GNOME Goal: Install theme-friendly icons

Many applications install their icon by putting it into $datadir/pixmaps and hardcoding the URL to it in their application. The problem with this is that icon themes cannot override the icon for your application. To fix this, one should follow the icon theme specification. This memo summarizes what you need to do in your GNOME application to make all theme designers happier.

First you should prepare your icon. If your application icon is too old and doesn't look good, consider asking somebody on Planet or IRC to draw a new one for you. It is preferred to follow the Tango guidelines when designing new icons. You should then prepare a 48x48 PNG version of the icon, and preferably an SVG version too. It's recommended to ship 16x16, 22x22, 24x24 (for gnome-panel), 32x32 and 48x48 SVG.

Build system

In your Makefile.am, this is how you install it (say your application name is gurilla):

icondir = $(datadir)/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps
icon_DATA = gurilla.png
svgicondir = $(datadir)/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps
svgicon_DATA = gurilla.svg
gtk_update_icon_cache = gtk-update-icon-cache -f -t $(datadir)/icons/hicolor
install-data-hook: update-icon-cache
uninstall-hook: update-icon-cache
update-icon-cache:
        @-if test -z "$(DESTDIR)"; then \
                echo "Updating Gtk icon cache."; \
                $(gtk_update_icon_cache); \
        else \
                echo "*** Icon cache not updated.  After (un)install, run this:"; \
                echo "***   $(gtk_update_icon_cache)"; \
        fi
EXTRA_DIST = \
        $(icon_DATA) \
        $(svgicon_DATA)

(If you copy and paste that snippet, note that the indentation in the update-icon-cache target should be with tabs instead of spaces.)

Application code

The preferred way to refer to icons is by their name. You should set a default icon name in your main function before creating any windows, like after setting application name for example:

  g_set_application_name (_("Gurilla"));
  gtk_window_set_default_icon_name ("gurilla");

That is all you need to do for most applications. It will set the icon for any window created in your application (that does not set its own icon.)

If your application also exposes a library with window widgets that other applications may use, and you want to set an icon on those windows too, you can do that by setting the icon for the window in its constructor. But before doing that make sure it is really what you want. For example, you don't want the Gtk+ icon on a font dialog. Anyhow, here it is:

static void
gurilla_window_init (GurillaWindow *guw)
{
  ...
  gtk_window_set_title (GTK_WINDOW (guw), _("Gurilla Dialog"));
  gtk_window_set_icon_name (GTK_WINDOW (guw), "gurilla");
}

Last, you should set the icon name in your about dialog:

  gtk_show_about_dialog (GTK_WINDOW (guw),
                         ...
                         "logo-icon-name", "gurilla",
                         ...
                         NULL);

Desktop file

The icon name in the .desktop file should not have an extension, for obvious reasons.

Status of this goal

Completed.

When starting to work on one module, you can also put your name in the status so that other people don't duplicate the work you're doing.

State	Markup
todo	`<: #ff8080> todo`
patch	`<: #ffc849> [[GnomeBug:xxxxx\|patch]]`
done	`<: #80ff80> [[GnomeBug:xxxxx\|done]]`
not needed	`<: #80ff80> not needed`

Above are the states and corresponding markup to update the modules state table below.

Module	Status
Desktop
alacarte	done
bug-buddy	done
cheese	not needed
control-center	done
dasher	done
deskbar-applet	done
eel	not needed
ekiga	done
eog	done
epiphany	not needed
evince	not needed
evolution-data-server	not needed
evolution	done
evolution-exchange	not needed
evolution-webcal	not needed
fast-user-switch-applet	not needed
file-roller	done
gcalctool	not needed
gconf-editor	done
gdm	done
gedit	not needed
gnome-applets	done
gnome-backgrounds	not needed
gnome-desktop	not needed
gnome-doc-utils	not needed
gnome-games	done
gnome-icon-theme	not needed
gnome-keyring	not needed
gnome-netstatus	done
gnome-nettool	done
gnome-mag	done
gnome-media	done
gnome-menus	not needed
gnome-panel	done
gnome-power-manager	done
gnome-python-desktop	not needed
gnome-screensaver	not needed
gnome-session	not needed
gnome-settings-daemon	not needed
gnome-speech	not needed
gnome-system-monitor	not needed
gnome-system-tools	done
gnome-terminal	done
gnome-themes	not needed
gnome-user-docs	not needed
gnome-utils	done
gnome-volume-manager	done
gok	done
gstreamer	not needed
gst-plugins	not needed
gtk-engines	not needed
gtkhtml	not needed
gtksourceview	not needed
gucharmap	done
gvfs	not needed
libgail-gnome	not needed
libgnomekbd	done
libgtop	not needed
libgweather	not needed
liboobs	not needed
librsvg	not needed
libsoup	not needed
libwnck	not needed
metacity	not needed
mousetweaks	not needed
nautilus	not needed
nautilus-cd-burner	done
orca	not needed
pygtksourceview	not needed
seahorse	done
sound-juicer	not needed
swfdec-gnome	not needed
tomboy	not needed
totem	done
totem-pl-parser	not needed
vinagre	not needed
vino	done
vte	not needed
yelp	not needed
zenity	not needed
Desktop (to be deprecated)
gnome-keyring-manager	not needed
libgnomeprint	not needed
libgnomeprintui	not needed
Platform
GConf	not needed
at-spi	not needed
atk	not needed
gail	not needed
glib	not needed
gnome-mime-data	not needed
gnome-vfs	not needed
gtk+	not needed
gtk-doc	not needed
intltool	not needed
libglade	not needed
libxml2	not needed
libxslt	not needed
pango	not needed
pkgconfig	not needed
Platform (to be deprecated)
ORBit2	not needed
audiofile	not needed
esound	not needed
libIDL	not needed
libart_lgpl	not needed
libbonobo	not needed
libbonoboui	not needed
libgnome	not needed
libgnomecanvas	not needed
libgnomeui	not needed
Admin
pessulus	not needed
sabayon	done
Development Tools
accerciser	not needed
anjuta	done
devhelp	not needed
gdl	not needed
glade-3	done
gnome-build	not needed
gnome-devel-docs	not needed
Bindings (C++)
glibmm	not needed
gtkmm	not needed
libglademm	not needed
gconfmm	not needed
libgnomecanvasmm	not needed
libgnome-vfsmm	not needed
libgnomemm	not needed
libgnomeuimm	not needed
libxml++	not needed
Bindings (java)
glib-java (jg-common)	not needed
libgtk-java	not needed
libgnome-java	not needed
libgconf-java	not needed
libglade-java	not needed
Bindings (perl)
Glib	not needed
Gtk2	not needed
Gtk2-GladeXML	not needed
Gnome2-GConf	not needed
Gnome2-Canvas	not needed
Gnome2-VFS	not needed
Gnome2	not needed
Bindings (python)
pygobject	not needed
pygtk	not needed
Gnome-Python	not needed
Other
gnome-blog	done
gossip	done
nautilus-actions	done
rhythmbox	done
startup-notification	not needed
xchat-gnome	done
smuxi	done
gthumb	done

this goal in other languages

AppIconZhCN for Simplified Chinese (简体中文)