Improve DOSBox Staging application icons

[johnnovak]

Description

Continuation of #2232. Thanks to @ThomasEricB for the idea 🎉

This is about removing the not-so-good-looking circle from the icons and creating separate icons per OS that adhere to the platform's UI/UX guidelines.

I also took the opportunity to simplify the icon Makefile. Previously, it was a bit overengineered for no good reason, and full of "clever" stuff. I want build scripts to be simple and stupid, so I made it so, also removing extra fluff in the process and stripping it down to bare essentials.

The approach to re-generating the icons has changed too: the derived smaller PNG files and all other derived icon files are now also checked into the repo. The make targets should only be used going forward when we need to re-generate these checked-in assets. The exception is the install target for Linux, which I left alone.

These small binary files almost never change, and they're minuscule... The whole "don't check binaries into Git" thing doesn't apply here, of course... That's for big and/or frequently updated files.

Manual testing

macOS

Tested the macOS DMG file built by CI—all looks fine (see #3157 (comment)).

Windows

Tested on Win 10 (see #3157 (comment) and #3157 (comment))

Linux

Partially done.

Checklist

Please tick the items as you have addressed them. Don't remove items; leave the ones that are not applicable unchecked.

I have:

• followed the project's contributing guidelines and code of conduct.
• performed a self-review of my code.
• commented on the particularly hard-to-understand areas of my code.
• split my work into well-defined, bisectable commits, and I named my commits well.
• applied the appropriate labels (bug, enhancement, refactoring, documentation, etc.)
• checked that all my commits can be built.
• confirmed that my code does not cause performance regressions (e.g., by running the Quake benchmark).
• added unit tests where applicable to prove the correctness of my code and to avoid future regressions.
• made corresponding changes to the documentation or the website according to the documentation guidelines.
• locally verified my website or documentation changes.

[johnnovak]

@Grounded0 Hold your horses, it's a work in progress 😄 But it will be finished in a day or two.

[ThomasEricB]

I wish you kept some of my work (since it was satisfactory before), but oh well

[johnnovak]

@Burrito78 @kklobe @kcgen @Grounded0

The macOS icons are now done and are pixel-perfect. I've been fooling around with some alignment issues because my first attempt was slightly off-center by a few pixels and that triggered my OCD badly 😅

You can download "dosbox-staging-macOS-universal " from the bottom of this page to test:

https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/actions/runs/7028615905?pr=3157

Now on to the rest! (Windows & Linux)

Installer

Small-size legibility

This is how it looks in my Applications folder:

App switcher

[Grounded0]

Looking good. Windows and Linux icons next.

[Burrito78]

The icon works fine on macOS with the light color scheme but there is an issue when using the dark color scheme.

Maybe adding an outline like on the old icon could be a fix there?

[Grounded0]

We could avoid colour bleeding issues against dark backgrounds by actually having a deep black outline like in the DOS prompt. Instead of going for CMYK Key black, going for deep black would be beneficial here. The kind of black you get when you print something on a colour laser printer with all CMYK component colours producing a deeper black than Key black. Close to RGB #000000.

[johnnovak]

IMO, a light outline would look pretty shit. None of these dark icons on your example have such a thing and they're fine. Also, they're all over the place, meaning we can do anything we like, there's no "uniformity" anyway.

I like best how the Mission Control app looks, so make it basically "true 100% black" aka #000000, as @Grounded0 suggested. Currently, the rounded rectangle is only about 70% black, not 100% black.

Second best would be maybe the Sprachmemo style, or the Quicktime background... as a last resort. But those look too much like 90s/early 2000s to me. Too gradenty. I like the flat 100% black best.

[Grounded0]

Yeah we'll go with a design inspired by Mission Control.app.

[Grounded0]

Can we see that deep black outline soonish so work can progress to Windows/Linux icon. Screenshots against macOS dark mode grey so its easier to wave through.

[johnnovak]

Can we see that deep black outline soonish so work can progress to Windows/Linux icon. Screenshots against macOS dark mode grey so its easier to wave through.

Later today man. I'm not working on this 24/7 😄

[johnnovak]

Behold! Black as night! 😎

Get it from here, fresh from the oven 🤘🏻
https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/actions/runs/7043758252?pr=3157

---

Still looks nice with the light theme, of course:

[Grounded0]

Looks good to me on all backgrounds. On to Windows/Linux icon.

Pinging to @Burrito78 for final approval.

Lets not pontificate this too much since its much better than what is replaced.

[Burrito78]

macOS icon looks good, in can't check Windows/Linux so I'm reviewing this now.

[johnnovak]

macOS icon looks good, in can't check Windows/Linux so I'm reviewing this now.

Win/Linux not ready yet. I'll tell you when it's ready for testing.

[Grounded0]

I'll test it on Wine so its at least better than no testing.

Do we have a Windows user here to ping?

[johnnovak]

I'll test it on Wine so its at least better than no testing.

Do we have a Windows user here to ping?

I use Windows, so I'll test it on Win 10, of course.

What we need is some Linux user (when it's done).

[johnnovak]

Once my last commit turns green, I'm merging this good thing. Then refining the Linux situation is a job for later if @weirddan455 or someone who likes Linux is up for it.