dticonfile(4) UNIX System V (1 August 1995) dticonfile(4)
NAME
dticonfile - icon conventions for CDE icons
SYNOPSIS
The conventions used within the CDE for icon sizes, naming,
location, and usage are specified.
DESCRIPTION
Both X Pixmap and X Bitmap icon file formats are used within
the CDE. X Pixmap (XPM) icons are multi-color images based
on the XPM format developed by Arnaud Le Hors. A pixmap
file is an ASCII file that can be read and modified by hand,
in addition to using color pixmap editors (like the CDE Icon
Editor). X Bitmap (XBM) icons are monochrome (two-color)
images based on the official X11 Bitmap File Format. Bitmap
files are ASCII files; however, the data is simply a binary
representation of the bitmap, and as such is not easily read
or modified by hand. The CDE icon editor can create and
modify XBM icons. The icon editor has the ability to write
out any icon in either the XPM or XBM file format. For a
more detailed description of these file formats and the icon
editor, see the dtbmfile(4), dtpmfile(4) and dticon(1) man
pages.
File Naming
CDE icon file names are typically in one of the following
forms:
basename.format
basename.size.format
The basename is the logical name of the icon. The basenames
for icons that are installed with CDE begin with either Dt
or Fp. Dt is the default prefix for all CDE icons. The Fp
prefix is used for icons that appear in the front panel when
an icon other than the default Dt icon is desired. In this
case, the basename is the same.
If an additional icon is needed for the client iconImage
(iconified client window icon), a third prefix, Ic, is used.
The format is pm for a pixmap file and bm for a bitmap file.
Size is a single letter: l for large, m for medium, s for
small and t for tiny. Many of the logical icons are
provided in multiple sizes for both color and monochrome.
This allows CDE to use the optimal color and size
combination for the specific task and configuration the user
is running. Many bitmap icons have a mask associated with
the icon. These are named basename.size_m.format. All
icons are named so that the longest filename associated with
that icon is 14 bytes or less; this allows it to be used on
a short filename system. The longest filename can be
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described as Dtxxxxx_m.l.pm, where xxxxx is the logical icon
name.
Example
This is an example of icon files that might be associated
with the icon foo. The single logical icon foo contains
tiny, small, medium and large bitmap icons (with mask) and
pixmap icons.
Dtfoo.t.pm
Dtfoo.t.bm
Dtfoo.t_m.bm
Dtfoo.s.pm
Dtfoo.s.bm
Dtfoo.s_m.bm
Dtfoo.m.pm
Dtfoo.m.bm
Dtfoo.m_m.bm
Dtfoo.l.pm
Dtfoo.l.bm
Dtfoo.l_m.bm
Icon Sizes
Icons of the following sizes and with the following suffixes
are supported:
Large 48x48 icon with .l suffix
Medium 32x32 icon with .m suffix
Small 24x24 icon with .s suffix
Tiny 16x16 icon with .t suffix
The icon sizes used varies for different components, and is
dependent on the display hardware.
Table Of Icon Sizes Used
CDE Component HiRes,MedRes LoRes(vga)
____________________________________________
Front Panel 48x48 32x32
FP Subpanels 32x32 24x24
FP Inset FP 24x24 16x16
WMgr ClientIcon 48x48 32x32
File Mgr (Large) 32x32 32x32
File Mgr (Small) 16x16 16x16
Icon Colors
These colors are used in CDE icons. The dynamic colors use
color cells from one of the color sets in the user's color
palette (except none, which requires no color cell).
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The eight icon color names are already included in the
rgb.txt file. The eight icon gray color names should be
added to each CDE vendor's rgb.txt.
Color Name (rgb.txt) Symbolic Name (<icon>.pm)
________________________________________________
< dynamic > none
< dynamic > background
< dynamic > selectColor
< dynamic > topShadowColor
< dynamic > bottomShadowColor
black iconColor1
white iconColor2
red iconColor3
green iconColor4
blue iconColor5
yellow iconColor6
cyan iconColor7
magenta iconColor8
iconGray1 iconGray1
iconGray2 iconGray2
iconGray3 iconGray3
iconGray4 iconGray4
iconGray5 iconGray5
iconGray6 iconGray6
iconGray7 iconGray7
iconGray8 iconGray8
Icon File Locations
CDE has default locations where it looks to find system and
user icon files. See the dtappintegrate(1) manual page for
detailed information on where to install icons. See the
dtsearchpath(1) manual page for information on the icon
lookup path.
Icon Usage In CDE
Icons are used in a variety of ways within CDE. Following
are examples of some of the general areas in which users can
use icons to customize CDE configurations. A system
administrator can also do this on a system- or network-wide
basis. For more detailed information on any of these
topics, see the documentation for that component or
configuration file.
Actions And Data Types
An icon is associated with an action or data type using the
ICON keyword in the action or data type definition (located
in .dt files). If CDE naming conventions are followed,
there is no need to specify the path or icon suffix. The
size and format used is determined at runtime based on the
system configuration.
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Example
ACTION IslandPaintOpenDoc
{
ICON Ipaint
WINDOW_TYPE NO_STDIO
EXEC_HOST MyMachine
EXEC_STRING /usr/bin/IslandPaint %(File)Arg_1"File to open:"
}
Client Icons
An icon is associated with a client's iconified window
through the iconImage window manager resource as follows:
Dtwm*clientName*iconImage: IconFilename
The icon may be a pixmap or bitmap format icon. Some
clients do not allow their default icon to be overridden.
Example
Dtwm*IslandPaint*clientIcon: IslandPaint.bm
Front Panel
Icons can be displayed as controls in the front panel using
the ICON keyword in control definitions. Either pixmap- or
bitmap-format icons can be used. For controls that are of
type icon with MONITOR_TYPE set to file or mail, an
alternate image can be specified using the keyword
ALTERNATE_ICON. The alternate icon is used when the file
size has grown. Controls of type busy can also have an
alternate icon, which is cycled with the ICON to give a
blinking effect. For controls that allow a PUSH_ACTION or a
DROP_ACTION, push or drop animation can be defined using
multiple icons that create animation visual effects.
Example
CONTROL DirectoryTerm
{
TYPE icon
IMAGE directoryTerm
DROP_ACTION f.action StartDirectoryTerm
PUSH_ACTION f.action StartDirectoryTerm
PUSH_ANIMATION DirAnimation
}
ANIMATION DirAnimation
{
ANIMATION frame1 300
ANIMATION frame2
...
}
Backdrops
The backdrop icons show up in a list in the Backdrop Dialog
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of the Style Manager. The user can select a single backdrop
per workspace to be used as the background for that
workspace. This is a visual clue to help the user
distinguish one workspace from another. Backdrops are
available in both monochrome (bitmap) and color (pixmap)
format (all backdrops are unique; there are not bitmap and
pixmap versions of the same backdrop). Although backdrops
use the same file format as other icons, they are not used
like what is typically referred to as an icon. They would
be more accurately described as an image. The image is
repeated (tiled) to fill the entire background of a
workspace. This is not typically done with an icon. The
CDE comes with a set of standard backdrops. Some are
monochrome and some are in color. Custom backdrops can be
added to system-installed backdrops using the Style Manager
and Window Manager backdropDirectories resource. Backdrops
can be either bitmap or pixmap format. A system
administrator can add system-wide backdrops to the system-
wide default backdrop directory, /usr/dt/backdrops/C.
Example
*backdropDirectories: /users/julie/.dt/icons/myBackdrops
File Manager As Icon Browser
The File Manager can be used as an icon browser. In this
mode, when you change to a directory that contains icons
(.bm or .pm files), each icon is displayed next to the icon
file name. To enable icon browsing, copy the file
/usr/dt/contrib/types/IconBrowse.dt into your
$HOME/.dt/types directory. Then reload the action database
by executing the ReloadActions action. For large icons, or
on systems with little memory, this could cause delays on
some directories. To disable icon browsing, remove personal
copies of the IconBrowse.dt file and reload the action
database again.
Design Recommendations
In order to allow colorful icons while minimizing the number
of colors used by the CDE, it is recommended that the colors
used be limited to those available in the Icon Editor.
These include the dynamic OSF/Motif widget colors, as well
as a set of static colors and static gray colors. The
dynamic colors include foreground, background, top shadow,
bottom shadow, select and a transparent color. The static
colors include black, white, red, blue, green, yellow,
magenta and cyan. The static gray colors are eight varying
shades of gray, from nearly black to nearly white.
SEE ALSO
dtpmfile(4), dtbmfile(4), dticon(1), dtfpfile(4),
dtdtfile(4), dtactionfile(4), dtdtsfile(4), dtstyle(1),
dtenvvar(5), xmgeticonfilename(3).
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