[dot] Interview KPDF Icon Contest

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1097509333/

From: Fabrice Mous <fabrice at kde.nl>
Dept: where-artists-can-contribute
Date: Monday 11/Oct/2004, @17:42

Interview KPDF Icon Contest 
============================

   Some time ago KDE-Look.org launched an icon contest
[http://dot.kde.org/1095261317/] where artists could submit an icon to
be used for KPDF in the next KDE version. It seems the contest has now
been prolonged [http://www.kde-look.org/news/index.php?id=127]. Curious
about this icon contest I contacted the initiator Albert Astals Cid and
some jury members to ask them some questions.
   .imgboxrt{ border:1px dotted #000; float:right; margin-left:5px;
margin-right:10px; } .imgboxlft{ border:1px dotted #000; float:left;
margin-left:10px; margin-right:5px; }
      'kpdf icon' by AndrewColes

      'KPDF Cliche' by DrFaustus

     First of all because you guys are the jury, could you introduce
yourself?

     Enrico Ros:  I'm Enrico Ros, hacking on KDE on spare time which is
a fun and creative thing to do.  Now I'm involved in KPDF 'restyling'
that means bringing it to a good level  or at least made it meet users
expectations. As of now most of the frequently  requested features have
been implemented (search, links, continuous mode,  centered pages,
better zooming, faster thumbnail generation, ..).

     Albert Astals Cid:  I am a computer science student in Barcelona
(Spain). I began translating KDE  to Catalan language on 2002. On 2003 I
began fixing various small bugs of the KDE applications. I took over
KPDF maintainership on late August 2004. I also like helping everywhere
I can.

     Kenneth Wimer:  My name is Kenneth Wimer. I have worked in R&D at
SUSE LINUX for more than 5 years taking care of screen graphics and
usability, as well as the coordination and technical aspects thereof.
Working on KDE goes hand in hand with my daily work at SUSE.

     Frank Karlitschek: My name ist Frank Karlitschek. Â I'm the guy
behind KDE-Look.org [http://www.kde-look.org/], KDE-Apps.org
[http://www.kde-apps.org/]  and Gnome-Look.org
[http://www.gnome-look.org/]. I also work in the KDE artwork team.  In
the daytime I work as a director operations for a big internet agency. 
(www.dmc.de)

     Why are you trying to collect icons through an icon contest?

     Enrico Ros:  It's for sure a good way to collect bright ideas from
the artists community at  KDE-Look.org [http://www.kde-look.org/]. We're
seeing good entries and some good concept art. Sometimes looking  at
sketches can carry new ideas through the programmers and users mind too
:-).

     Albert Astals Cid:  The current KPDF icon is not good. So I thought
a contest was the only way to get a new icon given I don't have any
artistic abilities.

     Kenneth Wimer:  This contest should spur interest in KDE as well as
making it easier for "newbies" to join the club :-) Many users are
overwhelmed by the breadth and complexity of the project at first but
contests like this will help to draw people to the project while
offering them an easy way to start contributing to KDE.

     Frank Karlitschek: KDE is a community project. It is important for
KDE to motivate users to  contribute to KDE. Together we can build the
best desktop of the world. ;-)

      'kpdf'  by Quickly

      'Kpdf icon by Jakez'  by jakez

     Does the contest only apply to icons? Because we've seen a couple
of submissions with a splashscreen as well.

     Enrico Ros:  It was meant to be an icon only contest but since we
have seen such a good  response (we can count 29 submissions on KDE-Look
and the contest isn't even over). We will try to use as many graphics as
we can! If we had and idea of the overall response we could have made
the contest  rules more strict and asked to provide icons for program
internals, so that  the whole new KPDF interface was themed too. 
Hopefully we can tackle this next time.

     Albert Astals Cid:  Currently KPDF starts so quickly I don't think
a splash screen would be any  benefit.

     Kenneth Wimer:  This specific contest is really only for an icon
although the design of the icon will most likely be used on a splash
screen or for the program in some way, so it doesn't hurt submitting
extra graphics as well.

     Frank Karlitschek: The contest is about icons. But help is needed
in a lot of areas. Don't  hesitate to submit your work.

     There are rules [http://www.kde-look.org/news/index.php?id=123] for
submissions. One of them is that the source files are required to be in
SVG or SVGZ. Why is that?

     Enrico Ros:  If the icon was generated from an SVG or other formats
it's important to  have the source. It may happen that we need a custom
sized icon, or a scalable image to blend somewhere in the page. As for
rating, if I have to choose from 2 good icons, one only available at 
48x48px and the other as SVG, there is no doubt, I'll go for the second.

     Albert Astals Cid:  SVG is a vectorial graphics format, it means
the image can be scaled to any  size without looking bad. Another rule
is trying to be "Crystal compatible"
[http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=8341] that is because
Crystal is the official KDE icon set.

     Kenneth Wimer:  Yes, there are definite rules. SVG (or SVGZ) must
be included. Although certain small icons still need to be prepared by
hand we are striving towards a system in which all icons can be rendered
 automatically from the SVG sources.

     Frank Karlitschek: SVG is the icon format of the future. The plan
is to switch all icon from png  to svg. All new icons should be SVG.

      'KPDF_icon_2'  by dadeisvenm

     Why are you concerned about the Adobe trademark issue as KDE mime
for PDF uses the Adobe logo as well?

     Albert Astals Cid:  Quick answer: Just because Adobe did not sue
Everaldo yet it does not mean  that they never will do it.

     Longer answer: We think It is clearly different using the logo in a
mimetype  than using it in an application. Using it in a mimetype just
means "Hey, look  that is a PDF", that is not bad for Adobe by any
means. Using it in an  application seems to mean "Hey look I am endorsed
by Adobe" so it is clearly  bad for Adobe as KPDF is in direct
competition with Acrobat Reader.

     Enrico Ros:  Apart from the legal issue, I'd like to highlight the
fact that by forbidding to  use the Adobe stylized logo we enhance
creativity. Take a look at new entries on KDE-look.org and you'll see
what I mean. I think it's good to made it clear through the artwork that
KPDF is more an 'Ebook Reader' than an 'Adobe Acrobat file Viewer'.

     What do you think of the submissions so far?

     Enrico Ros:  The quality is high and it even has some peaks :-).
I'm sure that when  Albert created the contest, he didn't expect such a
high response rate. For me even 2-3 icons to choose from seemed  great,
but now we have (wow) 29 entries.

     Albert Astals Cid:  I did not think we would get so many (29 at the
moment) of them and I am happy  to be wrong.

     Kenneth Wimer:  The submissions are great! We are happily pleased
to see such a positive reaction to the contest. This proves that
contests like this can work really well.
 Frank Karlitschek: We have a lot of great submissions so far. But there
is still a chance for new  submissions, of course.
      'KPDF66'  by salahuddin66

     Can you mention some particular submissions what you like or
dislike about them?

     Enrico Ros:  Well, I won't name sets because the constest is still
running, but I think  that some of them have a very good concept idea
underlying the design. Others are done smoothly and they are great
looking. All  the splash screens artworks are well done. Of course there
is something I dislike, mainly because don't  blends well on desktop
with default icon style. I must confess you that I have some entries I
like so much, but it will be really hard to decide.

     Albert Astals Cid:  I reserve my comments for now :D

     Kenneth Wimer:  The two icons that caught my eye are KPDF Pack and
Bookish. The first fits very well into the crystal theme and the second
contains a visual metaphor which explains the functionality of the
program well although there are other entries which are very good and
might appeal more to the other jury members :-)

      'another kpdf icon' by mart

      'KPDF BOOKCON' by meNGele

     So when does the contest close now?

     Albert Astals Cid:  15th of October at 12:00 CEST (mid day in
Central European Standard Time). Also check the announcement at
KDE-Look.org.
 [http://www.kde-look.org/news/index.php?id=127]
     In which KDE release can we expect this new icon to be used?

     Albert Astals Cid:  We missed KDE 3.3.1 so it will not be in it :-D
Probably it is going into KDE 3.4, as introducing a new icon in the
middle of  a x.y.Z release could confuse our users.

     Enrico Ros:  I'll import the icon in the "kpdf_experiments" branch
(where the new and  powerful KPDF is growing) as soon as we have a
winner, but for HEAD it will have to wait a bit longer. If the icon is 
imported into HEAD you'll see it maybe already on KDE 3.3.2.