Bug 445900

Summary: The icons for the annotation tools look off when compared to the general look of Okular icons
Product: [Applications] okular Reporter: strangequark <random1123581321>
Component: generalAssignee: Okular developers <okular-devel>
Status: REPORTED ---    
Severity: minor CC: aacid
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 21.08.3   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Neon   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: screenshot of icons

Description strangequark 2021-11-22 07:10:00 UTC 
SUMMARY
The icons for the annotation tools (Freehand Line, Highlighter, etc) look ancient and out of place when compared to the icons for everything else (Browse, Text selection, etc). Most other icons in the UI are monochromatic, but the icons for these functions (in the main toolbar. In the annotation toolbar they look fine) are very different and don't look good on low-res displays either.
Moreover, when the Annotation Toolbar is shown (Menubar > Settings > Toolbars Shown > Annotation Toolbar), the icons there are actually nice and monochrome like the rest of the icons everywhere. This creates another visual discrepancy, because now the icons *for the same function* are different in different toolbars.
I guess my request is that colored icons are fine when an annotation tool that's coloured is shown, but the paper at the back and the scribble line on the icon look out of place.

OBSERVED RESULT
The icon looks off because of the paper at the back and the scribbling, while the icon in the Annotation Toolbar looks fine.

EXPECTED RESULT
An icon more like the icons in the Annotation Toolbar, and maybe the icon can be filled with color to show the color of the selected tool. But the paper at the back looks bad.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: KDE neon 5.23
KDE Plasma Version: 5.23.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.88.0
Qt Version: 5.15.3

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
none
Comment 1 Albert Astals Cid 2021-11-22 09:12:28 UTC 
attach a screenshot.
Comment 2 strangequark 2021-11-22 10:13:29 UTC 
Created attachment 143828 [details]
screenshot of icons

I meant these icons, the ones of the 'Black Freehand Line' and the rest, which look like an actual pen on paper. As compared to the annotation toolbar right below, which has monochrome and simple icons.
Comment 3 Albert Astals Cid 2021-11-22 10:16:20 UTC 
Thanks for the screenshot :)

I guess it's a matter of taste, and since i don't have a lot of it I don't see anything wrong :D

I'll leave it to other contributors with more taste than me to comment :)
Comment 4 Laura David Hurka 2021-11-22 20:39:06 UTC 
> This creates another visual discrepancy, because now the
> icons *for the same function* are different in different toolbars.

This is often misunderstood.
The colorful icons select a whole tool (including configuration like color and width), and try to visualize the configuration.
The monochrome icons select only the type of the tool, the configuration is done by the right part of the annotation toolbar.
(Since the configuration is still unique to each tool, it looks like both icons do the same.)

> look ancient and [...] don't look good on low-res displays either.

I agree with this. They are ancient (for computers), and they used to be displayed at a much bigger size. They didn’t have text at that time, so they needed to visualize a lot at once.

> EXPECTED RESULT
> An icon more like the icons in the Annotation Toolbar, and
> maybe the icon can be filled with color to show the color of
> the selected tool. But the paper at the back looks bad.

I think your ideas are welcome. :)