VB/WinAPI/Graphics, "embossed" (disabled) icon

"embossed" (disabled) icon

Author	Message
D. Gree #1 / 4	"embossed" (disabled) icon On many of the custom 24x24 toolbar icons for my projects I end up having to create the three icon image states myself (normal, hot, disabled). It's rather easy to change a normal icon into disabled (embossed) in a paint program. David lilchips.com Quote: > > I tried DSS_UNION and this was directionally was I was looking for, but it > > just looked plain goofy. > > I was fully anticipating your last sentence regarding the "do it yourself" > > approach. If an embossing technique is somewhere on your site, I'll find > > it -- otherwise do you have any references you could point me to? > If you want then e-mail me your image and I'll take a look at it to try and > work out a method of embossing it properly programmatically, there's nothing > really on the site right now that deals with embossing as far as I can > remember and I don't recall seeing anything of the sort anywhere else. > Mike > -- EDais -- > - Microsoft Visual Basic MVP - > WWW: http://www.--*.com/
Wed, 23 Mar 2005 02:03:45 GMT

Mike D Sutto #2 / 4	"embossed" (disabled) icon Quote: > On many of the custom 24x24 toolbar icons for my projects I end up having to > create the three icon image states myself (normal, hot, disabled). > It's rather easy to change a normal icon into disabled (embossed) in a paint > program. Agreed, but it's even easier to get the application to work it our for you :) If the images are dynamic then you'll also be in problems and even if not, a code solution would make the app easier to maintain if _any_ changes to the icons need to be made and kept constant throughout. System colours for example would be another big stumbling block with flat images, personally I hate applications that force flat grey image embossing because they're too lazy to write a 'real' solution - I like my system colours, that's why I chose them! :) Mike -- EDais -- - Microsoft Visual Basic MVP - WWW: Http://EDais.earlsoft.co.uk/
Wed, 23 Mar 2005 02:24:37 GMT

Mike D Sutto #3 / 4	"embossed" (disabled) icon Quote: > Agreed, however... ;-) This could go on for a while.. Quote: > I find that especially on 256 color [or true-color] images, the standard > API-type embossing methods result in something that is usually impossible to > discern what it is (or was). > Hence I usually manually create the embossed image so that I have complete > control over setting various areas of the image into "simpler" or "flatter" > layout. I would hazard a guess as to this also being why MS uses the three > images. The system colours should always be set in the palette, you only should use the first 245 or so (I forget the exact number) entries for the local palette. Quote: > See the attached image as an example. > The first button shows my 256 color "XP"-like Search icon as Hot, the second > button is Normal, the third is how Windows shows it disabled (blech!), the > fourth is my hand-made Disabled bitmap. Oh I totally agree, Microsoft's 'dithering' in DrawState() is terrible and a dithered image embossed just looks plain wrong since there's a mess of pixels being drawn all over the place in mid-range colours. I wouldn't even go for a better dithering method for this, it's not a case where dithering would help, a simple tolerance check would be far more suited. Quote: > I use the APIs to attach three ImageLists to the Toolbar Control, for Hot, > Normal, Disabled. > The triple ImageList method is what MS uses, and also what I recently adopted > since I found it easier to use and gives me more flexibility. To be honest I've not done much work with tool bars in this way and seldom use ImageLists but I'm sure it works just fine. Quote: > I have a function that automatically sets the palettes correctly for the images > in the Disabled ImageList, so that they follow the system colors. It is fast as > it only modifies the Hilight/Face/Shadow/Text palette entries in the standard > HalfToning palette (I use this for all my 256-color UI images). > I also use the palette setting function for things like Command Buttons that are > set to Graphical Style. As you mention, most people are lazy and leave them as > black (or whatever), but I make sure my Button 3D and Button Text colors follow > the current scheme. > But please, don't discontinue your work on creating a better embosser just > because of me. :-) It's just a bit of fun: Http://EDais.Earlsoft.co.uk/TempFiles/IconStates.exe It's cheesy, slow code as I just wanted to get something working. Mike -- EDais -- - Microsoft Visual Basic MVP - WWW: Http://EDais.earlsoft.co.uk/
Wed, 23 Mar 2005 08:05:53 GMT

D. Gree #4 / 4	"embossed" (disabled) icon Quote: > This could go on for a while.. Pros and Cons to both methods. Quote: > The system colours should always be set in the palette, you only should use > the first 245 or so (I forget the exact number) entries for the local > palette. I use the standard VC++ 5/6 HalfTone palette, which includes the system colors. Quote: > Oh I totally agree, Microsoft's 'dithering' in DrawState() is terrible and a > dithered image embossed just looks plain wrong since there's a mess of > pixels being drawn all over the place in mid-range colours. I wouldn't even > go for a better dithering method for this, it's not a case where dithering > would help, a simple tolerance check would be far more suited. A weighted conversion to greyscale followed by a line art conversion with a 191 threshold is close (using Corel PhotoPaint). I've found that it still doesn't catch all of the exact pixels within the image as it should and requires a slight touchup. I've messed with a bunch of various techniques over the years and simply settled on using multiple ImageLists and a Palette adjuster for the 3D/Text color setting. I would be interested to see if you created one in code that actually worked 100%. Even creating the Normal and Disabled from the Hot image would be cool. Note that the Normal isn't just a standard greyscale convert of the Hot, as the Hot usually has higher contrast than the Normal, so you would have to weight the greyscale within a curve where the lowest would be 102:102:102. David lilchips.com Quote: > > Agreed, however... ;-) > This could go on for a while.. > > I find that especially on 256 color [or true-color] images, the standard > > API-type embossing methods result in something that is usually impossible > to > > discern what it is (or was). > > Hence I usually manually create the embossed image so that I have complete > > control over setting various areas of the image into "simpler" or > "flatter" > > layout. I would hazard a guess as to this also being why MS uses the > three > > images. > The system colours should always be set in the palette, you only should use > the first 245 or so (I forget the exact number) entries for the local > palette. > > See the attached image as an example. > > The first button shows my 256 color "XP"-like Search icon as Hot, the > second > > button is Normal, the third is how Windows shows it disabled (blech!), the > > fourth is my hand-made Disabled bitmap. > Oh I totally agree, Microsoft's 'dithering' in DrawState() is terrible and a > dithered image embossed just looks plain wrong since there's a mess of > pixels being drawn all over the place in mid-range colours. I wouldn't even > go for a better dithering method for this, it's not a case where dithering > would help, a simple tolerance check would be far more suited. > > I use the APIs to attach three ImageLists to the Toolbar Control, for Hot, > > Normal, Disabled. > > The triple ImageList method is what MS uses, and also what I recently > adopted > > since I found it easier to use and gives me more flexibility. > To be honest I've not done much work with tool bars in this way and seldom > use ImageLists but I'm sure it works just fine. > > I have a function that automatically sets the palettes correctly for the > images > > in the Disabled ImageList, so that they follow the system colors. It is > fast as > > it only modifies the Hilight/Face/Shadow/Text palette entries in the > standard > > HalfToning palette (I use this for all my 256-color UI images). > > I also use the palette setting function for things like Command Buttons > that are > > set to Graphical Style. As you mention, most people are lazy and leave > them as > > black (or whatever), but I make sure my Button 3D and Button Text colors > follow > > the current scheme. > > But please, don't discontinue your work on creating a better embosser just > > because of me. :-) > It's just a bit of fun: > Http://EDais.Earlsoft.co.uk/TempFiles/IconStates.exe > It's cheesy, slow code as I just wanted to get something working. > Mike > -- EDais -- > - Microsoft Visual Basic MVP - > WWW: Http://EDais.earlsoft.co.uk/
Wed, 23 Mar 2005 09:07:59 GMT

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