Inconsistent use of Icons

Maybe a meta package something like total-tango-desktop that installs tango goodness.....

We really need this. The default GTK icons for Cancel and OK burn my eyes out.

I would like to add my support to this proposal, though it may be more appropriate to put forward as a design specification for Edgy +1 rather than a bug for Edgy.

I feel that a visually consistant 'presentation' across the board is important for the following reasons, not necessarily in order of importance,

1. Ubuntu would be more visually appealing, and 'polished', thus creating a really good impression to new user, and first impressions do count.

2. A more consistent use of visual 'metaphors', particularly with the main 'suite' of applications that Ubuntu ships with, would greatly smooth the learning process for users migrating from other platforms.

3. Promote the 'unified' desktop principle as outlined by the Tango Project. This would benefit those users who run a mix of GNOME/GTK & KDE/QT based applications. There would be the added benefit of simplifying the creation of Iconsets.

4. The current release of Gnome 2.16, now ships with an Icon set that is both visually consistent with Tango, as do some applications ie The Gimp. Further to this work is well underway to creating an iconset for Open Office, as such Tango is perhaps the most 'complete' iconset currently available, aside from the previous GNOME/Hicolour 'package'.

5. In keeping with the distinct branding that both Ubuntu & Kubuntu have, it would only be necessary to 'recolour' icons ie folders, rather than (continue to) create unique 'Ubuntu' Iconsets.

On that last point I realise that this has been done with the various Human sets, however, (with all due respect), they don't fit well with Tango.

Regards

David Underwood.

"Human" will remain the default icon set for Ubuntu for the forseeable future. Mark has said that he wants Ubuntu to have it's own look, not just use Tango icons and look like every other distro. Personally, I'd prefer the Tangerine icon set as it's an Ubuntu-themed version of Tango and thus fits in with the Tango icons used in Inkscape, GIMP, OpenOffice.org, etc.

I'm a big fan of the tango project, I really like the guidelines and the resulting icons. Tango icon theme is really nice, so was Tangerine. And the new Gnome icon theme is even better. So I'm all for getting more of the deskop tangofied.

BUT: I never understood why tango was used as a fallback for human, the two styles doen't fit each other. Ubuntu having it's own visual identity, blah blah... yeah I can understand that but the Human theme is miles behind both tango-icon-theme and gnome-icon-theme... and it's not following the tango guidlines. Do you really plan to do Human icons for all those apps which have tango themes right now like (as travis mentioned) Gimp or OOo?

IMHO Ubuntu would do best with the following: reuse Human again for edgy but drop it after that release in favour of a small add-on icon theme which inherits most icosn from the default gnome theme. This way ubuntu could get its identity (color of folders etc) but still fit with the majority of upstream artwork.

Is there any chance of using a combination of Tangerine and Tango? Human, industrial and tango/tangerine on a default install just seems ridiculous to me. I'm all for Ubuntu establishing a brand, but there's a difference between branding (which the default artwork does fine without the need for unique icons) and being different for the sake of it, which I fear we are travelling towards. There is simply no way that Ubuntu can keep up with the coverage of Tango, and seeing as pretty much all apps are heading that way, the clashing is going to become more and more apparent. If Tangerine is too generic, could we atleast see Human tuned down to comply with the Tango guidlines and Tango to replacing the current Industrial icons?

Regardless, Human/Tango is surely better than Human/Tango/Industrial (Tango here referring to any Tango compliant theme).

I think Tango icon guidestyle should be followed for all application in the way to mod all the gnome particular theme not only the general icon theme

Travis: With Human already depending on Tangerine and therefore Tango, I don't see why theming applications currently using old gnome-icon-theme stylings would harm the distinctive look-and-feel of Ubuntu vis a vis the Human theme.

Ideally GIMP, Gaim, OpenOffice and so on could be themed with Human icons instead, but seeing as they don't exist for most of these applications it would be better to use icons that are at least somewhat consistent with the rest of the theme.

I'm closing the bug. This 'bug' turns out to be a discussion about changing defaults. This should be moved to a mailing list or something - it's not a bug. If you have problems with specific icons, please file separate bugs on those icons and elaborate on how things should be changed. Thanks a lot.