New buttons images

[pollito pito]

I will make it as clear as I can: I love calibre, there is no match to it and
there is no way I can thank Kovid enough for sharing it with us. If I brought
the issue of the new icons to the discussion was just out of the desire of
helping making it better. I am totally agree with those that pointed out that
the time of the developers is better used in improving the core and I would
never suggest that their time was used in improving the graphics. I am asking
if there is someone around in this forum that could and would produce the
graphics.

I respect the opinion of those that consider eye candy pejorative, of those
that insist in believing that a good design should not be attempted because it
will be necessarily a matter personal taste or preferences. Just one question:

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if besides having the excellence in functionality it
already has, calibre was also handsome?

Thanks to Worldwalker for the excellent post on the shortcomings of the new graphics.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by pollito pito

...Just one question:

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if besides having the excellence in functionality it
already has, calibre was also handsome?...

Of course it would! I would love it! But, for the price (I'm not being sarcastic), it looks pretty good already, especially when one considers it has been developed on a shoestring budget using unpaid volunteers and a developer receiving only donations.

[jasonfedelem]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

While I will admit I'm not exactly thrilled about the new icons, their appearance is immaterial to how well the program works. I would much rather have a program that works well than looks good (not that it doesn't now). I would prefer that Kovid continue to concentrate with his fine work in making a useful program and concentrate primarily on changes to improve the usability of the program than be diverted over some silly icons (face it, no matter what icons he puts up, someone will bitch about it). I looked at a lot of programs had glitzy and even really nice looking screen displays that were nicer than calibre's but they were not nearly as useful. Guess which program I chose? Too much of an issue has been made over these icons. Please, everyone, build a bridge and get over it.

Btw, Starson17, I so agree with you about creeping option bloat (are you listening MS?).

I was about to write this, but got beat to it.

[nyrath]

Well, Mr. Goyal has spoken, and I agree with what he says.

If anybody wanted to go to the trouble, it appears that the button images are stored in the C:\Program Files\Calibre2\resources\images as *.svg files. Such files can be edited using a program called Inkscape, but this is not an easy process. These are not simple bit-map files, they are vector graphic files.

Personally I like the new buttons.

[Worldwalker]

And thereby, I suspect, hangs a lot of the problem. Vector graphics are wonderfully resizeable, but at some point they eventually have to be rasterized for display, often to the detriment of line widths, etc. Creating graphics that rasterize gracefully at multiple small sizes (e.g., icons) is a screaming nightmare. It's not impossible, though, so when I get something resembling free time, I'll try a few for everyone's approval.

[jesscat]

This is late to the game, but I decided to post anyway - updating to 0.7.9 made my formerly small buttons large-size (resizing has been temporarily disabled for this version; Kovid says it will be restored), and having the new buttons such a large and prominent part of my Calibre screen brought back to my mind the thoughts about this issue I'd had when I first read this thread a few days ago.

With due respect and gratitude for the person who devoted the time and effort to creating them, I am in agreement with those posters who found the new icons inconsistent (they are a hodgepodge of different styles that don't seem to fit together as a group) and confusing (misuse of common symbols like recycling and search; symbols that don't seem to show or mean anything). Where I diverge, however, is from those who write that they'd "rather have a program that works than looks good," and comments to that effect.

I'm a huge, passionate fan and supporter of Calibre; it's probably close to my most-used piece of software, I donate, I recommend it to people all the time - I love it, use it constantly, and I'm not a nitpicker in general. But I also believe that good design isn't just aesthetics or an afterthought - it's part of good functionality and user-friendliness; it's an element of making a program that "works." That's the reason (or a big reason) we have GUIs and don't all just use command-line interface. And the more complex a piece of software, the more important design becomes.

And symbols, icons, are about more than just appearance; they serve as a means of communication - think about the octagonal red stop sign, and what it means around much of the world; the words on it are almost irrelevant. Using something like the recycling symbol to mean something entirely different than what people expect serves only to confuse people - sure they can read the text beneath, but that undermines the whole purpose of using a symbol to begin with; in that case, why not eliminate the symbol and simply use text. Given all the possibilities out there, it's simply unnecessary to use a symbol that already has a widely-accepted meaning attached - that is bad communication and therefore, bad design. I don't believe that's subjective at all - it's not a matter of what is pleasing to an individual's eye.

Similarly, consistency isn't (or is only marginally) subjective. Giving a website or an application a consistent, identifiable "look and feel" - whether that's a set of colors or color-groups, or a set of shapes, or something else that binds the icons and other elements of the interface together - contributes to user-friendliness and ease of navigation and accessibility. It doesn't matter as much whether the icons are "pretty" or "attractive" to any individual - arguably, that is more subjective - but whether they match each other and the rest of the design. Whether they communicate effectively.

Again, I think these factors are important elements of whether and how well an application "works," and they become more so a) the more complex and sophisticated the application becomes; and b) the more people (and the more un-technologically-sophisticated people) use the application.

Of course, I'm not a graphic designer, so I'm not able to put my money where my mouth is - I wish I could, because I surely would. But I think an application of the level Calibre has reached deserves a design - or at least a set of icons - that is consistent with its sophistication and complexity. True, it is not the role of the software developers to do this - but I can't help but think that among all the dedicated Calibre users must be someone with the skills and willingness to produce a set of icons that better reflect Calibre's remarkable level of...well, sophistication, and complexity, and, yes professionalism.

[tcrabb]

This latest upgrade has a few changes that don't seem too helpful. I can't find the option to put the text back on the buttons, and the way they move position depending on whether the reader is attached.

[kovidgoyal]

@tcrab: As I already said, those options will be restored in the next release.

@jesscat: Both the old icons and the news icons use the same symbols for delete and view (the old icons had the recycle symbol on a trash can, the new icons get rid of the trashcan). So I really dont see how the new icons are less "consistent" than the old ones. In fact, thematically, the new icons are virtually identical to the old ones. The only really different ones being the edit metadata and fetch news. So if you say you dont like the look of the new icons, sure, I can understand that. But to say that they are less consistent, just makes no sense.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@jesscat: But to say that they are less consistent, just makes no sense.

I have avoided jumping in here because I am a old fart who doesn't handle change well, but I have to agree with jesscat. I use calibre on an hourly basis (testing and all), and still haven't internalized what the icons mean. I hover over them to get the tooltip before clicking, just to be sure I know what will happen. For some reason I didn't have this problem with the old set.

Eventually the function/icon correspondence will work its way into my brain, but it hasn't yet.

[kovidgoyal]

@chaley: That is the inevitable down side to changing icons. Your brain associates a given icon with a given function and it takes a while to relearn that association. But that is a function of change not of the consistency or lack thereof of the new icons.

[Christina]

I don't see any issue with the new icons. They're bright, big and they work. You can't please everyone, but they please me, so I thought I should say something in defence of the new interface.

I really liked the recycle (delete) button - it was perfectly clear to me what it was. It's the same symbol on the recycle bin on my windows desktop. Hardly inconsistent. And if you move the cross to the middle of the 'add books' button, I'll confuse it with the British Red Cross. So what ever you do, someone-somewhere is going to see something else. A flag; a symbol; a phallic image It's a book. With an 'add' sign. Go figure.

I don't consider the look of a program irrelevant. I like pretty. I just don't see the current icons as unattractive :-s They are not completely boring/tiny/samey/grey/Microsoft.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@tcrab: As I already said, those options will be restored in the next release.

@jesscat: Both the old icons and the news icons use the same symbols for delete and view (the old icons had the recycle symbol on a trash can, the new icons get rid of the trashcan). So I really dont see how the new icons are less "consistent" than the old ones. In fact, thematically, the new icons are virtually identical to the old ones. The only really different ones being the edit metadata and fetch news. So if you say you dont like the look of the new icons, sure, I can understand that. But to say that they are less consistent, just makes no sense.

Kovid, while I still feel that way too much is being made of the icon change, I agree with others that some of the new ones are not as relevant as they could be. Simply because most computer users use Windows, it is reasonable to expect most calibre users will also be using Windows (and please, let's not get into a heated exchange over the merits/falacies of various OSs). Many of the standard icons from Windows, in one form or another, have "leaked" over to some, if not all, of the other OSs so it would be reasonable to assume Windows and similar icons to be standard.

In the case of the book removal icon, I never even noticed the recycle symbol on the trashcan and even if I had, I still would have associated the trashcan with disposing of something. Even in the physical world, I associate trashcans as a means for disposing of something which I have no further use. Whether the ultimate destination of the trashcan contents is a landfill or a recycling plant is immaterial to the purpose for me putting that material into the can, which is getting it out of my life forever (this is not to denigrate recycling). Hence (probably) my not "seeing" the recycling symbol on the old trashcan but only the trashcan. I'm sure others here have similar feelings which would explain why there have been so many feeling the recycle symbol is inconsistant with disposing of unwanted books.

I am also an old fart who is probably at least twice your age (btw, that was not a putdown; if anything, I'm jealous of your youth) who also has ADD so change is really jarring for me. I manage to cope athough I generally tenaciously hold onto the old until forced to change. Still, I do manage to make the change (with varying degrees of difficulty).

[kovidgoyal]

Actually, I've been keeping score

People who have posted to say they like the new icons, either on facebook, here, by email or in person: 16

People who say they don't like the new icons: 7

And keep in in mind that people that dislike something are much more likely to post than people that like it.

So at the moment, the yea's have it.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Christina

I don't see any issue with the new icons. They're bright, big and they work. You can't please everyone, but they please me, so I thought I should say something in defence of the new interface.

I really liked the recycle (delete) button - it was perfectly clear to me what it was. It's the same symbol on the recycle bin on my windows desktop. Hardly inconsistent. And if you move the cross to the middle of the 'add books' button, I'll confuse it with the British Red Cross. So what ever you do, someone-somewhere is going to see something else. A flag; a symbol; a phallic image It's a book. With an 'add' sign. Go figure.

I don't consider the look of a program irrelevant. I like pretty. I just don't see the current icons as unattractive :-s They are not completely boring/tiny/samey/grey/Microsoft.

Christina, as I explained in my previous post, I never "saw" the recycle symbol on the old trashcan icon. When I read your post, I had to go to my desktop and look for a recycling symbol because I could not recall one being there. Turns out a form of it is. On the trashcan! It is the trashcan I am seeing, not the recycling symbol. Apparently, base on many of the posts in this thread, I am not the only one who "sees" the trashcan instead of the recycling symbol.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

I never "saw" the recycle symbol on the old trashcan icon.

I feel much better now that we're all recycling our books, rather than just throwing them into the trashcan icon. I don't see how anyone can be against recycling.