New Standard Waypoint Icons For OpenCPN - Input Requested

[bdbcat]

Hubert...

Do not do "Adjust to selection".

If that is done, each icon will be a different viewbox size.

background:
When I process the SVG, I will make the viewbox a specified size(in mm) on screen, adjusting here for display DPI.

So, that will make "diamond" say 3 mm in size. It will also make lighthouse 3 mm in size. Not what we want. We lose the designed size difference between diamond and lighthouse.

So, the viewbox must be the same for all icons. There will be more white space in diamond than in lighthouse.

Dave

[bcn]

Dave...

no problem. Standard "page size" then.
A proposal for the size in mm?
Shall the icons be centered (h and v)? Where will be the reference point?

Hubert

[svrevelations]

I found another way to export the graphics to svg and it is better than the Inkscape method.

This allows the transparent colours to be properly rendered and each icon is a its correct viewbox size. See the attached samples - identical to the PDF link above.

[bdbcat]

Revelations...

These are nice images. Good color.

Ref the discussion above. The viewbox for all icons must be the same, some constant value. This will allow me to scale the icons onscreen keeping relative icon size intact.

Dave

[bdbcat]

Hubert...

Icon size:

I prefer the IHO policy of making an icon be a set (mm) size, whatever the display device.

But there is another strategy. We can maybe estimate the viewing distance of the monitor, and require the icon to subtend a specific arc of vision. There might be say three categories: Desktop monitor, laptop, handheld.

That way, on smaller devices, the icons might be rendered smaller, since they will be presumably closer to the eye in use....

Discussion...

Anyway, I propose to start by making the icons such that "diamond" is 4 mm square on screen. And we shall see.

Dave

[svrevelations]

I exported all the icon graphics to individual SVG files and emailed them to Dave. There are 285 icons - "page size" is 18 mm x 18 mm. I believe it is now in the way he wants them. The SVG files are exactly as originally designed, it exported without losing colours or details - the colour transparencies are also correct.

Should Dave find them suitable, I am now done with all the design work and icon creation. I hope to see them soon in OpenCPN.

[reflectionsv37]

I'm currently working on renaming the files to group similar icons together.

Has anyone made a decision on whether we should maintain the existing standard icons or rename everything with the new set.

I'm concerned about users who have used the old icons and if we rename them, they will no longer be found. Also concerned about the standard default icon in the INI file. I changed mine to anchorage long ago. Not sure what would happen if that points to an icon that is no longer present. I have the same concern for icons used by OpenCPN like the standard waypoint and active waypoint icons.

My personal feeling is rename everything for the new icons. Others may not feel the same way.

I'm also considering setting a prefix of "1st" so that the most commonly used and emergency icons are listed first. i.e Anchorage, MOB, Active Waypoint.

Any suggestions of other icons to put in the "1st" group?

Gene

[svrevelations]

Originally Posted by reflectionsv37

I'm currently working on renaming the files to group similar icons together.

Has anyone made a decision on whether we should maintain the existing standard icons or rename everything with the new set.

I'm concerned about users who have used the old icons and if we rename them, they will no longer be found. Also concerned about the standard default icon in the INI file. I changed mine to anchorage long ago. Not sure what would happen if that points to an icon that is no longer present. I have the same concern for icons used by OpenCPN like the standard waypoint and active waypoint icons.

My personal feeling is rename everything for the new icons. Others may not feel the same way.

I'm also considering setting a prefix of "1st" so that the most commonly used and emergency icons are listed first. i.e Anchorage, MOB, Active Waypoint.

Any suggestions of other icons to put in the "1st" group?

Gene

There are now a large number of icons!
It's important to rename the icons in a sensible manner so that there is structure. Rename all the icons from scratch.

[mrm]

Originally Posted by Revelations

I exported all the icon graphics to individual SVG files [...] The SVG files are exactly as originally designed, it exported without losing colours or details - the colour transparencies are also correct.[...]

Care to share your export method?

[bdbcat]

Hello Icon Mavens...
A little preview:

Here is PreBeta OCPN 4.6.2, Windows only.

http://opencpn.navnux.org/beta/opencpn_4.6.2_setup.exe

This one is not much different from O461. It does, however, read SVG icons from the UserIcon directory.

I have adjusted the scale factors so that the new test icon set comes in more or less the same size as the existing PNG icons. That is, the icon called "Symbol Diamond" is about the same size as the standard diamond symbol used for waypoints. So we may evaluate the other icon sizes accordingly.

Some of the icons do not display correctly. Probably bugs the the SVG library that we use. We will need to work around these bugs in the icon design. Also, the transparency does not work correctly in some icons. Dunno why yet.

The good news is that the icon set seems not too heavy for inclusion in the base release. The full icon set load happens at startup, and I see no noticeable lag here.

One thing we need to evaluate and confirm here is the onscreen size of the resulting icons for different native screen sizes and resolutions. Please feedback your results. Especially, we need to know best estimates of the icons sizes in measured millimeters on screen. I use a navigator's dividers and a ruler.... If you send a screenshot, make sure that we can see some other item of known size, like the main toolbar, for comparison.


These icons look good to me, and I'm glad to move forward here.
Looking forward to the discussion.

Thanks
Dave

[reflectionsv37]

Hi Dave!

Just installed 4.6.2 and took a look. The icons look too small for me. I've got a 19" monitor 1280x1024. You can see the new ones compared to the standard PNG Anchorage. It's very difficult to even sea the new Marina SVG.

Gene

[Moo]

14" 1024x768px monitor

Scaling turned off.

The cardinal in the screenshot is 7mm high. Perhaps they are just a little large.

On this monitor I usually set the toolbar scaling to -2 (note that scaling is off for this test), and have chart objects scaling at default.

Old standard anchor shown for comparison. old and new type-A buoys also compared.

Note: buoy is mis-spelt as bouy in the old icon set.

Cheers

[bcn]

Dave...

on the hiRes Dell XPS 13 a bit too small as well.
The small blue x scales to 1mm aprox.
Route and single WP for comparison.

The blue background combined with the semi opaque color of the Obstruction-Shallow Marker will make the marker surface appear different from the original design painted over white.

The Chart Object Scale factor is at +2. The correct value for me.


This version will break the canvas when using S-57 and CM at the same time.
OpenGL ON and OFF


Hubert

[svrevelations]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Hello Icon Mavens...
A little preview:

Here is PreBeta OCPN 4.6.2, Windows only.

http://opencpn.navnux.org/beta/opencpn_4.6.2_setup.exe

.....................

I downloaded and installed (parallel install) the above version .... but, it still shows all the old icons!? I then uninstalled everything, v4.40 and v4.6.2 - then re-installed v4.6.2 again. It still shows all the standard OpenCPN old icons?

[bcn]

You will need to copy the svg into the UserIcons folder and restart OpenCPN then to get the new icons presented in the drop list.
At least how I did.....