Re: [libreoffice-design] Icons: Testing the Design Process

Þann sun 26.feb 2012 19:11, skrifaði Mirek M.:
> Hi Kévin
> 2012/2/26 Kévin PEIGNOT<peignot.kevin@kpeignot.fr>
>
> > Hi
> >
> > I was looking in LIbO source and I discovered icons are "localized" : There
> > is a font a font for franch icon (example : B for Bold is G for Gras). So
> > it seems we can have localised icons, not using letter A but corresponding
> > letter
>
> I know, but it's inconsistent: highlighting, font color, subscript,
> superscript, and others aren't localized. Surprisingly, though, within the
> English LibreOffice, the icons, even though they're localized, use "A" as a
> symbol for bold, italic, and underline.
> It's going to be easier if we drop localized versions.

From a l10n point of view *A*, /A/ and _A_ are much more 
logical and easier to maintain. If done right.
There may be languages where no single word can describe the 
respective property, there may be scripts where the 
respective symbol does not fit into an icon.

On the other hand, an "A" is a general symbol for "alphabet" 
- existing in most input methods (keyboards, touch-screens) 
and probably used in some way in most languages.

Many distributions/admins I know of have abandoned themes 
with B-I-U for *A*-/A/-_A_ a long time ago (if remembering 
correctlu by setting OOo to Industrial theme, but now Tango 
supports these icons).

So I think *A*-/A/-_A_ should be the default, but of course 
if some language team thinks differently, there should be 
choice - if there is a robust mechanism for inserting 
localised versions (from pootle?).

Scripting such things should not be overly complicated, an 
example has been the Fedora countdown banners where a server 
side function (PHP_search_replace?) is used to substitute a 
date on the fly:
<http://www.nett.is/~sveinki/libreoffice/deepsky-fedora11-countdown-banner_is.svg>
English version here: 
<http://www.nett.is/~sveinki/libreoffice/deepsky-fedora11-countdown-banner_en.svg>.

In this case translators had to parse an SVG to replace 
placeholders, while the server only replaced the '%%':
<http://www.nett.is/~sveinki/libreoffice/f11count_is.svg>
It could easily replace the translations as well, according 
to locale.

But I see this as more adequate for producing localised web 
banners and such; in the above examples you can see the 
problems many would run into (cut-off text, general layout, 
and what about kerning?). It really has to be bullet-proof 
to work for icons.

Just thoughts,

Sveinn í Felli


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