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Making Themes
Contents
Introduction
In Short
Tools
Button States
General Styles
Main Controls
Secondary Controls
Playlist Controls
Toolbar
Menu
Open
Play DVD
Configure
Exit
Help
Icon List
Releasing
Credits
Licenses

Chapter 9. Toolbar

The primary difficulty with the toolbar is that it does not match the rest of the icon set easily. All of the other buttons relate to a media player, but the toolbar doesn't fit quite so well. On the toolbar are the menu, open, configure, exit, and help buttons.

Menu

The menu in eMotion is different from the standard menu. As there are hardly any menu options in eMotion, it does not warrant having multiple menus. As it only has one menu, have an entire menu bar just for that menu would be a waste of space and look bad. As such, the menu was just put on the toolbar, which also happens to contain most of the options in the eMotion menu.

The menu can be basically anything, although I like to make it extra wide using text. Having it dominate a little more space makes it easier to recognize, which is important because it is a non-standard menu location.

The menu icon is named 'menu'.

Menu Examples:   menu menu menu
Open

The open icon gives me a little trouble. There are several standard icons, but I don't particularly like them. The most recognized is the folder option, but I don't think that really fits the media player theme. I should probably more commonly use the upwards facing arrow over a horizontal line, that is somewhat standard in media players, but I do not particularly like it. The film strip icon is my favorite, but it is not at all clearly related to the command 'open'.

Strangely enough, the above comment doesn't entirely apply anymore. Immediately after writing this section, I changed one of my icon themes, Bubbly, to use the standard open icon, and I now have a fairly even mixture with the open icons.

The open icon is named 'open'.

Open Examples:   open open open
Play DVD

The DVD icon is very irritating. It just isn't clear without some lettering, and I don't like using letters instead of symbols. I usually try to use the disc icon more than the lettering, but it just isn't that clear if that's all there is.

I'm not putting too much importance on the DVD button as it should be removed in Idej the Warrior when the DVD option is integrated into the open dialog.

The play dvd icon is named 'dvd'.

DVD Examples:   dvd dvd dvd
Configure

The configure icon is, again, one which does not fit the theme perfectly, but I can find no better. I most programs with configure icons, a wrench is used. I use the wrench as well, because it looks decent and is properly representative.

The configure icon is named 'configure'.

Configure Examples:   configure configure configure
Exit

The standard for exit icons is the power button symbol as well, a circle with a line spliting the top of it. I've always liked this icon and see no reason to deviate from it. I have seen icons of doors a while back, but those were rightfully dropped as they are far too complex to convey such a simple concept.

As with many other intricate icons, it is very important to have the portions of an exit icon well defined. It is easy to have the vertical line blend into the circle when it is meant to be seperate. It can be combined, but if it is so it must be clearly so, not accidentally so.

The exit icon is named 'exit'.

Exit Examples:   exit exit exit
Help

I would say the help icon is the easiest. It is always a question mark, and probably should always be a question mark. I just use a standard text question mark, usually altering it slightly to make it fit a little better.

The help icon is named 'help'.

Help Examples:   help help help

 
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