Evaluation Notes - Icon Design

introduction

These raw notes are provided as our documentation and for your insight and entertainment. They are not meant to start a flame war. Wait for our complete analysis before reacting.

task: designing icons with in cooperation with vector programs.

Open/Hot link to vector programs

1. Hot linking in not possible at the moment. However we think it should work by opening a file in a new layer. When changing vector img in Inscape, it should update on it’s own in GIMP. If it’s impossible, then manual refreshing.

1. Width and height of the vector image should be chained, (but user wouldn’t have to be aware of this fact).When changing the size of a vector image (also when importing and updating) there should be no price for scaling SVG. Compressing or squeezing should be done in vector, not in px, so that we don’t loose quality (just as we’d like it to work in text-font).
2. Changes wouldn’t affect the quality also for resolution changes.
3. The steps/parameters that are now in dialog for vectors should be available in a vector way whenever- even if the original SVG is not around after years, you could still change it in a vector way with those parameters.
4. There should be small thumbnails of icons- previews. Icon view- that will be the display of icons typical for the system. So you could at a very beginning chose for which platform to make icons. User could later use the same settings, for the default.

Toolbox

There should be Toolbox categories, maybe not the labels, but a bit of separation would improve the use of toolbox. Even 3px between groups of tools would help. No collapsing or text. Also in the menu we need to make separation lines.

Grid

There should be easy way to set up the grid.

Palettes

1. We can think about importing a palette from Inscape (but it seems there are no real palettes there now), because the colors already exist. If it’s not possible it has to be easy to start and put together your own palette. User should drag his colors and save it (within a file.?).
2. At the moment it is possible to Save the palette but not Export it. It has to be possible because it’s more conscious and later on user could add it to his project files.
3. Maybe the effect/filter applied wouldn’t have to be on a new layer, because you could still enhance the img in Freehand, or Inscape.
4. There should be Website colors and VisiBone colors, because these are the standards. There might be those two that would be locked and you’d have to unlock them in FG/BG
5. If palettes would be in FG/BG dialog, user could use Palette mode, and from here he could chose his palette. On one hand it would be useful to split the palette in two.
6. User should be able to group palettes in folders, drag them around. New Palette, Delete Palette, Duplicate should be possible.
7. When picking a color, you can also edit a palette.
8. It all should be done within maximum two dialogs: FG/BG color editor connected with ‘palette editor’ that is now (but it would have to be sth different). Maybe it could be under the FG>BG color editor, so it would be a second optional subdialog.
9. Project repository- we need to be more file/project oriented.