Fun with Icons on Linux

[J. Landman Gay]

Peter Alcibiades wrote:

> There are two problems, and they are identical whether you use the MC or the 
> RR IDE.
> 
> The first is the icons supplied are miniscule and don't apparently scale.  So 
> you can make your buttons bigger, but they still have tiny artwork in them.  

This is not a Linux problem, this is just how it works across all 
platforms. All icons are bitmapped art. They will appear smaller at 
large screen resolutions, and will appear larger when the screen 
resolution is less.

> You also cannot seem to get rid of minimum 10 point font text under the 
> artwork, which displaces the icons upwards.

You can, but there is no interface in the inspector for it. Just set the 
textfont/size/style of the button to whatever you want, via the message 
box or a script. You can also set margins to nudge the icon to the 
position you want. Again, not a Linux problem. Just how it works.

>  You can only replace it with a 
> space, which increases the ratio of white space to artwork on your buttons.  

Or you can just turn off the "showName" property of the button which 
will remove the label entirely. Then set the bottomMargin to whatever 
you want.

> This means that if you want one of the old scaleable forward/backward arrows 
> that used to come with Hypercard, you have to either dig out the old 
> diskettes -  or make your own from scratch.

HyperCard didn't have scalable icons either, they were bitmapped artwork 
like all the others. However, if you want to scale an icon, just import 
the icon image into the stack and then scale that image. Whatever size 
you have scaled it to will be reflected in your button icon. Note that 
since all icons are bitmapped art, scaling to a large size can cause 
jagged edges.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com