Modernize Win95 style icons

[zufuliu]

This can be handled later as:

• They are only used on individual dialogs
• They seems (not sure) are smaller than equivalent bitmap images.

[Matteo-Nigro]

Hi @zufuliu, I would say that among the icons left to be "modernized" there is only Styles.ico. Shall I proceed with the makeover of this one as well?

[zufuliu]

@Matteo-Nigro yes, but only when you have free time. As work in free time, I'm not expect they (include metapth's icons) all get modernized in v4.23.03.

[Matteo-Nigro]

Okay calmly I will start working on it 😉

[Matteo-Nigro]

Hi @zufuliu , at the moment I made this icon. To keep the weight enough the 16 colors limit a lot the visual impact. If you like it I do the PR otherwise I continue with the design.

[zufuliu]

How about using a icon similar to U+1F3A8 🎨

Following is one from VS 2017.
ColorPalette.zip

[Matteo-Nigro]

It can be a good icon, the problem is always the 16 colors.... This is the icon you sent me in 4 bits.

[Matteo-Nigro]

The icon called ColorDialog doesn't look bad.... It has a few colors and has regular moltor lines so it shouldn`t get too grainy with scaling.

[zufuliu]

It can be a good icon, the problem is always the 16 colors.... This is the icon you sent me in 4 bits.

Which icon software are you using?

ColorDialog seems not bad to me too.

[Matteo-Nigro]

I use IcoFx in version 1.6.4 portable which was totally free, the recent ones are all trial...

[Matteo-Nigro]

Hi @zufuliu ! I modified the ColorDialog icon adapting it to the 16 colors. Although it is very simple it looks clean and functional to me... what do you think?

This would be the details of the SVG:

[zufuliu]

Hi @Matteo-Nigro, please wait a few weeks, I'm planing to implement 16 and 256 colors bitmap and icon inside Bitmap.py. following is screenshot for res\OpenFolder.bmp (from left to right: current 32 color depth bitmap, 16 color bitmap by MS Paint, 16 color bitmap by incomplete Bitmap.py):

[zufuliu]

Bitmap.py for 2, 16 and 256 color bitmap is ready, support for icon still needs time.

Hi @Matteo-Nigro, I changed my mind for application icon. can you take time to make two bare minimum sized icons (only contains 16px, 24px, 32px and 48px RGBA, same sizes as Notepad2.ico in main branch but without 16 and 256 color image) (Notepad2_min.ico and metapath_min.ico) for non-HD version? also png for metapath.ico are missing.

I also found that icons on dialog (e.g. Run.ico and Styles.ico) can contains other sized image to get better scaling result on DPI change. e.g. Run.ico with both 32px and 48px images scales better than only with only 32px image.

[Matteo-Nigro]

OK @zufuliu, I'll proceed. Where can I upload the metapath pngs? In tools/images/metapath/icon/?

[zufuliu]

Thanks. yes inside tools/images/metapath/icon/metapath folder.

[zufuliu]

Hi @WanderMax, can you take screenshots for Notepad2's "Run" (via menu Tools -> Run Command) and "Customize Schemes" dialogs?

[WanderMax]

[Matteo-Nigro]

I also found that icons on dialog (e.g. Run.ico and Styles.ico) can contains other sized image to get better scaling result on DPI change. e.g. Run.ico with both 32px and 48px images scales better than only with only 32px image.

Hi @zufuliu ! Regarding the previous request, should I upload the updated Run.ico file with PR directly to the main branch?

[zufuliu]

@Matteo-Nigro I have renamed current Run.ico as Run_min.ico, you can upload a full-sized Run.ico (all frame are 16 color) to main. the dimensions are 32×[1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3], i.e. 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, 80x80, 96x96.

64x64, 80x80 and 96x96 png goes into icon\Run, they may be preprocessed later to quantize/reduce color to 16. I think icon tools may have some limitations, for VS's ColorPalette, 32px 16 color bitmap saved by Paint.Net has very good quality.

[zufuliu]

OK, added transparent border version in fe97cc1, you can add png for it and continue work on metapath's remaining old style icon. The script still needs test and tweak before rebuild all icon and cursor.

[Matteo-Nigro]

Added pngs for the ColorDialog icon #620.

[zufuliu]

I think icon script is ready for use, all icon and cursor were rebuilt in f16d561 and c986a77. only five metapth's icons left (Folder.ico is not currently used).

256.png are produced by following steps (finally png with Paint.NET is smaller than with Photoshop):

pngquant --force --verbose 256 --strip --output Notepad2-quant256.png Notepad2.png
save Notepad2-quant256.png as Notepad2-q256.png with Paint.NET
oxipng --strip all --nc --out Notepad2-256.png Notepad2-q256.png

pngquant --force --verbose 256 --strip --output metapath-quant256.png metapath.png
save metapath-quant256.png as metapath-q256.png with Paint.NET
oxipng --strip all --nc --out metapath-256.png metapath-q256.png

to reduce icon size and fix Notepad2's 155 color 256.png artifacts on large scaling:

[Matteo-Nigro]

Great @zufuliu! Photoshop always writes a lot of information in the files between tags and other things... Well I'll proceed with remaking the missing icons... Since it is unused I skip Folder.ico?

[zufuliu]

Well I'll proceed with remaking the missing icons... Since it is unused I skip Folder.ico?

Yes, please go on remaking other missing icons. unused Folder.ico can be skiped, I think it's just OpenFav.svg.

[Matteo-Nigro]

Hi @zufuliu. Here is the draft for the Progs.ico icon. Since the panel is actually talking about paths and external programs I revised it with one that might be more inherent.

Here is the svg in detail:

If you like it I will proceed with generating the files otherwise I will make changes.😉

[Matteo-Nigro]

For the "Appearance" options panel, I drew this icon that plays on a hypothetical light and dark mode. I made 3 variations. Tell me also for this icon what you think.... It would replace the Items.ico icon.
1:

2:

3:

[zufuliu]

Second one with blue title like other icons, and without black background, but change three line color? here is the effect of the options:

[zufuliu]

Progs is OK, you can add Progs to the name list to build the icons and add them to metapath\res\ folder:

notepad2/tools/ImageTool.py

Lines 335 to 340 in c986a77

	for name in ('Cross1', 'Cross2'):
	folder = f'images/metapath/icon/{name}'
	Icon.makeIcon([(f'{folder}/{size}.png', 4) for size in all_icon_size], f'{name}.ico')
	Icon.makeIcon([(f'{folder}/32.png', 4)], f'{name}_min.ico')

[Matteo-Nigro]

Second one with blue title like other icons, and without black background, but change three line color?

Hi @zufuliu, this would be the result with the requested changes:

Would this be okay? If so I will proceed with loading the resources and update the script.

[zufuliu]

OK 👍 .

[zufuliu]

Hi @Matteo-Nigro, seems we can use Open.svg (also used for OpenFolder.bmp) to make the Goto.ico, any thoughts?

Eidt: it seems our icon script still needs improvements, use threshold=127 would reduce white colors on right side (however left side looks good).

[Matteo-Nigro]

Hi @zufuliu, Nothing against, in fact I wanted to propose it to you 😉

[Matteo-Nigro]

Thinking about it, if we really want to diversify the Goto icon, perhaps it would be enough to add a sheet of paper on the folder (to represent a file) since it represents the opening of both paths and files. It is still not vital...

Changing the subject this afternoon, I should be able to post drafts of the Options and Options2 icons.

[zufuliu]

The white color can be "fixed" with backColor=None after a1f37a2.

Icon.makeIcon([('Open128.png', 4)], 'Open128-alpha-0.ico')
Icon.makeIcon([('Open128.png', 4)], 'Open128-alpha-127.ico', threshold=127)
Icon.makeIcon([('Open128.png', 4)], 'Open128-rgb-0.ico', backColor=None)
Icon.makeIcon([('Open128.png', 4)], 'Open128-rgb-127.ico', backColor=None, threshold=127)

make icon: Open128-alpha-0.ico
Default reduce 128x128 icon color: 219 => 15, 16
make icon: Open128-alpha-127.ico
Default reduce 128x128 icon color: 219 => 15, 16
make icon: Open128-rgb-0.ico
Default reduce 128x128 icon color: 207 => 16, 16
make icon: Open128-rgb-127.ico
Default reduce 128x128 icon color: 207 => 16, 14

[Matteo-Nigro]

Hi @zufuliu as promised here is the first draft for the Options icon. If it goes well I will proceed.

The other icon I was thinking of making it from this one just by adding more gears to give the idea of "advanced settings" which would be the item in that panel.

[Matteo-Nigro]

Instead, this is the draft for Options2:

I am waiting for your confirmation or changes before proceeding with PR 😉

[zufuliu]

Hi @Matteo-Nigro Both looks good for me 👍, just proceed the PR as before (keep name sorted in the list).

[zufuliu]

I think this feature is completed (Goto icon built in ed9dd0c), thanks @Matteo-Nigro 🌻

Hi @WanderMax please test latest builds (e.g. from https://github.com/zufuliu/notepad2/actions/runs/4281441862) for both notepad2 and metapath, also explorer's extra larger icon view, thanks.

[WanderMax]

looks sharp!! great work!

edit: metapath language can't change within notepad2 language settting.

[zufuliu]

Thank you, closed this as completed.

metapath language can't change within notepad2 language settting.

They have independent settings (Notepad2.ini and metapath.ini).