Desktop icons are associated with: Action files and data types in File Manager and Application Manager Front Panel controls Minimized application windows Graphics used by applications such as palettes and toolbars Workspace backdrop The development environment documentation contains additional information about desktop icons. See Chapter 4, “Visual Design,” in the Style Guide and Certification Checklist. For the desktop to use an icon image, the icon image file must: Be in the proper format. Use the proper file-naming conventions. Use the desktop size conventions. Be located in a directory along the icon search path. Be called by the desktop construct using the proper syntax. For example, if you create a new control for the Front Panel, use the ICON field in the Front Panel definition to specify the icon image to use for the control. For a color display, use X pixmap (XPM) format icon files, which typically have a.pm suffix. Otherwise, use X bitmap (XBM) format files, which typically have a .bm suffix. If transparency is used in the pixmap file, a mask file (_m.bm) is generated when the .bm file is created. See for more information about how the desktop finds these files. Each icon and backdrop image is stored as a separate file. Typically, an icon is specified with the base part of its file name. For example, an icon might be referenced with the name mail when the file is actually stored as: icons how files are found icons naming conventions .pm filename extension[pm filename] .bm filename extension[bm filename] bitmaps how files are found pixmaps how files are found 2 images, See icons<$nopage> /usr/dt/appconfig/icons/language/mail.l.pm The file-naming convention of adding suffixes helps group icons by size and type. Icon names for desktop components are in these general formats: basename.size.format Or basename.format where: basename The image base name used to reference the image size A letter indicating the size: l (large), m (medium), s (small), t (tiny) format File format: pm (pixmap), bm (bitmap) bitmaps naming conventions pixmaps naming conventions shows the recommended pixel dimensions for desktop icons Icon Size Bitmap Name Pixmap Name 16 by 16 (tiny) name.t.bm name.t.pm 24 by 24 (small) name.s.bm name.s.pm 32 by 32 (medium) name.m.bm name.m.pm 48 by 48 (large) name.l.bm name.l.pm . shows the icon sizes used by the desktop components. In some cases, the size of the icon used depends on the display resolution. Desktop Component High Resolution Medium Resolution Low Resolution File Manager and Application Manager (View by Name and Icon) medium medium medium File Manager and Application Manager (View by Name and Small Icon) tiny tiny tiny Main Front Panel controls large large medium Front Panel subpanels medium medium tiny Front Panel switch controls small small tiny Minimized windows large large medium For example, if you specify an icon named mail for a data type, have a color display, and have set the File Manager preferences to small icons, the icon image used is mail.t.pm. The desktop finds an icon file, or image, by searching for the file in a list of directories. This list of directories, called the icon search path, is determined by the value of several environment variables. Which variables are used and how they are put together to create the icon search path are discussed in . The default search path is: Built-in icons: /usr/dt/appconfig/icons/language System-wide icons: /etc/dt/appconfig/icons/language Personal icons: HomeDirectory/.dt/icons The desktop can access icons on remote systems. For information on creating an icon server, see . To enable quicker object recognition, you can associate icons with: icons making associations Actions and data types Controls in the Front Panel and subpanels Minimized application windows For icons used for actions, data types, and in the Front Panel or subpanels, specify only the base name of the icon (no suffixes). The correct suffixes are added automatically based on your display resolution, color support, and File Manager view options (such as By Small Icons). To override the search path, provide the complete path and name of the icon. Specify the icon using the ICON field. If you follow the appropriate naming conventions for icon files, specify only the base name of the icon. The correct icon will be displayed based on the resolution and color support of your display. icons associating with action or data type actions associating icon with data types associating icon with Create the following icon sizes: Actions: large, medium, and tiny Data types: medium and tiny The following example is an action definition for starting the Island PaintTM drawing tool. The icons Ipaint.l and Ipaint.s are associated with the action. ACTION IslandPaintOpenDoc { WINDOW_TYPE NO-STDIO ICON Ipaint EXEC_STRING /usr/bin/IslandPaint %Arg_1“File to open:”% } If you are using color icons, the desktop first appends.pm when looking for the actual icon files. Otherwise (or if no match is found with.pm), the desktop appends.bm. The following data type definition associates the icons comprsd.l and comprsd.s with compressed files: DATA_ATTRIBUTES COMPRESSED { ICON comprsd ACTIONS Uncompress DESCRIPTION A COMPRESSED file has been compressed by the \ 'compress' command to take up less space. } Specify the image name using the ICON field. If the control monitors a file (MONITOR_TYPE is set to mail or file), use the ALTERNATE_ICON field to specify the icons used when the change is detected. 2 icons Front Panel Front Panel displaying icon in You can also provide animation for buttons and drop zone controls. Create the following icon sizes: Main Panel and subpanels: large, medium, and tiny Workspace switch: small The following control changes appearance when a file named report is placed in the /doc/ftp/pub/ directory. When the file is not there, the NoReport.pm icon is displayed; when the file is there, Report.pm is displayed. CONTROL MonitorReport { CONTAINER_NAME container_name TYPE ICON MONITOR_TYPE file FILE_NAME /doc/ftp/pub/report ICON NoReport ALTERNATE_ICON Report } Set the iconImage resource for Workspace Manager as follows: icons associating with application window application window, associating icon with Dtwm*clientname*iconImage: icon_file_name To determine the correct value for clientname, open Application Manager and double-click Window Properties in the Desktop_Tools application group. When you select a window, its properties are listed. The WM_CLASS property WM_CLASS property displays the window's class name in quotes. For more information about setting resources, see . Choose Restart Workspace Manager from the Workspace menu. To verify that the icon has been recognized by Workspace Manager, minimize the window whose icon you are trying to modify. Some applications do not allow their default window icon to be overridden. Copy the file /usr/dt/examples/types/language/IconBrowse.dt to the HomeDirectory/.dt/types/Iconbrowse.dt directory. Open Application Manager and double-click Reload Actions in the Desktop_Tools application group. When you change to a directory that contains icons (.bm and.pm files), each icon is displayed next to its name. For example, if you change to the /usr/dt/appconfig/icons/language directory, you will see many of the desktop icons. Enabling icon browsing on low-memory systems may cause File Manager to display directories more slowly. Images larger than 256 x 256 are not displayed in the default configuration. To disable icon browsing: Remove your personal copy of the IconBrowse.dt file. Open Application Manager and double-click Reload Actions in the Desktop_Tools application group. Use a common theme among related icons. For example, if you are designing icons for an application, have purposeful similarities between the application's icon and icons for data files. Be sure the two-color version of any color icon you design is acceptable. If the icon is displayed on a monochrome or grayscale display (or if there are not enough colors available), the icon is automatically displayed in its two-color form. To conserve system color usage, try to limit icon color use to those provided by the desktop.(Icons created using Icon Editor will be use only desktop colors.) For the sizes used by the desktop components, see . Desktop icons use a palette of 22 colors including: color usage in icons icons color usage Eight static grays Eight static colors: red, blue, green, cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and white Six dynamic colors: foreground, background, top shadow, bottom shadow, select, and transparent This palette creates attractive, easy-to-read icons without overtaking color resources needed by other applications. Most icons provided with the desktop use grays accented with color. The transparent color is useful for creating icons that have the illusion of being nonrectangular because the color behind the icon shows through.