4 ms·

While something similar would probably be better, this is heavily optimized for pixel artwork. Lots of curves, shading, and most importantly - limited colors. U

by jjcm 13y ago

While something similar would probably be better, this is heavily optimized for pixel artwork. Lots of curves, shading, and most importantly - limited colors. UI is generally much straighter, less shaded, with far more colors. Here's an example of UI that's scaled with potrace (a similar algorithm): http://i.imgur.com/jDq4M7e.png http://i.imgur.com/jDq4M7e.png (left side is the converted side, right side is nearest-neighbor. Top is 3x, bottom is 2x) That's with the highest amount of colors/depth that potrace allows. On an i7 processor, it takes a LONG time to compute all of that. Each icon is no longer just a couple hundred pixels, it's a couple hundred vector paths. Even rendering it takes a number of seconds to refresh the screen in inkscape.

krakensden 13y ago
> That's with the highest amount of colors/depth that potrace allows. On an i7 processor, it takes a LONG time to compute all of that. OTOH, for icons, you just need to compute that once and then cache the png.
dublinben 13y ago
1. That looks awful. 2. We just need vector-based icons already.
- slazaro 13y ago
  I think the ideal would be something similar to fonts: there's the vector definition for big sizes, and optional pixel-perfect definition for small sizes, because rendering vectors on very small sizes (16x16, 32x32) might look worse than hand-crafted pixel work.
  - oofabz 13y ago
    These days, font rendering does not often rely on bitmaps, even at small sizes. Instead, they typically use hinting and subpixel rendering. I would love to see these effective techniques applied to vector graphics too.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- err4nt 13y ago
  Linux has had vector icons on the desktop for over a decade now. It truly boggles my mind how Apple (especially once they realized Retina was coming) hasn't gone fully resolution-independent on the UI side by now…
mistercow 13y ago
To be fair, that would look a little better with ClearType off.

by jjcm 13y ago

krakensden 13y ago

> That's with the highest amount of colors/depth that potrace allows. On an i7 processor, it takes a LONG time to compute all of that. OTOH, for icons, you just need to compute that once and then cache the png.

dublinben 13y ago

1. That looks awful. 2. We just need vector-based icons already.

slazaro 13y ago
I think the ideal would be something similar to fonts: there's the vector definition for big sizes, and optional pixel-perfect definition for small sizes, because rendering vectors on very small sizes (16x16, 32x32) might look worse than hand-crafted pixel work.
- oofabz 13y ago
  These days, font rendering does not often rely on bitmaps, even at small sizes. Instead, they typically use hinting and subpixel rendering. I would love to see these effective techniques applied to vector graphics too.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
err4nt 13y ago
Linux has had vector icons on the desktop for over a decade now. It truly boggles my mind how Apple (especially once they realized Retina was coming) hasn't gone fully resolution-independent on the UI side by now…

mistercow 13y ago

To be fair, that would look a little better with ClearType off.