256x256 px icons

[Warren Young]

On 7/27/2011 2:04 PM, Andy Koppe wrote:
> - The 16x16 has white dots in the corners.

That was a feature.  But you no like it, I make go 'way.

> - There are black edges around the icons. Those need to be transparent.

Why?

I purposely redrew the edges in the smaller icons for contrast and 
clarity.  (Among other things.)  Because the Konsole icon edges are 
black, I made the semitransparent pixels you get from simple 
downsampling pure black.  If all you want is the blurry mess you get 
from a direct downsample, there's no point in having the smaller icons 
at all.

Maybe a dark gray would make you happier?  Something that approximates 
the appearance of a thin black line blending into the background the 
icon is being matted on, without trying to make use of alpha blending?

My old skool heritage is showing.  I've been trained not to use alpha 
blending a 32 px and below.  When I was a boy, all we had was 8 bpp with 
one color reserved for yes/no transparency, AND WE LIKED IT.

Is this outmoded?  Will XP do the right thing with RGBA for 16 px icons? 
  Is that a good idea regardless, or is old skool the only skool?

> - Contrast and saturation are rather low. I think it would be better
> to overlay the Cygwin symbol on top of the terminal rather than
> blending them.

Here it is:

	http://etr-usa.com/cygwin/mintty-icon/no-text.ico

It also has the gray edges on the smaller icons instead of black, and 
transparent corners in the 16x16.

I had to remove the text, which makes the result not as clearly a 
terminal.  At 256 and arguably at 48 px, you can figure out that it 
might be a terminal, especially if you've seen the icon in its previous 
incarnation.  At 32 px and below, I challenge anyone to honestly tell me 
that there is any sense of "terminal" left in this version.

One could make an argument for going back to the plain old Konsole icon. 
  Maybe one icon cannot serve two masters.

I don't want to get all bikesheddy.  I'm just telling you my thought 
process, so we can get to a decision.