytem icon-- could we use the same designs in both? input-tablet: hmm, not sure about this one... think it's because we're not looking at it "square on" again, seems to be at a fairly arbitrary angle. system-help: why not just copy apps/help-browser for this one? (I can tell you didn't because yours is using a different font for the question mark...) To address the other issues: we no longer ship any Low Contrast or Large Print icons, so no need to worry about those. GNOME still uses the PNG versions of the HighContrastLargePrint and HighContrastLargePrintInverse icon themes by default, though, so it would be good if you could generate us PNG versions from your final SVGs to add to those. The HighContrast-SVG theme (and the as-yet-non-existent Inverse version) will replace the PNG versions when they're complete enough.
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback! I'll try to make the changes this evening!
Created attachment 110473 [details] second attempt accessories-dicitonary: Ok, I submitted a new design...so let me know what you think of this one... applications-utilities: Well, I think it important to distinguish between the two, because the categories/system-preferences takes you to the section of system environment settings, whereas applications/utilities takes you to the set of applications that are utilities. Maybe I should take the wrench and screw driver from the system-preferences and combine at an angle them like my previously submitted version of the categories/applications-utilities? I think it looks much better than the previously submitted design. Let me know what you think. input-tablet: Ok, so I've changed it to be "square on" now...Thanks. system-help: Ok...now I'm using the the one from apps/help-browser. I wish I would have seen that before...oh well...I'm learning.
accessories-dictionary: have just realised of course that we already had a PNG version of this one, apps/gdict (in the HCLP theme), and it does use perspective :) I do still think we should go with a design that doesn't have perspective, but I think it probably needs simplifying even more than your new suggestion... the lines under the letters just look like a little too much detail to me. (Might it make more sense to use 'A' and 'Z' rather than 'A' and 'B', too?) applications-utilities: yes, I like the new one better. input-tablet: yes, better... I think the 'pen' probably still needs to be a bit chunkier, if possible. Could possibly use the pencil in apps/accessories-text-editor as a guide? system-help: yes, I know how hard it is to keep track of all the existing icons :/ But especially with SVG icons it's so easy to re-use graphical elements that it's a very useful way to produce a consistent set of icons. In fact, we should really have a style guide that describes the basic reusable elements we use in the high contrast icons, like when to use rounded corners v square, how to represent windows/displays/keys, what fonts to use on 'keycaps' etc. Anybody fancy taking on that task? :) Talking of which, looking at your preferences-desktop-keyboard, I see the keycaps are a notably different style to the one in apps/accessories-character-map-- might be nice to have them consistent. (I think I prefer yours as it's simpler, but I don't have any strong preference.)
I didn't see this bug before, sorry... I'll comment and maybe start to commit on weekend.
OK, started to work on this ## Commits ## Just committed applications-sciences (with minor changes, just border sizes; honestly I forgot, I fixed this a long time ago, sorry). Closing bug #501737. I'm going to commit document-page and mail-reply-all, maybe with similar minor changes. ## Comments ## accessories-dictionary Too much details (i.e. small lines on both pages; in HC icons "lines" should be 4 pixel wide for borders and 3 pixel wide for "internal" stuff) and we should avoid to use letters... application-utilities wrench and screw --> overlaps system-preferences, but I could commit waiting for a better idea input-gaming I was thinking about a PacMan style icon, but maybe people ignore it :) I think it's OK, just I like to remove the wire (we removed from both keyboard and mouse) and eventually enlarge buttons input-tablet agree with Calum; a larger pen is needed. preferences-desktop-keyboard why not simply copy devices/input-keyboard? It's HC theme, I don't think we need a different icons here. preferences-system-network as above, I like to use the same icon here and for places/network-workgroup, and as base for status/network-[idle|receive|transmit] system-help as above, could be good reuse actions/help-contents or apps/help-browser, but I've to re-check the icon naming spec for usage and scope. ## Extra ## Could we move the discussion/proposal for each icon in a separate bug? For example, missing Dictionary icon is yet reported on bug #502079.
bug #502079 --> accessories-dictionary bug #502155 --> document-page-setup bug #561645 --> applications-utilities
(In reply to comment #18) > input-gaming > I was thinking about a PacMan style icon, but maybe people ignore it :) > I think it's OK, just I like to remove the wire (we removed from both keyboard > and mouse) and eventually enlarge buttons > Tracking input-gaming in bug #564577
gnome-themes is not under active development anymore since 2011. As written in https://gitlab.gnome.org/Archive/gnome-themes/commit/4df81cf0a7fd8d3da6591c4c142f47dfd7778d5f , it is obsolete. Its codebase has been archived: https://gitlab.gnome.org/Archive/gnome-themes/commits/master Closing this report as WONTFIX as part of Bugzilla Housekeeping to reflect reality. Please feel free to reopen this ticket (or rather transfer the project to GNOME Gitlab, as GNOME Bugzilla is deprecated) if anyone takes the responsibility for active development again.