ModPlug Central

(https://my.mixtape.moe/eaxufo.png)
Felt like making some new icons for MPT, and thought I'd share them, along with the sources, maybe someone finds them useful.
For now the set contains icons of following sizes: 128px, 64px, 48px 32px (three versions) and 16px (two versions)
Edit: Added 48px, 32px and 16px 3D-style icons

Nice, especially the first one. ;)

Thanks :)

I actually like the MPT_*px.ico icons better than anything we are currently using (both as website favicon as well as mptrack.exe and module file icons).

I particular, I never liked the current mptrack.exe or module file icon. The film-like appearance gives the impression it had something to do with video, which is completely misleading.

Yeah, the current icon might suggest it's a video editor rather than a tracker (I actually like it tho, because i got so used to it, lol). Module icons are pretty much spot on as they currently are, in contrast, with their tracker grid and C-5 note, they give away what the file contains at a glance imo (they might just need a style refactor, and that's it, but i don't feel like it's necessary)

BTW, random suggestion: If you're ever going to change the icon set to something new, be it mine or someone else's, i'd rather keep original ones inside the executable's resources just in case, because I can totally relate to people who got used to them, and want to set their shortcut icons manually to the old ones :)

I think we could consider changing the icon(s) in 1.28. Especially at smaller sizes it's easier to recognize than the film strip. For that I'd like to use the variant with the black background (64px/128px), the lighter background doesn't look so nice IMHO. The file icon could definitely use a style update, so if you want to give it a try, be my guest. ;) Nothing too drastic, but maybe having stronger colors like in the icons you showcased here. The original icon can be found at https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/mpt_document.zip

I do like the 'm over the p' part of the logo, but the audio plug doesn't quite match. OTOH, I don't know what would be better. Perhaps a picture of an electrical plug, if we're focusing on the 'plug' part of Modplug.  :o

That being said, I do think it's time for an upgrade. Thanx to our devs, the new features and fixes have made the modplug experience better, and it promises to be even better with the upcoming 1.27. And this logo is an encellent push in the right direction for the modplug 'brand' (do we have a brand?)...8)

Well, it's a faithful copy of the existing ModPlug logo, including the audio plug, and I think it matches quite well (both in the original and here). It might have to be edited at lower resolution to make the plug more obvious though.
An audio plug also delivers the message that this is an audio application much more directly than an electrical plug - which is a metaphor that I would like to reserve for other uses anyway, such as VST plugins or user scripts.

https://bugs.openmpt.org/view.php?id=1028 (https://bugs.openmpt.org/view.php?id=1028)

I have compiled a table of all current (and some older) OpenMPT icon and logo artwork.

When referring to specific current or older assets, please use the bold name on top of each asset.


I have not been able to determine proper authorship, creation date and license for all assets.


mpt-icons-svg-emf

uses	source	author	date	license
	zip(eps, svg) (https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/mpt-icons-svg-emf.zip)		2009-07-15

scalable

(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpt-icons-svg-emf/modplug%20logo%20vector2.svg)

mpticons

uses	source	author	date	license
	zip(svg, png) (https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/mpticons.zip)	Saga Musix	2009-07-15

scalable logo

(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/modplug%20logo%20vector2.svg)

scalable mpticon 1	scalable mpticon 2	scalable mpticon 3
(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpticon.svg)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpticon2.svg)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpticon3.svg)

128x128 32bit mpticon 1	32x32 32bit mpticon 1	16x16 32bit mpticon 1	128x128 32bit mpticon 2	32x32 32bit mpticon 2	16x16 32bit mpticon 2	128x128 32bit mpticon 3	32x32 32bit mpticon 3	16x16 32bit mpticon 3
(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpt128.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpt32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpt16.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpt2_128.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpt2_32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpt2_16.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpt3_128.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpt3_32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticons/mpt3_16.png)

logo-less-bright

uses	source	author	date	license
	eps (https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/logo-less-bright.eps) svg (https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/logo-less-bright.svg)		2010-03-17

scalable

(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/logo-less-bright.svg)

wallpaper1

uses	source	author	date	license
website logo wallpaper	png (https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/wallpaper1-1600x1200.png)	Snu	2010-10-28

1600x1200 32bit	139x138 32bit with outline
(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/wallpaper1-1600x1200/wallpaper1-1600x1200-scaled.png)	(https://openmpt.org/sites/all/themes/openmpt/logo.png)

favicon

uses	source	author	date	license
favicon	ico (https://openmpt.org/favicon.ico)	Saga Musix

16x16 256 colors

(https://openmpt.org/favicon.ico)

splashno

uses	source	author	date	license
splash screen	png (https://source.openmpt.org/svn/openmpt/branches/OpenMPT-1.27/mptrack/res/splashno.png)	Nofold	2004-09-10	BSD3

399x299 24bit

(https://source.openmpt.org/svn/openmpt/branches/OpenMPT-1.27/mptrack/res/splashno.png)

mptrack

uses	source	author	date	license
about dialog	png (https://source.openmpt.org/svn/openmpt/branches/OpenMPT-1.27/mptrack/res/mptrack.png)	Snu, Shableep	2004-02-24	BSD3

256x128 24bit

(https://source.openmpt.org/svn/openmpt/branches/OpenMPT-1.27/mptrack/res/mptrack.png)

mpticon

uses	source	author	date	license
	ai (https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/mpticon.ai)	Nobuyuki	2009-06-18	BSD3

scalable

(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpticon/mpticon.svg)

mptrack256

uses	source	author	date	license
forum logo bug tracker logo	png (https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/mptrack256.png)	Nobuyuki	2009-06-19, 2015-08-16	BSD3

256x256 32bit

(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/mptrack256.png)

mptgloss-32-8-4

uses	source	author	date	license
	zip(ico) (https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/mptgloss-32-8-4.zip)	Nobuyuki	2009-06-19	BSD3

128x128 32bit	48x48 32bit	32x32 32bit	16x16 32bit	48x48 256 colors	32x32 256 colors	16x16 256 colors	32x32 16 colors
(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mptgloss-32-8-4/mptgloss-32-8-4-128x128x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mptgloss-32-8-4/mptgloss-32-8-4-48x48x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mptgloss-32-8-4/mptgloss-32-8-4-32x32x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mptgloss-32-8-4/mptgloss-32-8-4-16x16x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mptgloss-32-8-4/mptgloss-32-8-4-48x48x8.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mptgloss-32-8-4/mptgloss-32-8-4-32x32x8.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mptgloss-32-8-4/mptgloss-32-8-4-16x16x8.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mptgloss-32-8-4/mptgloss-32-8-4-32x32x4.png)

MPTRACK

uses	source	author	date	license
application icon	ico (https://source.openmpt.org/svn/openmpt/branches/OpenMPT-1.27/mptrack/res/MPTRACK.ICO)	Nobuyuki	2009-06-19, 2013-11-30	BSD3

256x256 32bit	48x48 32bit	32x32 32bit	24x24 32bit	16x16 32bit	32x32 16 colors
(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/MPTRACK/MPTRACK-256x256x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/MPTRACK/MPTRACK-48x48x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/MPTRACK/MPTRACK-32x32x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/MPTRACK/MPTRACK-24x24x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/MPTRACK/MPTRACK-16x16x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/MPTRACK/MPTRACK-32x32x4.png)

moddoc

uses	source	author	date	license
module window icon	ico (https://source.openmpt.org/svn/openmpt/branches/OpenMPT-1.27/mptrack/res/moddoc.ico)	Nobuyuki	2009-06-19, 2013-11-30	BSD3

32x32 32bit	24x24 32bit	16x16 32bit	32x32 16 colors
(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/moddoc/moddoc-32x32x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/moddoc/moddoc-24x24x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/moddoc/moddoc-16x16x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/moddoc/moddoc-32x32x4.png)

mpt_document

uses	source	author	date	license
file association icon (original svg will not render properly without the required font for the pattern text)	zip(ai, svg) (https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/mpt_document.zip)	Nobuyuki	2010-01-07	BSD3

scalable

(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpt_document/mpt_document-fixed.svg)

mpt

uses	source	author	date	license
file association icon	ico (https://source.openmpt.org/svn/openmpt/branches/OpenMPT-1.27/packageTemplate/mpt.ico)	Nobuyuki, kuenzign	2010-01-07, 2015-10-25	BSD3

256x256 32bit	48x48 32bit	32x32 32bit	16x16 32bit	32x32 16 colors	16x16 16 colors
(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpt/mpt-256x256x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpt/mpt-48x48x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpt/mpt-32x32x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpt/mpt-16x16x32.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpt/mpt-32x32x4.png)	(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/mpt/mpt-16x16x4.png)

I have changed the subject of the original post, as this thread is a good fit to discuss the whole redesign phase.

Licensing of OpenMPT artwork has been unclear at best in the past. The current artwork used in OpenMPT itself is BSD3 licensed for the best I could tell.
However, BSD3 is probably not that good of a license choice for non-source-code/non-program data.

I suggest dual-licensing all future artwork under both BSD3 and CC-BY-4.0.

Please note that CC-SA (share alike) as well as CC-NC (non commercial) attributes are actually stronger requirements than what BSD3 demands, and I would thus strongly suggest against using these for OpenMPT artwork.

In any case: I Am No A Lawyer.

references:
CC BY 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
BSD3 license https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses#3-clause_license_.28.22BSD_License_2.0.22.2C_.22Revised_BSD_License.22.2C_.22New_BSD_License.22.2C_or_.22Modified_BSD_License.22.29 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses#3-clause_license_.28.22BSD_License_2.0.22.2C_.22Revised_BSD_License.22.2C_.22New_BSD_License.22.2C_or_.22Modified_BSD_License.22.29)

In addition to Midori's suggestions, we also got a great offer from graphics designer Úlfur Kolka to rework the logo, splash screen and other graphical elements to unify them a bit more.

(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/el_lobo/mpt_logo_ellobo_black.png)
(https://download.openmpt.org/resources/graphics/.unpacked/el_lobo/mpt_logo_ellobo_white.png)

Quote from: Saga Musix on November 03, 2017, 18:54:12
we also got a great offer from graphics designer Úlfur Kolka to rework the logo, splash screen and other graphical elements to unify them a bit more.

We already had some discussion about this design privately, I am re-stating my comments here, for public reference. Further discussion should happen here in the public forum.

I like the general direction of that design.

However I would prefer (not require, though) if the "plug" aspect of the current logo could be maintained somehow. Where to put the plug could be changed though (like trying to use the lower part of the 'P').

A general comment: We currently have many different icons used for different purposes: application icon, file association icon, website favicon. I do not think this is necessary or useful and would prefer to unify them and use a single icon design for all 3 use cases.

Quote from: manx on November 03, 2017, 19:36:05
A general comment: We currently have many different icons used for different purposes: application icon, file association icon, website favicon. I do not think this is necessary or useful and would prefer to unify them and use a single icon design for all 3 use cases.

I agree in general, but I think for the file association icon, it would be nice to keep some of the current aspects (waveforms and pattern data) to communicate the file contents more clearly. In larger variants (32x32 and upwards) it might be okay to combine those with the potential new ModPlug icon though.

Quote from: Saga Musix on November 03, 2017, 19:38:55

Quote from: manx on November 03, 2017, 19:36:05
A general comment: We currently have many different icons used for different purposes: application icon, file association icon, website favicon. I do not think this is necessary or useful and would prefer to unify them and use a single icon design for all 3 use cases.

I agree in general, but I think for the file association icon, it would be nice to keep some of the current aspects (waveforms and pattern data) to communicate the file contents more clearly. In larger variants (32x32 and upwards) it might be okay to combine those with the potential new ModPlug icon though.

I would not mind the pure application icon as file icon. However, i think most importantly is that I do not really like the current sheet-of-paper document style of the file icon. The document aspect of the icon is kind of redundant, wastes space and looks somewhat dated IMHO.

In general, having any kind of stylized pattern data in any icon would be great, if the result looks ok as a whole. However, i suspect that would interfere with a modern and clean and simple look, like in the direction of the current design suggestions.

Just to re-state comments from the aforementioned private discussion. The logo I designed is obviously based on the MP in the current logo. My intentions were to modernize it and for it to be on par with logos from the biggest DAWs out there. Like Harbinger, I'm personally not a fan of having the plug in the logo itself as it doesn't quite match with the thickness of the letters. I also firmly believe that less is more. However, I could see the plug being a part of accompanying graphics that could be used with the logo. As for the application icon, I do think MiDoRi was heading in the right direction. I think the logo in a black box is the way to go.

Yep, the black version would definitely be good for a logo / icon. It would also match the current website favicon.

Damn, i'm usually not a big fan of modern flat design, but that new ellobo's icon and logotype look really gorgeous!
*thumbs up*
As for the idea of one image serving as both application and file association icons, I'm on the totally opposing side, pretty much hating that trend, ever since it became a standard practice in Windows with version 8 (the OS sets unaltered program's icon for associated extensions, as opposed to creating a new one, with paper background, and there's no user-friendly GUI anymore to set them to own liking, which is annoying, because i like to be able to distinguish a document from the associated program).
That said, I'm all for redesign of both (I might try my hand at doing the document icon sometime actually)

Random thought for ellobo: Maybe the plug can be worked into one of the letters as negative space? Although it might be hard to recognize then.

I'm also not a fan of having the application icon being identical to the file icon, but I'm sure we can work that out somehow.

Yea I'll work it into the look somehow. Thank you MiDoRi! I appreciate that. We can figure something out to distinguish the file icon from the application icon.

I did not mean to say that application and file association icon need to be identical. I just meant to say that they do not necessarily need to be different.
I do consider file association icons that resemble a sheet-of-paper rather stupid though. There is IMHO no point in conveying the document metaphor visually in that case because it is always unambiguously clear from the context the icon is displayed in. Also, file icons are often displayed rather small, at which point the sheet-of-paper outline consumes valuable visual real estate in the icon. The icons can of course be slightly different, but not too much IMHO, because that would visually dis-associate the file from the program.

As an application icon, I think using ellobo's design on a rounded black (or dark) square as MiDoRi did in the first version could look rather good.

MiDoRi's version with grey background and green sound wave does not look all that appealing to me. Maybe retry with a black/dark background and grey-ish or red-ish waveform? I guess something in that direction could work as a file icon (if we want that to be different). The waveform in the background could also work with ellobo's design of the "mp".

As for ellobo's wide logo design (with the "OpenMPT" text), I do not like the way the OpenMPT text looks. The "O" looks somewhat disconnected from the "p" (feels like some kind of kerning/spacing/whatever problem with the font).

In any case, I am not a graphic designer, and I will listen to you guys when you think something would be utterly stupid visually. I am merely trying to give useful input, not trying to direct (please stop me if I start doing that). I know from experience that it is important to have an actual designer (not implying professional, but someone who has experience with these kind of things) involved in any final call on a design.

Also, ellobo and MiDoRi, are you fine with the licensing of any artwork that I suggested earlier?
Saga Musix, do you have any additional opinion on that?

No, I think the options are both sensible, especially since they would also be compatible e.g. with putting them on Wikipedia or similar.

You're right about the kerning. I would fix that before we go live with the design. Maybe a black circle would work as well for the icon. I'll try it out. As for the file icons, we could just fade the colors if you want to keep the same shape. Just a thought. I don't really have a strong opinion about it. I don't really have an opinion on the licensing either as long as I get credit for my designs and they won't be altered (after the final look has been approved by you guys).

Quote from: ellobo on November 06, 2017, 06:30:04
I don't really have an opinion on the licensing either as long as I get credit for my designs and they won't be altered (after the final look has been approved by you guys).

The BSD3 license (see the table at https://choosealicense.com/appendix/ (https://choosealicense.com/appendix/) as well as the license text at https://choosealicense.com/licenses/bsd-3-clause/ (https://choosealicense.com/licenses/bsd-3-clause/)) allows modifications (even without mentioning the modifications). It requires giving credit and prohibits showing endorsement by the original author for any derived works. The whole of OpenMPT (with the exception of external libraries that we use) is licensed under this license, and even though application of this license to artwork is somewhat difficult (I Am Not A Lawyer, though), I do not think we would want to license certain parts of OpenMPT not (at least also) under this license.

The CC-BY-4.0 license also allows modification, however it requires the modifications to be clearly mentioned. It also requires giving credit to the original author and also prohibits showing endorsement by the original author for any derived works.
See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

There is also a CC-BY-ND-4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/)) which would prohibit all modification. However, given that BSD3 already allows it, I doubt that would be of much practical use.
Also, use on Wikipedia would be impossible (see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Licensing#Acceptable_licenses (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Licensing#Acceptable_licenses)) under CC-BY-ND-4.0. I am not sure if BSD3 itself is disallowed on Wikimedia Commons. However, an explicitly allowed license would certainly be preferred. An acceptable CC license would make things way easier and clearer (which is precisely why I came up with the suggestion of dual-licensing the artwork in the first place).

CC-BY-SA-4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)) would require any modifications to be released also under the same CC-BY-SA-4.0 license. As far I am concerned, I think, dual-licensing under BSD3 and CC-BY-SA-4.0 could also work for OpenMPT artwork in practice, even though the spirit of CC-BY-SA-4.0 is more like the spirit of GPL-style licenses and less like the spirit of BSD-style licenses which OpenMPT uses. I would still highly prefer not to have this restriction on the secondary/other/dual-license for the artwork, as it makes the 2 licenses rather inconsistent in meaning and spirit.

In any case, consider the following:
If someone (for whatever reason) does some modification to OpenMPT and distributes it, he/she is certainly allowed to do so by the OpenMPT license. Even though we would like the name and branding to be changed in that case in order to avoid confusion, this is not required by the license itself. If the artwork license would prohibit any modification, anyone modifying OpenMPT would either need to stay with the exact same original artwork (and thus would be forced to give somewhat wrong impression) or to use completely new and unrelated artwork all together (which will force anyone who wants that to do more work). (Something similar (though not identical, something trademark related was also ivolved AFAIK, I will not try to go into legal details here, because I Am Not A Lawyer) to that happened for the Mozilla Firefox branding which made it impossible for the Debian Linux distribution to actually name their firefox browser "Firefox" and use the commonly used firefox logo. They had to invent a new name and logo).

I am aware of the fact that designers tend to want to never ever see any modifications to their work by others (I can even understand the reasons why), however that mindset kind of conflicts with the principles of open source software. I do not expect us to randomly change your design just because we feel like it; that would be highly unlikely to happen. However, I do not think we could accept contributions with this restriction written into the license, as that would make modifying and distributing OpenMPT harder. It would even prevent us from changing something as simple as the dimensions of the logo background, even if required for any particular use context. Also note that any specification or limition with respect to who can modify the design would also be unacceptable, because change in maintainership of open source software as well as forks or otherwise derived software could happen any time and are the foundation of how open source works.

If our license requirements conflict with what you are willing to license your work under, we would very sadly have to reject your contribution.

As far as licensing is concerned, I'm absolutely ok with any copyleft-style license you want to use, (otherwise I wouldn't have even thought of contributing to an open project like OpenMPT, right? ;)) including ones that permit derivative works, but it would be nice to choose one that requires a mention of the original author (well, in fact my icon itself is a derivative work too, lol). BSD3 license seems to fit perfectly in this case.
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer either

Quote from: MiDoRi on November 06, 2017, 14:35:37
As far as licensing is concerned, i'm absoluitely ok with any copyleft-style license you want to use, including ones that permit derivative works,

Just to be clear here (and I think we should be absolutely clear with this stuff):
"Copyleft" is usually used as the term to describe licenses like GPL2, GPL3 and CC-BY-SA, which all explicitly request that modified or derived works are to be released under the same license as the original work. OpenMPT's BSD3 license as well as the suggested CC-BY license do do not require derived works to be released under the same terms and are thus not copyleft licenses. Both (as well as the just mentioned copyleft licenses) are of course considered free and open.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft).

Quote from: MiDoRi on November 06, 2017, 14:35:37
but it would be nice to choose one that requires a mention of the original author

All licenses so far discussed here require this.

I don't really have a problem with somebody remixing the logo etc. outside of the program. When used with the official OpenMPT app though, I would like to be consulted before any modifications. I'm still fine with licensing it, so you guys have the freedom to modify it without asking me. I'm just personally asking that you would consult me, out of respect. Of course if you couldn't reach me for whatever reason, you could just go ahead and modify it. And in the case of a complete redesign, there would be no reason to consult me. I come from the world of advertising and the way things work there is basically that you can only modify a logo with the consent of the original designer. In our case you could modify it without my consent but like I said, I kindly ask that you consult me first. Doesn't mean you'd have to agree with me or follow my guidelines.

Quote from: ellobo on November 07, 2017, 22:32:18
I don't really have a problem with somebody remixing the logo etc. outside of the program. When used with the official OpenMPT app though, I would like to be consulted before any modifications. I'm still fine with licensing it, so you guys have the freedom to modify it without asking me. I'm just personally asking that you would consult me, out of respect. Of course if you couldn't reach me for whatever reason, you could just go ahead and modify it. And in the case of a complete redesign, there would be no reason to consult me. I come from the world of advertising and the way things work there is basically that you can only modify a logo with the consent of the original designer. In our case you could modify it without my consent but like I said, I kindly ask that you consult me first. Doesn't mean you'd have to agree with me or follow my guidelines.

Sounds totally fine.

Yeah, seems like we're all on the same page then. I'm looking forward to the new sketches then. :)

Aight let's move on then. Can you list exactly what graphics you need and the dimensions?

Quote from: ellobo on November 09, 2017, 22:46:22
Can you list exactly what graphics you need and the dimensions?

For application icon (and possibly file icon, if we want that to be different) as recommended by Microsoft: 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 40x40, 48x48, 64x64, 256x256.
Additional useful and common icon resolutions are: 16x16, 22x22, 24x24, 32x32, 36x36, 40x40, 48x48, 64x64, 72x72, 96x96, 128x128, 192x192, 256x256, 512x512.
For the larger resolutions (probably 64 or larger) something generated from the same vector graphic would be preferred, possibly even for the smaller resolutions. The smallest resolutions (24 or below at least) may need some per-size hand-tuning though.
I do not think we should be too much concerned with lower colour resolutions in 2017. We probably need to provide 16 colour versions for technical reasons, however I do not think looking particularly good in 16 colours should influence the overall design in any way.
Transparency can (and should) be used for icons where appropriate.

We can generate the required icon sizes from a scalable vector graphics ourselves (SVG format would be preferred in that case, I think, however PDF (like you did provide originally would also work)), the maybe-hand-tuned low-res versions can be in any pixel image format supporting transparency (like PNG).

As for the logo (which could be used as splash screen, about dialog and on the website), I do not think we have any specific requirements regarding size and/or aspect ratio.

In any case, if the design is done with a program that does not use SVG as its native file format, the original file from whatever program you use would also be useful for us to have (in order to ease possible future derivations) in addition to a SVG.

I guess since the splash / about screen / logo is mostly focussed on having the logo and OpenMPT text next to it, an aspect ratio that is wider than the current splash screen would make a lot of sense. Something like 7:3 or so.

I don't have much time during this weekend but I'll get on it next week. I'm using Adobe Illustrator to design. Also I work on a Mac, which I boot into Windows for OpenMPT only. I've made icons on MacOs before but I'm not sure if those files can work on Windows as well. I'm guessing they probably won't?

As long as we get the icons as SVGs and/or PNG, we can do the rest (i.e. assemble an ICO file). You do not need to worry about that last step, also because we will need them in slightly different variants for various purposes.

Ok good to know.

I was given a big project with a lot of deadlines so I haven't had time to finalize the graphics yet but I'll send you something this week. Sorry about that.

No worries, we're still quite far away from the next big release anyway. :)

you guys inspired me, and I would post what I did but this is all I keep getting : The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved. (trying again with ultra low quality)

Should be fixed now.

Quote from: Saga Musix on December 03, 2017, 23:51:59
Should be fixed now.

I think you fixed it :) or maybe it liked the lower quality file even though the original was 244k

Quote from: Exhale on December 03, 2017, 23:50:17
you guys inspired me

I like the general design of "mp" with the embedded plug.

The black square icon is maybe a bit too nervous due to the vertical wires. At least for smaller sizes, they would probably need to be removed or simplified.

The wide logo appears to be putting emphasis on the "Open" part of the name, which is the least actually meaningful part of the name, imho. Also, it completely leaves out the "Tracker" part of the name, which kind of contrasts with the shortened name "OpenMPT" that we have been using for quite some time now for the most part. Of the 3 logos, I would prefer the middle one (the top one is probably a bit too minimal, and the bottom one probably a bit too noise (although something like that could be fine for a splash screen or the about dialog). Both, the middle and the bottom one would probably need some work to be embeddable on the website though, because the background of the logo does not easily integrate into page layouts due to varying background color.

I have to say I'm not a fan at all of the roundness of this font. And as manx mentions, It's either OpenMPT or Open ModPlug Tracker - nothing inbetween.

Quote from: Saga Musix on December 04, 2017, 16:09:22
I have to say I'm not a fan at all of the roundness of this font. And as manx mentions, It's either OpenMPT or Open ModPlug Tracker - nothing inbetween.

Cool I will rethink the overall look with more experimentation for the 'whole' name... the font, I specifically made the way it is - ie I took a font I liked and changed some of the letters (m and n specifically) and then rounded them off in a way I decided would suit a more modern look for modplug.

I based the design off the one done by Úlfur Kolka, but without the bog standard and overused font, and with some other design elements.

Quote from: manx on December 04, 2017, 15:47:52
The black square icon is maybe a bit too nervous due to the vertical wires. At least for smaller sizes, they would probably need to be removed or simplified.

Certainly, that is the reason for simplified logos, in all cases. for example the smaller the instance the simpler the logo will have to go.
So for smaller uses of the logo we would use a simplified version such as the one on top.

Quote from: manx on December 04, 2017, 15:47:52
The wide logo appears to be putting emphasis on the "Open" part of the name, which is the least actually meaningful part of the name, imho. Also, it completely leaves out the "Tracker" part of the name, which kind of contrasts with the shortened name "OpenMPT" that we have been using for quite some time now for the most part.

Interesting perspective - when I was inspired by the prev work, I was infact inspired by the bold emphases on the word 'open' which was I thought a well thought out choice... I will play with other tweaks and emphases sometime, concentrating on variations more focussed towards the full OMPT name.

Quote from: manx on December 04, 2017, 15:47:52
because the background of the logo does not easily integrate into page layouts due to varying background color.

That can be quickly changed, I did this in macromedia freehand so it is all vectors.

Ok here are some variations on that design in the simplified form concentrating on the whole name. As you can see adding more words makes the whole thing become more complex. Simple designs tend to pop out more.
Keep it simple stupid  :-X

and some more variations.
I love the one at the top, thinking of taking that direction a bit more next time.

Quote from: Exhale

I like the "mod" above "plug" aspect as in most of these variations. In particular omptvariations.jpg last column second from bottom one with the "tracker" below it. The "Open" text in that one looks a bit off though. Also, could you try introduing some spacing in between "od" and "lug" It currently looks somewhat crammed together.

While I'm happy that I inspired you, the logo is already finished (apart from a little bit of kerning). I'm working on the icon and the start up screen and expect all of the graphics to be finished in the next few days. The plug will be incorporated into the logo on the start up screen. My bad on the delay.

Quote from: ellobo on December 05, 2017, 18:00:19
While I'm happy that I inspired you, the logo is already finished (apart from a little bit of kerning). I'm working on the icon and the start up screen and expect all of the graphics to be finished in the next few days. The plug will be incorporated into the logo on the start up screen. My bad on the delay.

Cool man, use or dont use, just know if you would like I can give you vectors in various formats, (translated perfectly into adobe illustrator too so ask if you are looking). Here are some more things I did, 1 a background for my pc, and the other was done considering the changes requested.

One last message with some mockups of the webpage
3 colour variations, the red I was using, a green to match the download and an orange to match your links on the page

The logo should definitely be red. I don't like the green one at all, and the orange one seems a bit off to me.

Here's what I was thinking. I only like the sine wave and plug idea for the about screen. Personally I would skip them all together but I see this as a compromise to hold on to the plug. The sine wave and plug could also be used on their own, on the website or whatever.

(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/542x767q90/r/923/v4dRK5.jpg)

Comparison of all icon suggestions so far, in 16x16 format (which will be basically the only format I will ever get to see them in, due to the way my systems are configured):

(https://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5858.0;attach=496;image)

At least for small icon sizes, I think ellobo's icon variant needs slightly brighter colours. The whole icon is just a dark blur here. (And for what it's worth, I use 16x16 icons as well.)
As discussed in our mails, I agree the sine wave in the about screen doesn't really work. From my perspective this is because it's way too regular and simple - which audio waveforms really are not. For it to work, it would have to be a much more "wavy" pattern like in my original inspiration, or maybe a regular waveform (e.g. of a drumline). It could also be possible to put such a waveform in the background behind the logo. As mentioned I want to keep the little water ripple effect working in the about screen, but that doesn't work if the graphics consist of mostly solid colours.

From these icon's, I do like exhales versions most, except that they appear a bit blurry. A sharper version (more contrast?) of those would be my choice. I like the dark one more than the light one, but I would probably use the light one for documents.

As I already mentioned, I'm not a fan of the typeface in Exhale's version at all. Apart from that, the gradients and colors are mostly okay (but also too dark for small icons as with ellobo's version).

I've never designed icons that small before but I'll brighten the colors for the smallest versions and hopefully that'll work out.

Quote from: Saga Musix on December 21, 2017, 14:10:23
As mentioned I want to keep the little water ripple effect working in the about screen, but that doesn't work if the graphics consist of mostly solid colours.

i personally do not think we should let suitability to that particular effect influence choices on the new logo design.
However, the about screen graphic is clearly the least important one of all required graphics, and thus could deviate somewhat from the pristine logo.

Quote from: manx on December 21, 2017, 12:10:38
Comparison of all icon suggestions so far, in 16x16 format (which will be basically the only format I will ever get to see them in, due to the way my systems are configured):

Sorry, I had totally missed exhales later suggestions. I'm sorry about that.
I have decided to crop the document-style icon suggestion and remove the sound wave that hangs over the document sheet. Otherwise it would be totally unrecognizable in 16x16.

Updated list of current suggestions:

(https://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5858.0;attach=500;image)

Also, for any further design suggestion, could anyone please, in addition to some overview huge image as posted in the past, include the properly cropped designs as intended to be used as individual files (in SVG and/or PNG format). Cutting out the icons for previewing comparison purposes was way too much work.

Quote from: manx on December 24, 2017, 09:21:12
Updated list of current suggestions:

As I had already hinted earlier, especially 16x16 icons (and probably other sizes up to 32x32, for high-dpi displays) probably do need dedicated special casing on the designers side.
All scaled done versions (which are all except Midori's) look unnecessarily blurry, in particular compared to the current website favicon.

People are divisive, I prefer midori's. Simple colors and bold and has more legacy feeling than the other.

It has more legacy feeling because it wasn't designed to be a redesign, but rather an update on the current design. Correct me if I'm wrong. The program is now about 20 years old, if you count the original ModPlug Tracker, and 2018 is right around the corner. By looking at the current design, you can tell it's from the late 90s or early 2000s. It was cool back then but I think it's time to move on, rather than to be conservative or nostalgic. A more modern look can attract new users, which has a ton of benefits for both the developers and the community. I believe that look is already here, it just needs some tweaks to be more effective. A waveform instead of the sine wave in the about screen and possibly a different tint of red, at least when it comes to the smaller sizes.

I don't think icon desing plays that significant role in gaining pottential users, when a relatively niche software that usually caters to specific user groups like OpenMPT is concerned, also myself, I kinda have some positive bias towards the old icon design, and it's coming from someone who has been using MPT for less than 2 years, thus i can hardly put the blame on a years-long nostalgia ;)
BTW, for what it's worth, if the final decision turns out to be favorable for the new design, it might be a good idea to keep the old icon set inside the executable for those who want to keep using it.

QuoteI don't think icon desing plays that significant role in gaining pottential users, when a relatively niche software that usually caters to specific user groups like OpenMPT is concerned

Not necessarily, a "dated" look can easily give the impression that an application is not maintained properly, and thus steer away from it.

Quoteit might be a good idea to keep the old icon set inside the executable for those who want to keep using it.

People always say this but at the same time they will forget what the old design even looked like in about one week, so there is no point in doing that. There are a few hardcore users that are allergic against every single changed pixel, and those can just point any of their links to point to the old icon using an old executable or icon file from our code repository if they absolutely have to.

manx, I saw what you did there and decided to go that small on my own since I know a few tricks:

I put the lot in the zip file and three examples are in my final attachment slots :)

Sorry I've been away for a few weeks. Just got back to LA so I can get back to working on this. I did some color and size tweaks to the smallest icons. I tried to upload it but the display is way off so I'm going to email it to manx and Saga Musix. Hopefully they will be willing to post it for me.

Thanks for the updates, I will respond in a few days (thesis deadline approaching ;)).

Perfect. I'll try to work on the waveform for the about screen in the meantime.

(https://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5858.0;attach=510;image)

Any thoughts? I think it looks fine right now. At theses small sizes, it almost looks identical to the current icon. I could make the red color even lighter but it would make it differ more from the icon at bigger sizes. I'll leave that choice up to you guys.

Yes, it's definitely better now, but I think making it just a little bit brighter would help it. If it looks to different, we can still use this version.

Yes of course. I'll send it over sometime this week.

Quote from: ellobo on January 12, 2018, 23:21:26
I tried to upload it but the display is way off so I'm going to email it to manx and Saga Musix. Hopefully they will be willing to post it for me.

Sorry for the huge delay. We were both kind of busy.

The forum is now reconfigured to directly allow .svg uploads.

Quote from: manx on January 26, 2018, 09:22:20

Quote from: ellobo on January 12, 2018, 23:21:26
I tried to upload it but the display is way off so I'm going to email it to manx and Saga Musix. Hopefully they will be willing to post it for me.

Sorry for the huge delay. We were both kind of busy.
The forum is now reconfigured to directly allow .svg uploads.

Seems like we still cannot show svg graphics inline though :(.

(http://image.ibb.co/jyXLCn/About_Screen.jpg)

Sorry about the massive delay. I've been drowning in work with another project. I finally found some time though to try out the wav snare for the about screen and I'm surprised how good it looks. I still think it should be for the about screen only and not for the splash screen but I like how it came out. I also updated the smaller icons so now the colors are even brighter, in case you need it. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for the update! The small icons are definitely much better now, so I think we should keep them like that.
However, I have to say I don't like the "simplified" waveform at all - the lines just seem too busy and random, rather than looking like a waveform at all. I have attached two alternative ideas, let me know what you think about them. If nothing works out, we will just have to use the same version for the About dialog as for the splash screen.

The text in the 2nd idea really washes out with the waveform. I think if the color of the waveform should change, or the letters should have a black outline. If the text gets an outline, the logo probably needs it too.

The sketches were just regarding image elements and positioning - not how to resolve conflicts between the image elements. I am sure ellobo can figure that out on his own.

Ah... right. My bad.

I'll get on it. :)

(https://image.ibb.co/n0NNPx/About_Screen_2.jpg)

What do you think about this for the about screen?

This is really pretty if you ask me n_n
Only thing i could posibly nitpick on is that the brightness of the logotype could be raised a bit to make it a tad more contrasted with the background

Yes, now we're really getting somewhere! I think the waveform adds a lot and looks great. I'd also probably increase the brightness of both the waveform and the grey part of the logo just a little bit to see if it's any better.

I like it too. I do like how nearly invisible the waveform is though, so to my taste it would not need to be brighter. But on systems that don't have a high contrast ratio, that waveform would probably vanish, and for that reason, and that reason alone, looking to increase its brightness just a little bit might be a good idea. But I would definitely increase the brightness of the letters by the same amount. So probably a brightness/contrast on the entire logo would be what I'd do.

(https://image.ibb.co/d1x0CH/About_Screen_3.jpg)

I made the grey color lighter. Note that if this is the color we go with, we need to change the color on everything else. It's not really a problem though. I made the waveform brighter as well. I personally think it looks better when it's darker but I'll let you be the judge of that.

I prefer the brighter version. In general the slightly increased contrast will also make the graphics more accesible to people with bad vision. So I suggest to go with that version (and update the other colors).

All my thumbs up for the brightened version!

Brighter version for me too. :)

Sounds like this is the one. Let me update the grey color on everything else so we have a unified look.

What software are you using to design your artwork in the first place?

As it turns out, even though the SVGs you provide are indeed fine, this format might not be the optimal format for integrating into OpenMPT, because we probably have to convert the SVG to EMF+ for actual use (a conversion which Inkscape apparently cannot do without introducing unbearable artefacts and/or extremely huge files).
It would probably be useful to provide the original native file format of the application in addition (which would be needed to properly support potential future updates to the design anyway), and in particular, if supported, could you export also to .emf (preferably in EMF+ format ("Enhanced Metafile Format Plus Extensions"), but EMF format ("Enhanced Metafile Format") would also work). Might also be called .wmf ("Windows Metafile format"), however, please try to make sure to use the newer EMF versions if at all possible.

Regarding the design, I have nothing to add to what has already been said by others :)

I'm using the newest version of Adobe Illustrator and I'm afraid the file formats you mentioned are not supported but I can provide you with the original files if that helps.

Are you checking the export menu option? According to this help article, EMF should be supported: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/exporting-artwork.html

That was it. I'll export it as emf then. :)

Sorry about the huge amount of time that has passed. I tried to convert the files to emf before I went to Europe for a big part of the summer, where I didn't have my iMac. I'm sorry that didn't work but now I'm back in LA finally. Basically I have the same problem. I can't convert the files to emf without including all the extra stuff outside of the artboard in Illustrator. This is not a problem with svg. As soon as I choose emf it grays out the 'use artboards' option. I'm completely stuck. I could provide you with all the files as svg if there is some way that you could convert them?

Welcome back. I guess in the end we will just have to convert the SVG to different resolutions (100% and 200% scaling, or just 200% scaling and scale it down to 100%, 125%, 150% etc on demand) for use within the application. The little amount of vector graphics we use does not really justify including a full-blown SVG renderer which would be almost the same size as the rest of OpenMPT executable.

Quote from: Saga Musix on July 19, 2018, 07:47:58
I guess in the end we will just have to convert the SVG to different resolutions (100% and 200% scaling, or just 200% scaling and scale it down to 100%, 125%, 150% etc on demand) for use within the application. The little amount of vector graphics we use does not really justify including a full-blown SVG renderer which would be almost the same size as the rest of OpenMPT executable.

Agreed. Going forward, we could sometime of course use SVG in Windows 10 builds, where SVG support is available.

Here are all the files in svg format. :)

Thanks a lot! Now we can finally start integrating this into the program (and later into the website). You have done a really great work here.
If you are interested in further contributions, we can maybe talk about redoing (some of) the other icons as well.

Oh, and I noticed that the about screen background waveform is still the dark variant, while I preferred the slightly brighter waveform.
Edit: I have noticed that the ripple effect on the about screen would also work better if the background was slightly grey-ish rather than complete black (something like #262626). Do you think you could change it to grey?

Thanks you! It's been a pleasure. Here is the about screen with a grey-ish background and a brighter waveform. :)

Thanks for the update! I'll try to incorporate it later today or tomorrow. For the time being, a current test version (where I manually changed the background color to test it out) with all the new graphics can be found here as always: https://builds.openmpt.org/builds/ Everything looks just great!

There seems to be a little issue with the updated about screen SVG: It seems to miss a reference to the waveform background image.

Yea it was doing that earlier. I thought I had fixed it. Here's an updated version. And the waveform just in case it still doesn't work.

Thanks, with the external PNG file it does work now. I've incorporated the new version into OpenMPT already.

I've been wondering. I know you said you incorporated the new version into OpenMPT already but mine is still showing the old graphics. I have the newest update. Do I need to do something to make the new graphics work?

The new graphics will appear in OpenMPT 1.28, which is to be released sometime in the next few weeks.

Ok that makes sense. Can't wait to see it. :)