[aprssig] New Icons for APRS software?

[Andrew Pavlin]

Hessu,

Is there a way to get the new symbols in a vector format other than proprietary Adobe Illustrator? Such as .svg or some other public vector format?

Since my application rotates the icons for mobile stations to orient with the direction of travel, the symbols would probably look better if drawn in the appropriate rotation instead of rasterized and then rotated (as is done now with the existing raster images).

Andrew Pavlin, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Heikki Hannikainen <hessu at hes.iki.fi>
Sender: aprssig-bounces at tapr.org
Date: Thu, 22 May 2014 16:26:42 
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List<aprssig at tapr.org>
Reply-To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at tapr.org>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] New Icons for APRS software?

On Thu, 22 May 2014, Stephen H. Smith wrote:

> On 5/22/2014 4:15 AM, Heikki Hannikainen wrote:
>
>> The set is made in Adobe Illustrator. I have a script to export it with a
>> single click to transparent PNG at various resolutions (currently it's 
>> doing
>> 24x24 48x48 64x64 128x128 per symbol). Layout similar to the old set, so 
>> it's
>> easy to take into use - just adjust the multipliers.
>
> What do they look like when reduced to 16x16 ???  All existing apps assume 
> the 16x16 pixel grid.

Haven't tried yet, as old unmaintained apps were not a design target. Old 
apps can, of course, keep using the old symbol graphics, as there are no 
changes in the actual meanings of the symbols. This is just a bump in the 
resolution and looks, and changing to vector format for proper upscaling, 
and making it a bit easier to draw on and improve.

It's likely that some symbols would require adjustments to be good on 
16x16. But since the .ai sources are available, someone can continue to do 
that, if they're interested and have the time.

Having the .ai source format should also make it easier to remap colours 
for "night mode" displays.

The initial release won't solve all of our issues and make you coffee 
while doing so, but at the very least it should be an easier starting 
point for other improvements (such as updated 16x16 symbols).

> Unless you are displaying maps on a quad-HD display, the larger formats are 
> going to cover up too much of the map beneath.

The quad-HD / double resolution ("retina" et al) seem to require 48x48 or 
so.

24x24 seems good to me on modern displays where 16x16 is slightly too 
small (non-retina iPhone/iPad).

   - Hessu

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