kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Fabrizio Tappero <fabrizio.tappero@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Wayne,
In attachment you can find a good review of approx 30 icons and a global
simplification of approx 30 icons.
I have also corrected some menu labels.

Since there is a lot of corrected text that is very much related to
English, it would be great if you could review it before submitting it. A
not so fun work but I think it will make kicad a much better tool.

I think it would be recommendable to avoid "a" and "the" in button and menu
tooltips. So that it way easier to understand what the button or tooltip is
about. The use of singular plural is also inconsistent and I tried to fix
it. Please Wayne feel free to make any changes you think is important.

I have also notices that several menus are a little inconstant. I will try
work on it since I think the current kicad UI is very usable but it needs
to be more consistent.

I have tried to fixed a lot of icons so that their meaning is more
immediate to understand. I have as well started a process of simplification
of many redundant icons. I think it is important that we begin simplifing
the kicad icon set because at the moment is really too large.

Here below a detailed description of the changes.

Cheers
Fabrizio


### Deleted the following icons(deleted: svg, cpp and png):
edit_component
edit_part
move_text
rotate_field
rotate_glabel
rotate_module_cw
rotate_module_ccw
rotate_pin
rotatehlabel
many_good_icons
dismiss
move_track
move_track_segment
library2
copy_button
copyblock
edit_sheet
icon_text
pagelayout_new
sch_new
rescue_pcbnew
schematic
pagelayout_load_default
gerbview_open_recent_ziparchive_files
gerbview_open_recent_drill_files
gerber_recent_files
pagelayout_recent
revert_pcbnew

### Lightly modified icons:
bom
autoplace_fields
flip_board
duplicate_module
delete
new_sch
new_pcb
new_component
general_deletions
reload
pagelayout_load
add_line
add_entry
add_tracks
add_tracks_and_vias
about
array_module
image
noconn
add_dashed_line.svg
add_bus.svg
scheamatic
resize_sheet
eeschema
netlist
pagelayout_load_default
datasheet
svg_file
pagelayout_normal_view_mode
pagelayout_special_view_mode
unknow
export
import
pcb_update
pcbnew
editor
edit
directory
browse_files
icon_gerbview_small
post_drill



### created few new icons that replace few icons used inproperly (created
svg, cpp, png):
exchange
icon
drag
rescue
path
copy
new_generic
recent
pcbcalculator

### Corrected some label content. It is important here to be rigorus about
it. Inkscape could
be a good tool that can be used as reference:
eescheam rightclick menu
cvpcb rightclick menu
pcbnew rightclick menu
libedit rightclick menu
icon tooltips
gerber and drill file menu
main kicad hotkey icon menu
fixes several tooltip phrases like "Opens a new schematic" into "Open new
schematic sheet"
few more menues and sub menus here and there (see git log for details).

Beside makes many icons more effective, this massive patch is trying to
rise the quality of the kicad UI. Few examples are:
write all words in a menu  with capital letter. Tooltip sentence should
start with capital letter.
do not end a menu item is with a dot "."
do not use "the" or "a" when possible for both tooltip and menu item
use consistent and meaninguful text. "Set Language" is better than
"Language".
"Set grid origin" is better than "Set origin point for the grid"
limit use of "..." (this is a debatable issue)
etc.