Anthony's X Icon Library ---------------------------- Historical Notes ---------------------------- Looking on the internet for icons is not easy. A number of libraries for bitmap/picture libraries exist but few are devoted to the X application builder and general X usage. This is not to say they don't exist, the "Poskanzer Bitmap Collection" being a good example. Although these contain some bitmaps that are suitable for icons and X programming, these bitmaps are small in number, are of mixed sizes, and many are not very nice looking. Aside from this, the Poskanzer's Collection contains a tremendous collection of large background pictures. It also looks as if this collection is not being coordinated anymore as seems to have had no new entries over the last few years. Originally I restricted myself to bitmaps that can be used as program icons in every day usage. The goal was to create a collection of bitmaps of a "standard" size that can be used for icons on the screen. It removes the 'hodge podge' of different icon sizes that I see people use, and window managers have to contend with. Using a 'standard' size results in a nicer looking display of the icons in the "icon regions" of the screen. With this goal in mind, a "standard" size of 64x54 was agreed on by the system programmers here are Griffith University, Division of Science and Technology at that time. This size was chosen as it is close to a "golden rectangle" (IE it is pleasing to the eye) and when a icon name is attached by the window manager it generally become another "golden rectangle". It was also close to the 64x64 size which was in common use when sunview windows were prevalent (and not that long ago either). To complete this goal, I usually try to convert icons to this 'standard size'. These "standard" sized icons can be found in the 'std' sub-directory and consist of descriptive icons to refer to specific applications or machines we have in our local network (IE: kurango (aboriginal for sun), gucis, sphinx, opera...). These machine icons could be renamed to a more descriptive name for the icon (IE: "kurango.xbm" to "ayres_rock.xbm") but the users here would now probably kill me if I made this change. As time went on however this collection soon expanded to include: buttons for the TWM window manager (for in title bars), in the 'twm' section; background patterns (small ones not root-maps), 'bground'; and general use buttons or cursors, 'buttons' and 'masks'. One directory 'misc' is a collection of odd sized icons which have either defied sorting to the various areas or are just waiting to be resized to the 'standard' size. Color icons have also since been added to the collection. ASIDE: since the above paragraph was written the directories may have been renamed. See the general description near the top of this file. The subdirectories 'std' and 'twm' are an intergral part of the X window setup here at the Griffith University, Science and Technology Division. And is used to provide a usable default X window setup for naive staff and students. Anthony Thyssen (SysProg @ Griffith University) Anthony.Thyssen@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Light thinks it travels faster than anything, but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness always got there first, and it is waiting for it. -- Terry Pratchett - "Reaper" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------