App menu indicator - monochromatic icon?

[m4tx]

Steam currently uses libappindicator. It's really good thing, but I think... Steam could use it in a better way :) Most of app indicators uses truly monochromatic icon - only white (grey, to be exact) and transparent colors are used. Steam uses its regular icon here. I think that it doesn't look good, especially on Ubuntu (which is the main target of the Steam for Linux), so please, fix it :) Regards

[sreich]

I bet this would have a higher chance of being accepted if you or someone else submitted a monochromatic modification of the original icon and released ownership to valve..

[m4tx]

I know :) I tried to do something like that, but the result wasn't good. I'll try tomorrow again.

[tiagovarela]

So I gave it a shot and the results are here - https://github.com/tiagovarela/steam-mono-dark

(I wasn't able to actually change the Steam icon, so I changed the icon of another application :)

If Valve wants to use it of couse they can! It's their logo after all :)

[gdrewb-valve]

Consolidating with #1159. Unity app indicator icons appear to use 22 pixel width/height, although it's unclear why window managers aren't scaling the icons.

[vorot93]

I'd rather have white "hip" without background. That'd make it suitable for KDE.

[Mailaender]

I like the one suggested in #1250.

[tiagovarela]

Just the "hip" is nice. I'm also using the one in #1250 now.

[dylanmtaylor]

I feel that the icon from #1250 is excellent, and I am personally using it right now. It's very similar to the icon used in the Steam for Android application.

To install the icon from issue #1250, run these commands in a terminal: wget https://dl.dropbox.com/s/vzve0qrugp2mf5c/steam48.png sudo cp steam48.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/steam_tray.png sudo gtk-update-icon-cache -f '/usr/share/icons/hicolor'

[Spirit55555]

Fixed for me in the latest beta update.

[MrSchism]

Honestly, I'm not fond of the new icon; the lack of a box makes it seem like the left-most part of the icon is just chopped off. The border at least gave it something to attach to. I like the one @tiagovarela presented more... or an alternative (I'll whip it up) that combines the two where it's a clear background with a rounded-square frame around the logo, thus letting the right side connect to something.

Like I said, the biggest issue is that the one being used literally looks like it was just cut off with a hard, straight edge.

[Mailaender]

This update broke the icon in KDE again #2102.

[MrSchism]

Yeah.... I noticed that.

[tiagovarela]

I noticed that some icons on Ubuntu are wider than others. The keyboard layout icon is an example of that:

If one is willing to give Steam some extra "top bar real estate", the full logo (with the complete "hip") also looks cool (mockup ahead):

[MrSchism]

I tried a mockup and while it works, your first one looks considerably better.

[johndrinkwater]

Can this be closed? It seems the request was fulfilled.

[Mailaender]

Yes, a monochromatic icon has been added in 1.0.0.36.

[MrSchism]

@tiagovarela Do you still have the first icon you showed off?

[tiagovarela]

@MrSchism yes, it's here https://github.com/tiagovarela/steam-mono-dark

[MrSchism]

Thanks. I'll probably use it as a replacement for mine.

[nmirthes]

Sorry to re-open, but this is still broken. Selecting Ubuntu's Radiance theme, readily accessible in the gui after install, results in the current tray icon (steam_tray_mono.png) becoming barely visible. This breaks the coherence of the gui and makes it less than obvious that a new icon with features specific to an application has appeared on the panel (or dock, or some ui element). Has anyone looked at the icon theme spec at http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-theme-spec/icon-theme-spec-latest.html ? Keeping this spec in mind would allow displaying different icons based on what the Steam client is doing, and the display of different icons based on the user-selected icon theme.

[Vortex-TH]

Agreed, there should also be some kind of dark version for the Radiance theme

[MrSchism]

It wouldn't be a bad idea.

[Pilot-Pirx]

Today I received an update for steam-launcher (1.0.0.48, 1.0.0.49) on Ubuntu 14.04.1. New icon for launcher and app indicator but still not for Radiance theme...

[gdrewb-valve]

I don't know that theme-specific icons are planned.

[MrSchism]

Shouldn't be hard for someone in the community to create and give to Valve. If we gave you guys the icons, could you guys get them set up for appropriate distribution. Even if they aren't theme-specific, just offering a light and a dark monochromatic icon would help those wanting easy access to monochromatic icons.

[Pilot-Pirx]

I know there definitely was a dark icon for Radiance when steam for linux (beta) began... It got lost with "Steam Client Beta Update - Mar 14" (2013).

[gdrewb-valve]

There has only ever been one icon. It has changed between dark and light. The real change here would be to start providing multiple icons to match various themes, and I don't know if anybody's planning on doing that.

[Vortex-TH]

I think a light and a dark version would be sufficient. Besides, Radiance is a Ubuntu default theme, so maybe that should be supported..

[Plagman]

We ship both a colored and a monochrome version in the new package; I'm not clear on why your Radiance theme doesn't color the monochrome version to black if that is the foreground color of the theme. Do you know offhand how the neighboring icons look on disk? I'm curious to know if they're doing something differently that lets the theme color the icon.

[Hellzed]

Same here, if I switch to Radiance theme, the icon stays white, and nearly blends with the Unity panel.

Also, with the latest beta and the new round icon, the light icon color feels a little more "grey" than neighbouring icons. You may want to check the exact color of other Ubuntu icons, because it breaks uniformity...

EDIT : I think I found something : Steam tray icon used on Ubuntu is "/usr/share/pixmaps/steam_tray_mono.png", and it's base color is (hex) #DEDEDE. It should be :

• for Ambiance theme : "/usr/share/icons/ubuntu-mono-dark/apps/22/steam_tray.svg" with base color (hex) #DFDBD2.
• for Radiance theme : "/usr/share/icons/ubuntu-mono-light/apps/22/steam_tray.svg" with base color (hex) #3C3C3C. Note all icons found there use SVG format. At least that's what DropBox does (not in their deb package, but when the file browser plugin is installed).

EDIT : Small correction, it's not actually done by DropBox, it's shipped in the "ubuntu-mono" package. So either you could add the right icons to "steam-launcher", or ask the Ubuntu devs do include steam icons in their monochrome icon pack.

[CoolSilver]

Issue also exists with KDE 5 with Breeze theme

[Benguin]

Anybody got a solution that works with XFCE's notification area? I tried placing a modified icon in the places suggested above, but that did nothing. I also tried modifying the icon in steams own files, but steam detects the change and updates to get rid of it (even if the file is marked as read-only.)

[nmdnm]

Arch Linux, Xfce, default theme, many years have passed, it is still difficult to see the Steam icon in the tray

[amstelchen]

A workaround for Xfce is probably #5307

Exec=env STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE=1 steam

This, at least for me, shows the blue, not monochromatic icon in my tray (Arch Xfce).