Hi,
This follows on from discussions with Troels (both private and at
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.nmr.relax.devel/4304/focus=4308).
For the graphics for Sparky, NMRPipe, etc. to be used for the GUI
menus, buttons, and user function wizard pages, as well as the user
manual, I think we need to discuss the options on this list.
I went to the Sparky homepage (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/sparky/)
and realised that there were no graphics which we can use. Sparky has
no icons, program logo, or anything! The only thing that can be done
is to take screenshots. I have already done this for the spectrum
user function wizard graphics (see graphics/wizards/spectrum/). There
should be no problems including screenshots of various programs with
relax. Coming up with a wizard graphic constrained to be 200 pixels
wide is difficult though. And for the 16x16, 22x22, 32x32, 48x48 and
128x128 icons, sceenshots are impossible.
I then went to NMRPipe (http://spin.niddk.nih.gov/NMRPipe/). What do
you think of the graphic
http://spin.niddk.nih.gov/NMRPipe/nmrpipe_logo_border.jpg? I have a
feeling that the quality is not good enough for use in relax. It
looks like an ancient low quality 256 indexed colour GIF file turned
into a JPG file. The wizard graphics, or any GUI graphics, need
transparent backgrounds to blend into the widgets. This is not always
the case, but it is preferred. But I don't think we can take out the
black background cleanly as it is a grey-black gradient, and the JPG
fuzziness damage is too high.
It may be easier to create something like the
graphics/wizards/pipe*.png graphics instead, using Inkscape to
generate the field lines and add the "NMRPipe" text. What do you
think? If you look at the
graphics/wizards/dipole_pair/VectorFieldPlot.py script (a GPLv3+
licensed script bundled with relax), you will see that we can generate
physically realistic magnetic field lines to use in any graphics. So
we can combine a relax pipe graphic, with the hue changed to match
Frank's colours, the realistic magnetic field lines, and the "NMRPipe"
text to create a much higher quality graphic. That will also allow
use to create a 16x16 icon with no text and maybe 2 field lines. We
can then email Frank the graphic for his opinion.
I also realised that the icon when you go to
http://spin.niddk.nih.gov/NMRPipe/, the favicon.ico file, has nothing
to do with NMRPipe! It's a beaker full of some blue-green liquid. So
for the 16x16, 22x22, 32x32, 48x48 and 128x128 icons, we would need to
think of something else. Note that the 16x16 icon is brutal on
graphics - it has to be insanely simple with no text. This size is
used for the menu items in the GUI. The 22x22 and 32x32 graphics are
used for the buttons in the GUI. And the 128x128 icons are used for
the user manual listing of user functions. The 48x48 icons are
reserved for future uses. I think we need to discuss which graphics
we use.
Regards,
Edward
Graphics for Sparky, NMRPipe, and other NMR software.