PhotoLine UI Icons Customization Project

[borgo1971]

Path should be /Applications/PhotoLine.app

Mmmhhh... and where should I place things like plug-ins folder, scripting, samples, etc...?! All free around Applications folder? Not so good. I think well written macOS application should be able to work everywhere someone puts them (and so far PhotoLine seems one of these ). If it's not so, application need an installer that put's every pice in right place... but it's not macOS philosophy (OK, I know: not even Apple respects always this philosophy ).
In any case, in readme file it's suggested to put PhotoLine.app directly in Application folder, giving an option to use an elusive user Application folder (macOS don't create it... even I did for other reasons and I used it for testing new PhotoLine version), but it seems that the reason is just to start PhotoLine by double clicking on a PhotoLine associated document. I never got problems on this.

[shijan]

Path should be /Applications/PhotoLine.app

Mmmhhh... and where should I place things like plug-ins folder, scripting, samples, etc...?!

All those additional special manually created folders with custom stuff that PhotoLine can read (Automation, ColorLookup, ICCProfiles, UserSettings) should be placed in ~/Library/Preferences/PhotoLine

Plug-ins folder could be any folder anywhere , just set path in "Preferences -> Extended -> Plug-in Modules"

Unfortunately folders structure in PhotoLine organized in rather confused way. Multiple possible places and variations. Preferences, Color Swatches, Presets and other stuff don't have dedicated separate folders at all. Things like UI Layouts can't be exported to external file or shared, because they are located in global preferences xml file. This is all probably due some historical reasons when things where designed too quick in early versions, and later it was impossible to change structure without breaking the functionality. In newest macOS versions things became even worse for basic users because "~/Library" folder due some unknown reason became hidden by default by Apple developers.

There is also no global list of all supported folders names. I was able to collect information from multiple forum threads and different parts of FAQs to get these special folders names:
Automation (special folder for scripts)
ColorLookup (special folder for LUTs)
ICCProfiles (special folder for additional ICC profiles, if for some reason you don't want to install them to system ICC profiles folder)
UserSettings (special folder that can be used to override global settings)

I think well written macOS application should be able to work everywhere someone puts them

No, this is never works with complicated apps that have a lot of dependency paths. And it is not only PhotoLine restriction.
- Run apps from Applicatioins folder.
- Do not change the name of the app.
- Do not put app inside additional folder until app was designed to work like this and was placed during installation. (In case with PhotoLine on macOS it a little bit confusing for new user how to install it, so i guess making installer .PKG, or at least "classic" .DMG that points that you need drag and drop .app inside Applications folder could improve things a lot)

[borgo1971]

In newest macOS versions things became even worse for basic users because "~/Library" folder due some unknown reason became hidden by default by Apple developers.

Instead I agree with Apple on this. For most users, it's better they can't access "~/Library". I know more then once that tried to organise "~/Library" in their own order... my father is one of them .
"~/Library" should be access by experienced user, that know what this Library is (some time ago, someone said to me he guessed it was there right place to put pdf's and ebooks), or by Applications. So, for example, if an application need to install a plug-in, the application should have a routine that let the user select the plugin, and then the routine place it in the right folder inside "~/Library" (for user level plug-ins).
What I don't understand, is why Apple didn't hide "/Library" and "/System" too...
P.S.: In Windows you won't see AppData folder, too. Although, may things that macOS stores in "~/Library", in Windows are stored in Windows registry

[shijan]

beta 113
It is highly recommended to uncheck "Use System Mouse Cursor" in "Preferences -> Working -> Cursor" to improve cursors appearance.
In this version icons and cursors structure in PLD files optimized for PhotoLine 23 and higher. Some icons may display incorrectly in earlier versions of PhotoLine.
In some UI places icons may look blurred because they are aligned to 14/16/18 pixel grid instead of original pixel perfect 15/17/19 pixel grid.
In Windows due problem with cursor transparency, white outline around cursors may generate dark artifacts.

- Add/Export Export Setting toolbar icons

[shijan]

beta 114
It is highly recommended to uncheck "Use System Mouse Cursor" in "Preferences -> Working -> Cursor" to improve cursors appearance.
In this version icons and cursors structure in PLD files optimized for PhotoLine 23 and higher. Some icons may display incorrectly in earlier versions of PhotoLine.
In some UI places icons may look blurred because they are aligned to 14/16/18 pixel grid instead of original pixel perfect 15/17/19 pixel grid.
In Windows due problem with cursor transparency, white outline around cursors may generate dark artifacts.

- "Export" panel icon changed

[shijan]

beta 115
It is highly recommended to uncheck "Use System Mouse Cursor" in "Preferences -> Working -> Cursor" to improve cursors appearance.
In this version icons and cursors structure in PLD files optimized for PhotoLine 23 and higher. Some icons may display incorrectly in earlier versions of PhotoLine.
In some UI places icons may look blurred because they are aligned to 14/16/18 pixel grid instead of original pixel perfect 15/17/19 pixel grid.
In Windows due problem with cursor transparency, white outline around cursors may generate dark artifacts.

- "Record Actions" icon in Undo panel.
- other small fixes.

[Herbert123]

It's been a while since I tested your icon set, and I have to say:

These are great. I am impressed by your icon set - very clear, very easy on the eyes, modern-looking, and in my opinion these ought to be included in PhotoLine.

Not sure about the licensing though...

But from now on these will be my default icons.

Kudos and many thanks for all the hard work!

[shijan]

Thanks for feedback! Too bad that in Windows version icons in menus and some tools are not pixel perfect because UI aligns them to 14/16/18 pixel grid instead of original 15/17/19 pixel grid. Maybe it is not so visible on Hi-DPI displays, but on HD display Windows version looks not so pretty as macOS version. Also in Windows there is a problem with cursor transparency. White outline around cursors generates dark artifacts. Seems there is no way to fix this problem yet.

Yep, nice if icon set could be included in PhotoLine, but i also have no idea if it formally legal. Partially these icons use free Apple Symbols icons set, but as i understand Apple allow to use those icons for free only for macOS/iOS apps.
From other point of view most icons are not original Apple Symbols, but manually redrawn and modified icons. So formally those are custom made icons inspired by look and feel of Apple Symbols icons
Some other icons are inspired by look and feel of Photoshop tool icons. In same way, they are all manually redrawn in vector, shape and proportions changed a little bit. For my subjective opinion they look better than Photoshop icons if compare side by side
Some icons use modified shape of original PhotoLine icons, some icons i drawn and design manually from scratch.

Complicated situation. So i guess the safest way is to keep this icon set as side hobby project and not include inside app package. Or maybe ask opinion of some lawyer who qualified in cases with UI and digital goods.

[shijan]

beta 116
It is highly recommended to uncheck "Use System Mouse Cursor" in "Preferences -> Working -> Cursor" to improve cursors appearance.
In this version icons and cursors structure in PLD files optimized for PhotoLine 23 and higher. Some icons may display incorrectly in earlier versions of PhotoLine.
In some UI places icons may look blurred because they are aligned to 14/16/18 pixel grid instead of original pixel perfect 15/17/19 pixel grid.
In Windows due problem with cursor transparency, white outline around cursors may generate dark artifacts.

- Icons for "Actions" panel menu.
- 12602 Choose Font...
- 12448 Text on Path
- 12449 Text in Path
- 12444 Merge Marked Text Layers
- 12452 Activate Text Shortcuts
- 19470 Group with Previous Layer
- other small fixes.

[shijan]

beta 117
It is highly recommended to uncheck "Use System Mouse Cursor" in "Preferences -> Working -> Cursor" to improve cursors appearance.
In this version icons and cursors structure in PLD files optimized for PhotoLine 23 and higher. Some icons may display incorrectly in earlier versions of PhotoLine.
In some UI places icons may look blurred because they are aligned to 14/16/18 pixel grid instead of original pixel perfect 15/17/19 pixel grid.
In Windows due problem with cursor transparency, white outline around cursors may generate dark artifacts.

- 13004 Placeholder Edit
- 39191 Placeholder Embed
- 39195 Placeholder Export
- 39196 Placeholder Create from Layer
- other small fixes.
- 13002 Show Source Layer (still thinking about it)
- 13003 Create Real Layer
- Changed "Merge Layers", "Merge Down" and "Flatten Image" icons (to match the same logic as vector merge icons)

[shijan]

beta 118
It is highly recommended to uncheck "Use System Mouse Cursor" in "Preferences -> Working -> Cursor" to improve cursors appearance.
In this version icons and cursors structure in PLD files optimized for PhotoLine 23 and higher. Some icons may display incorrectly in earlier versions of PhotoLine.
In some UI places icons may look blurred because they are aligned to 14/16/18 pixel grid instead of original pixel perfect 15/17/19 pixel grid.
In Windows due problem with cursor transparency, white outline around cursors may generate dark artifacts.

- 12283 Convert Layer to Layer Mask for Previous
- 12290 Apply layer mask to mask (still not sure if i understand the meaning of these too complex mask automation tools correctly, but hope icons are more-less logical)
- 12806 Export Single Frames
- 12351 Tile Image
- 12353 Raster Transparency
- other small fixes.

[shijan]

beta 119
It is highly recommended to uncheck "Use System Mouse Cursor" in "Preferences -> Working -> Cursor" to improve cursors appearance.
In this version icons and cursors structure in PLD files optimized for PhotoLine 23 and higher. Some icons may display incorrectly in earlier versions of PhotoLine.
In some UI places icons may look blurred because they are aligned to 14/16/18 pixel grid instead of original pixel perfect 15/17/19 pixel grid.
In Windows due problem with cursor transparency, white outline around cursors may generate dark artifacts.

- Changed icon "Fit in Text Layer" (icon matched to "Fit in Vector Layer" logic)
- 12458 Optimize Text Layer Size
- 12456 Crop Text Flow
- other small fixes.

[shijan]

beta 120
It is highly recommended to uncheck "Use System Mouse Cursor" in "Preferences -> Working -> Cursor" to improve cursors appearance.
In this version icons and cursors structure in PLD files optimized for PhotoLine 23 and higher. Some icons may display incorrectly in earlier versions of PhotoLine.
In some UI places icons may look blurred because they are aligned to 14/16/18 pixel grid instead of original pixel perfect 15/17/19 pixel grid.
In Windows due problem with cursor transparency, white outline around cursors may generate dark artifacts.

- Merge Marked Text Layers improved icon
- 20256 Export to predefined folder with overwrite Quick Export
- 20259 Export to predefined folder with overwrite Quick Export Document
- other small fixes.

[Herbert123]

May I make a suggestion?

2022-06-16 13_14_35-#1.png

2022-06-16 13_16_02-#1.png

I noticed that I could not easily differentiate between the layer icons for layer effects and color filter in your icon set.

No such issue in the original icon set (top version) where the S and the pencil-like thing (of which the shape is impossible to identify, btw) work better compared to your versions which both look like tiny squares on my 27" 2560x1440 screen.

Even if yours look nicer, the shape (rectangles) are similar which makes it more difficult to decide which is which.

[shijan]

Herbert123, yes, those tiny layer badges icons are problematic. They use larger sized icon source that also used in other UI places and scale it automatically to tiny size.
Another part of the problem is that 19 px icon source scaled to 10 px, so everything looks even more blurry and aliased. I described this problem here long time ago: https://www.pl32.com/forum3/viewtopic.p ... 341#p48341

I can only suggest to developers one more time:
1. Provide separate independent icon resources for all those tiny layer badges icons.
2. If possible set button size to 15 px instead of current 16 px and use 11x11px icon size instead of current 8x8 or 10x10px icon size.



Guess it's not happens because it will also require changing of layer height, because size of those tiny buttons designed to fit exactly to layer height presets: button size - 16 px, layer height - 32px, 48px, 64px? Why don't use 15 px sized buttons, but add 1 pixel space between them to fit them inside current layer height?


And quick example how things may look, if only those badge icons use 15px sized buttons and specially drawn pixel perfect 11px sized icons:


By the way, that is not pencil-like thing Original Color Filter icon represented by filter with rainbow. In my icon set i didn't draw any special icon yet, so i used generic filter icon.
You can search for 12468 layer in PicturesUser.pld and put any icon you like inside that group. Guess some basic simple shape will look better there for you.