Window Manager Icons FAQ
========================

Q: Who works on wm-icons?
Q: Where are all these icons from?
Q: Are all of these icons free?
Q: Why XPM format?
Q: My video card only supports 8bpp. Can I use wm-icons?
Q: Ok, I installed these icons, how to use them with my window manager?
Q: How to use wm-icons with the Debian system menu?
Q: I don't like several icons in some icon sets.
Q: The standardized icon list is small for my purposes, can I extend it?
Q: I want to create my own icon set to use with wm-icons. How do I start?
Q: How can I contribute my icons or complete icon sets?

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Q: Who works on wm-icons?

A: The project has been started on (and with the help of) fvwm-workers
list many years ago. Originally, Mikhael Goikhman and later Olivier Chapuis
from fvwm-themes-devel did all the work. Currently, Mikko Heiskanen does
a major part of the work.

We need good ideas for the project and artists to make icon sets better.

Update: fvwm-themes project is now wm-icons compatible. For more info see
http://fvwm-themes.sourceforge.net/ .

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Q: Where are all these icons from?

A: Almost all icons were taken from one or another free icon set. Certain
icons were slightly modified. Some of the icons were created from stratch
(often using a text editor to edit icons). Take a look at doc/icons.lst
for more details about each and every included icon.

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Q: Are all of these icons free?

A: Yes, they are all GPL'd. If you need another license for some icons, you
should try to contact original authors.

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Q: Why XPM format?

A: Because XPM historically is better supported and all Window Managers and
image viewers handle XPM. This can't be said about other color image formats.
Another reason is that XPM images can be edited without an image editor. :)

Update: we are moving toward the PNG format.

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Q: My video card only supports 8bpp. Can I use wm-icons?

A: You can use 14x14/16x16-general, all kde (but not kde2) and all martys
icon sets. Other included icon sets are not optimized for this resolution
and most likely require 16bpp.

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Q: Ok, I installed these icons, how to use them in my window manager?

A: Take a look at etc/* files with configurations for several popular window
managers. If your window manager is not supported, sorry, you should figure
out yourself how to use wm-icons. If you send working config files for other
window managers, they will be included.

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Q: How to use wm-icons with the Debian system menu?

A: Take a look at etc/debian-system-menu/README

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Q: I don't like several icons in some icon sets.

A: Is it a question? :) Ok, there are several posibilities. If you dislike
only several icons and have much better replacements, send them to the project
maintainer. Anything can be changed and in fact is constantly changed.
If you dislike most of icons in some icon set, you probably need to switch to
another one. Consider also the option of creating your own customized icon set.

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Q: The standardized icon list is small for my purposes, can I extend it?

A: There is no trivial way to do this for now, but it is possible.
You can create a directory ~/wm-icons-extension, which has the same structure
as the base icons directory, i.e. with all icon set subdirectories.
Start adding new icons (like cd-writer.xpm) to all icon sets that you use,
link to /path/to/todo.xpm if you have no real icon for some icon set.
Put symbolic links 'menu', 'mini', 'norm', and optionally 'bar' in
~/wm-icons-extension to the real icon set directories in the same directory.
You can create and update these links using:
	wm-icons-config -u ~/wm-icons-extension mini ./16x16-kde

Finally, add ~/wm-icons-extension to the icon-path in your WM configuration.
This is it. Now you can use menu/cd-writer.xpm, mini/cd-writer.xpm and
norm/cd-writer.xpm in your WM config as if they are in the standard list.

Alternatively, you can send a request for certain icon names to be included
into the standardized icon list. Sending your own working extensions is a plus.

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Q: I want to create my own icon set to use with wm-icons. How do I start?

A: First of all, you must have enough icons to start your own icon set.
But theoretically, you can start with several icons only and many links.
Please try to keep icons of the same size and probably the same style.

Let suppose you want to create a heavymetal theme of the size 40x50.
To start, just copy the entire template icon set to 40x50-heavymetal:
	cp -rd 01x01-template 40x50-heavymetal

Then start replacing existing links (use -f switch to replace a link):
	cp -f MyHeavyMetalCalc.xpm 40x50-heavymetal/calculator.xpm

You need not to implement all the icons in your set, you can leave them linked
to other implemented icons. If you think the links in the template icon set
are not set correctly for your icon set, replace the links, like:
	ln -sf disk-cd.xpm cd-player.xpm

You are welcome to send your new created set to the project maintainer to be
included in the next version (if it is considered good).

For wm-icons to be able to find your new icon set, put 40x50-heavymetal to a
standard system place (like /usr/local/wm-icons/icons) or a personal user place
(like $HOME/.wm-icons). Use 'cp -rd' to preserve links. Currently, you'll need
to edit your window manager configuration to add the new icon set to the menu.

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Q: How can I contribute my icons or complete icon sets?

A: Please email to the maintainer and you will receive full instructions.
Thank you for your help!
