Use distinctive app icon for Back In Time (icon proposals)

[Germar]

Hello, I'm AZorin from the Zorin OS project. I believe that Back In Time is a brilliant program although it seems to be missing an independent icon. I have created one which I have attached to this message.
Some credit goes to the Oxygen Icon theme. I hope you will like this icon and decide to choose it for your program.
Best regards,
AZorin

---

Imported from Launchpad using lp2gh.

• date created: 2010-04-23T18:23:49Z
• owner: azorin
• assignee: azorin
• the launchpad url was https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/569139

[Germar]

(by danleweb)
Hi AZorin, thanks for your interest in the project.
I like the idea of having a special icon for BIT but I'm not so crazy about the one attached.
I would like one that suggest "going back in time" or "pause time".

Thanks,
Dan

[Germar]

(by azorin)
Would something like a clock with a rewind icon work or would you like something more flashy?

[Germar]

(by danleweb)
Hi,

Sorry for the late answer but I was on vacation.
I do prefer something like a clock with a backward flash.
Something like the attached image or even better.

Best regards,
Dan

[Germar]

(by azorin)
I made a new one. It is attached to this message.

[Germar]

(by danleweb)
I like this better.

[Germar]

(by mastropino)
I think that we need a custom icon for the Notification Area!

[Germar]

(by azorin)
Maybe this one?

[Germar]

I'm not really excited about the previous proposals. I'd like to have something like a glowing Flux Capacitor

[ElvisPresly]

Until you choose, as a result the worthy program will remain without icon ;)

[buhtz]

I think because of the nerd-factor of the "flux capacitor" it wouldn't be hard to find someone how would provide an icon for this. ;)

Some examples we could build on or we could contact.

I would suggest trieing to contact people on this plattform: http://www.iconarchive.com/
Maybe we find a nice icon or a person who would be willing to produce one for BIT. And it is a nice website to get inspired by different design styles.

[NikoKrause]

[ElvisPresly]

@NikoKrause developers will use all the same standard "save"))))))

[buhtz]

I really like it. Minimalistic but with the fluxcompensator.

[Germar]

I like it, too. Only the arrow looks a bit wired. Maybe we could rotate it so the arrow head is on 7 o'clock and has enough space to be a full arrow head. Start of the circle would be on 4 o'clock.
Could you send me the svg please?

[NikoKrause]

This was just a raw draft.
Base icon was the Moka icon for Deja-Dup:
https://github.com/snwh/moka-icon-theme/blob/master/src/D/deja-dup.svg

The flux-compensator is a bad hack. Maybe someone with more Inkscape skills can create a better version.

[NikoKrause]

The Material Design Icon theme has a simple, but perfectly fitting icon for BackInTime:

Available here: https://github.com/google/material-design-icons/blob/master/action/svg/design/ic_restore_48px.svg

[amitkeret]

Last comment is more than a year old...
Still no decision on an icon for this great program?

[meetdilip]

You are welcome. Attaching the SVGs :)

[aryoda]

@meetdilip I have tested the app icon svg file and it works (even as system tray icon).

The symbolic icon (black 16x16 px) is problematic because the color does not change to white (or another light color) if the system tray has a dark background color. I suspect that Qt5 always renders the icon as-is without using the API of the desktop environment (which would possibly adjust the icon color).

So I propose to use the same foreground color(s) for the symbolic icon as for the app icon (even though this breaks every style/theme) but is at least (almost) always visible on light and dark sys tray backgrounds.

Also I need two app icons in different colors for BiT running as user and BiT (root) to make it clearly visible to the user which version is running. How about using

• the orange icon for BiT (root)
• a blue (or other) icon for BiT (normal user)?

I have also discovered another requirement in the code:

• The sys tray icon shall show an progress indicator for running backups/restores.
  The existing code did try to render a progress bar into the sys tray icon but this code was disabled due to a rendering issue (Panel icon #902).

Would it be possible to create seven versions of the sys tray icon with

• no progress bar
• 6 versions with a progress bar and the (indicative) progress of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 %? Or at least in 25-%-steps...

I could switch the icon then via code to the most appropriate progress version whenever the rsync progress is updated.

IMHO the "progress bar" does not need to be a bar, we could also change the fill color of the clock or the folder
(but this would be a non-standard behavior).

Sorry for so much work, I never would have expected that "just for an app icon"!

PS: If this is too much work we could also only use different icon variations that show the status "backup/restore running" and "error". @buhtz Any preferences or ideas?

Edit: I would use the 16x16 symbolic icon now as sys tray icon (no need to create a 22x22 version for KDE if the upscaling is working good enough)

[meetdilip]

Hi, nice to see that you have identified your exact needs

I covered everything other than the progress bar variants in the zip file. Let me find a good approach for the symbolic variants.

BIT variants.zip

[meetdilip]

6 versions with a progress bar and the (indicative) progress of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 %? Or at least in 25-%-steps...

Not sure how to accommodate these fine details in a 16x16 px space. Will see what I can do.

[meetdilip]

[meetdilip]

What do you think?

[meetdilip]

Monochrome view

[meetdilip]

All steps

[meetdilip]

It's complicated. The designing part is easy. But to fit it into the Gnome template is considerable work.

I had to rework the symbolic icon

[meetdilip]

From App Icon Preview

[meetdilip]

@buhtz never got a reply to my email

[buhtz]

@buhtz never got a reply to my email

Got your mail. Just hadn't time to reply you back.

[aryoda]

THX @meetdilip for your adjustments! I am attending a Blender course until Sunday, I will check the new icons starting next Monday... Am 27. Juli 2023 10:07:24 MESZ schrieb Dilip ***@***.***>:

…

From App Icon Preview  -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #215 (comment) You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[meetdilip]

Take your time :)

[aryoda]

@meetdilip I am still busy with fixing another bug and one more week to continue working here I am afraid.

We are really happy about your engagement and creativity to help us with the new icons.

For licensing reasons (your are the copyright holder of your creative work!) we still need a confirmation from you

• that the icons are your work (or in case they are derived from other's work: A reference/link to the original work + the license conditions)
• that you are contributing your icons to BiT under the GPL3 GPLv2 license (which is used for all our work here)
  or (if you prefer) a CC* license
• if and how we shall mention you as contributor of the new icons in BiT (alias or real name, link to a web site or similar - please keep in mind that if you want to publish contact data like an email address this may cause a lot of spam)

[meetdilip]

Hi, take your time. No hurry.

I am not sure which licence is the best choice. They are 100% original, hand/mouse drawn.

It would be nice if you can link my GitHub profile in credits (if possible). But I am quite if you can say " artwork by meetdilip ".

[aryoda]

I am not sure which licence is the best choice.

Licensing is extraordinary complicated due to the many different licenses on the market.

I think a good starting point is

https://choosealicense.com/

If you want to contribute your creative work using one of the "creative commons" (CC) licenses (which are in fact quite common for non-source-code work) a simple license configurator is offered here:

https://creativecommons.org/choose/?lang=en

The different flavors of CC (indicated by 2-letter groups appended to "CC") are described here:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

A typical CC BY-SA for example means "Attribution" (quote your name) + "ShareAlike" (= same license for derived work): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

On the other hand using GPLv2 (the license of BiT) you achieve almost the same like CC BY-SA and would make it easier for us to maintain only one license but if others copy + modify + publish your icons there is no obligation to name you as author ("attribution"):

https://choosealicense.com/licenses/gpl-2.0/

Whatever you choose I would recommend to embed your license as meta data (RDFa or similar) into the SVG files you contribute to ensure the license is not lost when the files are copied (separate license files are more complicated to keep together with your files IMHO).

[meetdilip]

Ok, I have no particular preference. :)

[aryoda]

@emtiu Here you can find our up-to-date icon draft (designed by @meetdilip) with two different colors (one for BiT root and one for BiT user). Any comments or vetos?

The systray icon shall look like this (black/white due to newer color style in Gnome, but the colored versions may be more easy to recognize since they correspond to the app icons):

#215 (comment)

#215 (comment)

Note: The numbers in the the systray icon shall indicate the progress of a backup or restore in percent but it may be still be difficult to read this (I will prepare add the icons to a feature branch soon to test it).

[emtiu]

@emtiu Here you can find our up-to-date icon draft (designed by @meetdilip) with two different colors (one for BiT root and one for BiT user). Any comments or vetos?

No veto, I really like it :)

[buhtz]

Just noticed our boring icon that reminds me about this issue here. ;)

To my understanding after reading this thread @meetdilip just need to decided about a licence. When you need assistence choosing one I would suggest to contact the community of Inkscape, or the Free Software Foundation (Europe) or the "Open Source Initiative".

[aryoda]

@meetdilip gave us the freedom to choose:

Ok, I have no particular preference. :)

It is now my turn to incorporate the changes and I would like to use the new icons in our upcoming Qt6 version now