Hello, Yesterday, ubuntu's art direction notes were released. The design and the direction of the outlined solutions are outstanding. Hopefully, they manage to solve all the outstanding issues presented in the specifications. Suggestion: let's syncronize xubuntu's visual development with these specifications, as much as possible.
You can read the specs here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/BasicIdeals As you noticed from the specs, the new design direction is to move away from the glossy interface toward a flatter more plastic interface. This is the direction, I suggest for xubuntu development as well. This will require changes in the gtk theming, icon theming, window manager theming, among others. I already have some ideas; soon, I will put together a mockup for further discussion. But in order to be able to proceed, we have to settle a few issues right at the beggining. These are: 1) Panels. I conclude from the previous discussions that the dual panel setup will remain. But we still have to hammer out an optimal panel size and panel color. 2) GTK themes. As you see, ubuntu designers want a completely new gtk design. Not sure yet, but they also use the murrina engine, that we are already using. The gtk theme is so unique that it is unlikely that we can find something even remotely similar to that among the available stock designs. So, one of the possibility would be talking to the author and ask him to create a color variations for xubuntu. 3) The icon theme. Possible candidates, crashbit and oxyGnome. Here is a screenshot: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Xubuntu/GutsyIdeas I personally prefer oxygnome becase they are not glossy but more plastic like, exactly that we want. And also very complete. 4) Icon label backgrounds. This is something we already discussed a few months ago but haven't decided what to do about them. For me, these are one of the most annoying visual distractions in xubuntu. Ideas: get rid of them completely. In the mean time, create an entry in the documentation that explains users how to change the font colors of the icons. This is in fact very easy and I think is well within the expertise even for less experienced users. The other possibility would be to write a simple graphical configurator something like the murrina configurator. 5) Wallpaper. Dark-blue, multicolor? Work in progress. 6) GDM login. Work in progress. 7) Usplash. I've heard anything about it. Still broken? Anyone? Notes: Obviously, we have to work with xfce built in limitations. We won't be able to match all xubuntu design elements exactly to that of ubuntu's. For instance, we wont be able to use panel transparencies, widget transparencies and drop-shadows, because we dont use compiz by default. But we have to strive to create an overall visual appearance that is as close to ubuntu as it can. Please speak up on the issues mentioned above, or add yours to the list, to be able to settle them as quickly as possible. jmak -- http://jozmak.blogspot.com/ -- xubuntu-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel
