Kicad Icons Request

[leoheck]

I am just starting this issue. Kicad is composed by a set of tools. Kicad itself already has an icon (kicad) but related tools don't. Though the default kicad numix icon is pretty different than the original. I think it should have some elements that match with the original.

Here are the icons and their names:

• [x] kicad (already has an numix icon, but it should be iproved)
• [x] eeschema
• [x] pcbnew
• [x] pcbcalculator
• [x] bitmap2component
• [x] gerbview
• [ ] cvpcb removed on kicad 4.1+ ?
• [ ] pl_editor

[Foggalong]

Please add the information set out in the readme. Mimetypes need reporting here

[nupole]

Eeschema is a particular Kicad program that needs a numix circle icon.

The icon line reads "Icon=eeschema" and the icon is attached below.

[leoheck]

Good, thank you @nupole but I think there are more. There are mime types missing too, I will post whenever I have time.

[leoheck]

I moved the content of this comment to the original description so that we can utilise GitHub lists, and I've moved your mimetype requests to the base theme so they can be properly addressed there. - @Foggalong

[Jacajack]

Some time ago, I started creating Kicad/Eeschema icon, and this is what I've got:

I think this might be icon for either Eeschema, or for Kicad, after some little adjustments. What's your opinion about it?

[leoheck]

Ideas. From left to right: kicad, eeschema, pcbnew

The icon on pcbnew represents a layout of the circuit in eeschema icon. And the first one (kicad), is the mix of both. I know the icons has lot of info and are bad for icons but this some ideas to start with. The pcbnew icon can be further improved to place commponents on the same place of eeschema.

The sources... https://www.dropbox.com/s/u9mb4kqmk7phbmd/kicad.svg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/5n93g2ypuzdq09s/eeschema.svg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/92fardfic65q665/pcbnew.svg?dl=0

[Jacajack]

What about something like this for pcbnew?

I'm not sure if it looks right, though :confused:

[Foggalong]

@leoheck Those icons are way too detailed - even at 48px (which is the size of icon we provide) you'll end up loosing massive amounts of detail to blur. I like the idea of the circuit diagrams though

@Jacajack Those icons for pcbnew look good, but make the lines leading to the boxes thinner and the boxes smaller and more central. Possibly experiment with using different shades of green/purple with one for the box and one for the wire?

[leoheck]

I agree @Foggalong I can make them with less details.. what do you think? With only a transistor and the kicad in blue while eeschema is in gray.

Kicad icon and colors based on the new Kicad logo

The sources .. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tgbskn5u8ugtxmz/AABCG9EU7UdWwQL_sO0xf8Wra?dl=0

[Jacajack]

@Foggalong I will see what I can do today. I'm only afraid about those diagonal paths, because they look blurry when you look at the icon in its original size.

[leoheck]

@Jacajack, do you like the icons? I think we can think together here..

[Jacajack]

@leoheck Of course! :+1: They are great in my opinion, but I'm afraid that symbols are little bit too big, though.

Anyway, we still have PCB calculator, bmp2component, gerber view (we already have an icon for gerbv, so I guess this one should be somewhat similar) and cvpcb left.

[Foggalong]

@leoheck Those are definitely along the right lines, and I especially like the Kicad one. @Jacajack is right that the symbols are a bit too big, and there's possibly some alignment issues too but those can both wait til pull request review.

@Jacajack Diagonal paths are impossible to avoid completely and are okay to have here and there, so don't worry too much about them

[Jacajack]

@Foggalong Alright, so I made the tracks thinner, changed color of the pads and this is what I've got:

I used same colors as @leoheck, to make icons look more compatible. I thought about adding more paths, to make the icon look more like PCB editor rather than footprint editor and I can open pull request if you want, but to be honest, I think that Leo's icon is better :)

[Foggalong]

@leoheck Which of your icons corresponds to @Jacajack's? Sorry for the ignorance, I'm not familiar with the software

[Jacajack]

@Foggalong Judging from filenames, it's the right one. By the way, Kicad also has footprint editor, (I can't find the icon file though) so maybe with any luck we could use both icons? (footprint editor doesn't appear in launcher, so unless adding new icons changes the ones existing in Kicad already, I think we don't need that icon)

Blue - PCB editor Orange - Footprint editor

[Foggalong]

Yeah, looking at the footprint editor I'd say yours was more appropriate for that and then @leoheck's for the PCB editor.

[Jacajack]

@Foggalong, actually, I thought other way around, because @leoheck's icon shows single footprint (which is basically the pattern of copper on the PCB that you solder your element to), and mine has footprint and some tracks (you don't do that in footprint editor), but that's not important...

Anyway, if we need only one icon, I'd pick his one :)

[leoheck]

Sorry, I forget to name icons... from left to right: kicad, eeschema and pcbnew

I agree with @Jacajack we have to improve my pcbnew. However, eeschama shows a transistor, so what about to make the same component for pcbnew, like I did? This makes the design more connected, I think. So, it is possible to choose an SMD transistor instead of my choice that uses a thru-hole. I agree to add some tracks on the pads to simulate the connections making it seems more layout editor, as you said.

I will improve all of them. There are some guidelines I should follow? I have been following my feelings only.

Someone has any idea for the other icons? I also think cvpcb, in kicad 4.1 (beta) was removed.

[leoheck]

• Kicad reduced, with the orange ball increased and alignment improved
• Esschema reduced, with Kicad light blue and alignment improved
• Pcbnew reduced with tracks in Kicad-orange

[Jacajack]

@leoheck Nice! :+1:

Don't get me wrong, I meant to say that If we had to make two icons (one for footprint editor, and one for pcbnew) the track would possibly be useful hint. In this case, in my opinion, the version of icon without tracks looks even a bit better (and because you added tracks symbol is still too big, but maybe if they were thinner and would lead outside the icon base (like mine do) it would be alright).

SMD transistors are boring, by the way, I think that TO-92-like footprint is fine. Every electronics beginner will assume it's a transistor, and seeing for example SOT-23 may not be so obvious.

cvpcb is still here, but not available through desktop file, so I guess we don't need icon for it.

PS. I opened your icons with Inkscape and I can see that your icon file dimensions are 46x46, without spacing between edge of the image and baseplate.

As far as I know image size should be 48x48px and there should be 1px of spacing between the circle and edge of paper on each side, like this:

Also, shadows intersect with each other making darker shadows:

I'm not sure how you caused that, but I assume you created separate shadow for each part of your symbol, instead of grouping, then duplicating the whole symbol. I think that's because your symbol is a stroke, instead of path. You can convert it to path in Path -> Stroke to path. Then probably you can make union of all the parts to get one consistent symbol. If you want, I can help you with the icons :)

[Jacajack]

Ok, I have prototype of icon for bmp2component

Color can be changed of course. What do you think about this?

[leoheck]

Thank you for the guidelines and comments. My icons are just a good draft for numix team/community since I am not a designer but I can try to improve them with your tips.

I think all tools should have an icon, because they will appear in dash/dock if the application is opened. Look, the last one is the default bmp2component

• Kicad is very good for me
• Eeschema is almost there
• I actually do not like pcbnew yet and do not have any ideas to improve it.
• footprint editor can be like pcbnew without the tracks, but it could have any other device, I think.
• I like your bmp2component
• pcbcalculator can use this image as a reference. It shows a track over the FR4 substrate over a copper plane. Sure, FR4 should be green :)

• gerberview can have a green square to represent the pcb (as in pcbcalculator) with a magnifying glass.

Toughts?

[Jacajack]

@leoheck, that sounds right. Though if we are lazy, we can link gerberview to gerbv icon.

If you want I can modify your icons to meet guideline. I can also try to modify your eeschema icon in order to get Footprint Editor icon.

[leoheck]

Yeah, you can make the refinements. Thank you.

[Jacajack]

Ok, so here's what we've got so far:

• Kicad:

• Eeschema:

• PCBnew or Footprint editor (I'm going to create second version of this icon, and then see what it matches better)

• Bitmap 2 component:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B6I7tshTB6Z2a19GY1J0dkF1a1k&usp=sharing I left the icons in looking ok, but not ready to be committed state, just in case I had to edit them afterwards

What do you think about it?

[leoheck]

Nice! I will make some drafts for other icons too.

[leoheck]

An idea for pcbcalculator. I think a ruler or set-square is missing.. https://www.dropbox.com/s/o1fczjelrwjt7g6/pcbcalculator.svg?dl=0

Maybe a yellow version of this:

[leoheck]

@Jacajack, rename the bmp2component.svg to bitmap2component.svg

[Foggalong]

@leoheck If you want a set square to use have a look at the glade icons :)

[Jacajack]

@leoheck, I'm not working on git repository yet, I was going to change it before committing. Thanks for reminding me anyway :)

[Jacajack]

@leoheck What about something like this?

[leoheck]

@Jacajack can you put it in your shared folder.. I would like to try some rotations.

[Jacajack]

@leoheck I'm away from home this weekend. I can upload it on Sunday evening. Sorry...

[Jacajack]

@leoheck, I uploaded it. Of course it's development version, so you might find some rubbish around. I'm going to play around with it more tomorrow :)

[Jacajack]

@leoheck, alright, so here are 2 variants you probably wanted to try. Personally, I prefer the first one below:

Or maybe this one?

Personally, I like this one most:

[leoheck]

Personally, I like the ones which have the yellow set-square and the thick tracks. @Foggalong which one do you like most?

[Jacajack]

@leoheck, it's alright, otherwise I wouldn't make different variations of the icon :)

[Foggalong]

@Jacajack What does this one look like rotated a quarter turn clockwise and then flipped through the Y-axis?

[Jacajack]

@Foggalong

So I guess now the question is "which rotation of the same thing do we like best?"

[Foggalong]

That one, definitely :+1:

[Jacajack]

@Foggalong, alright :) We have still 3 more to go - I will try to make some drafts tomorrow.

[leoheck]

cvpcb can be a mix from eeschema and pcbnew... maybe one overlapping the other.

[Jacajack]

@Foggalong, @leoheck, cvpcb is a utility to edit netlists (files that define how components are connected). Later, the information is displayed by pcbnew as so caled ratnet. It looks somewhat like weird spider web.

Just a draft to show you my idea.

And this is basically where my idea comes from. I'm also thinking about simpler design with only few connected nodes, marked as little circles. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I may have seen similar Numix icon somewhere already, I'm not sure though.

Also, this symbol could be used on netlist mimetype.

EDIT: Whoops, I wrote this and designed the icon without refreshing the page, and I didn't see your comment, leoheck, sorry!

[Foggalong]

@leoheck overlapping symbols only really works if there's a significant size difference between the two and if the colours match - where possible, a unique symbol would be preferable.

[Jacajack]

@Foggalong, something like this maybe?

[Foggalong]

I have no idea what these programs do so I can only compare them to their original iconography, but this is a well design icon yes :)

[Jacajack]

@Foggalong, no problem. Anyway, I'm glad to hear you like it :)

[Jacajack]

I've been lazy for almost two weeks now. It's definitely time to get back to work...

One thing I'm still unsure about are icons for cvpcb, pl_editor and footprint editor. I can't find them anywhere (apart from /usr/share/doc/kicad/help/en/images/icons, but apparently modifying them doesn't change anything), so I suppose they are some kind of hardcoded into Kicad itself. (I use Kicad 4.10-alpha)

Also, cvpcb and footprint editor icons are not visible on launcher while programs are running. Though, PL editor's icon appears in launcher when it's running, it cannot be ran from launcher menu and the icon is really kind of... well... missing.

Eeschema and cvpcb stack up:

In this case we only have gerbview icon left to do, and I think all those tiny icons that appear in Kicad (if they can be changed) should be treated as yet another issue.

Otherwise we would also need icons for Library Browser, Library Editor, ERC, annotating schematic components and lots of different stuff.

[leoheck]

Good work @Jacajack, we have to report a bug in kicad telling them to use system icons.