DOSBox Icon

[MegaBlast]

Here's my latest DOSBOX icon I made - I went for style above trying to bring "box" into it. I used the DOS font and blue/white to refer to the theme.

Back on topic, huh?

I really like this DOSBOX writing, it's soo oldskull.

[ChaosFish]

red_avatar: Could you provide the original files for this icon (if you don't mind)? It'd be interesting trying to study it a bit, maybe it could teach me some vector art

I think it's very good, but maybe it can be better by removing the black shadow from the bottom right corner, that is for it to appear better in small sizes.

[MegaBlast]

For me it looks fine. I think only that C: would be better. Anyway for Windows I would build something (ie .ico file) like this:

[collector]

Looks nice, but I don't see much reason to include the word DOSBox in the icon. If you have a shortcut to it, it will say DOSBox under it, any way -- a bit redundant.

[MegaBlast]

Actually, if I have a shortcut, then it is a shortcut to launch a game, so it will say name of the game.

[ChaosFish]

A different icon can be made just for launching specific applications with DOSBox, just like most software have (e.g. the white page with Word icon inside is for Word documents).
For DOSBox it can be something like this: (based on kekko's idea, see this)

[collector]

Actually, if I have a shortcut, then it is a shortcut to launch a game, so it will say name of the game.

I usually have 2-3 shortcuts to different versions of DOSBox for testing purposes, so I can just drop a folder or executable on the shortcut of the version of DOSBox that I want to use. For Shortcuts to specific games, I change the icon to one for the game.

[MegaBlast]

Actually, if I have a shortcut, then it is a shortcut to launch a game, so it will say name of the game.

For Shortcuts to specific games, I change the icon to one for the game.

I don't have icons for old games (old games didn't have icons!), so I leave dosbox icon then. It's alright, you'll know game is run trough dosbox and the shortcut name says the name of the game.

[collector]

Often, older games were re-released in collections that came with new icons. Almost all of the Sierra collections did.

[MegaBlast]

I've implemented some more interpolation algorithms for one of my program, and while testing I made some dosbox icons using pictures from this thread, that I liked most. Maybe you'll like these icons too.

If I decide which I like most then maybe I'll make a custom DOSBox build with my favorite icon.

[ChaosFish]

I was thinking of making the DOSBox icon's letters in Inkscape, but found out my vector skills aren't good enough... If anyone is interested to give it a go it would be cool.

I now have Windows Vista (a pre-release version), so I fixed the colors to be be more like the other Vista icons. 16x16 stayed the same.

Better or worse?

Usual ZIP file here:
edit: also changed the windows ICO not to include 128x128 and 96x96 - Vista doesn't recognize those sizes anyway.

[MiniMax]

6.1.2 looks more vivid than 6.1.1. I like 6.1.2.

[kekko]

Well, I guess that a 3D dosbox icon with shadows and traslucency would be even more Vista-alike

[ChaosFish]

MiniMax - Glad you think so

Well, I guess that a 3D dosbox icon with shadows and traslucency would be even more Vista-alike

True, I don't know though, I kind of like it now that it blends in nicely (unlike 6.1.1), yet stands out from the other icons. I think any icon needs it's uniqueness.

[MegaBlast]

Yes 6.12 looks good. Finally you resolved that contrast issue without making colors look ugly.

Now, I have improved my scaling algorithms, here are the icons in 48x48 and 32x32 in following order:
a) original, scaled from256x256 using simple halftoning algorithm, scaled from 256x256 using Polynomial (cubic) algorithm, scaled from 256x256 using Lanczos4 algorithm.

The last (Lanczos) yields the sharpest results from all resizing algorithms.

[MegaBlast]

PS. Oh, one last thing; when I'm alt-tabbing through windows and DOSbox is open, I realise there are 2 separate DOSbox windows;

Yeah, I noticed that myself. It was even worse before the inclusion of the icon because I would confuse DosBox with the command prompt!

Also, If you ALT-TAB then the higher quality icon is being used for the DosBox console while the lower quality icon is being used for the main DosBox program.


I think the console icon should have a black background to reflect the default console (although this will be different for different console programs).

The icon for dosbox window is hardcoded as 32bit 32x32 RGB0 image (no alpha channel!), there is only one resolution.
Furthermore, though icon is in RGB the number of it's colors get's internally reduced to 17!? (Look first image in attachment). I'm not sure why it is like this, most likely for multiplatform portability. It is still possible to make a platform specific build that would have different icons for dosbox window and for console window and both normal ones. It could be even made so that there is different icon showing up in the explorer, in the main window and in the console window. (blue is for console, and red for dosbox window)

[DosFreak]

Uhm, somehow my mind insists on reading "BOSDOX" from that. Weirdness

This happened to me as well today while reviewing this thread.
BOSDOX! Weird!

(Check out the earlier ChaosFish Icons.....what an evolution!

[MegaBlast]

Never happened to me.

I like ChaosFish's icon, I use it as icon for shortcuts to games run trough DosBox. For Dosbox.exe I prefer red D: icon and for DosBox's windows: red D: for main window and blue D: for console.

Evolution indeed, one could make image with all the icons starting from beginning till now, to visualize it.


PS. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, if you click on close button in console window the DOSBOX crashes!

[leileilol]

80x80 is nonstandard, but it's fine isn't it


Should crop fine to 48x48.

[cdoublejj]

I made this some time a go it needs perfecting this i what i got when i took the name Dos-Box literally.