Solaris Common Desktop Environment: Advanced User's and System Administrator's Guide

Icon Image Files

For the desktop to use an icon image, the icon image file must:

Icon File Formats

For a color display, use X pixmap (XPM) format icon files, which typically have a.pm suffix. Otherwise, use X bitmap (XBM) format files, which typically have a .bm suffix. If transparency is used in the pixmap file, a mask file (_m.bm) is generated when the .bm file is created. See Icon Search Path for more information about how the desktop finds these files.

Icon File Names

Each icon and backdrop image is stored as a separate file. Typically, an icon is specified with the base part of its file name. For example, an icon might be referenced with the name mail when the file is actually stored as:

/usr/dt/appconfig/icons/language/mail.l.pm

The file-naming convention of adding suffixes helps group icons by size and type. Icon names for desktop components are in these general formats:

basename.size.format

Or

basename.format

where:

basename—the image base name used to reference the image

size—a letter indicating the size: l (large) m (medium) s (small) t (tiny)

format—file format: pm (pixmap) bm (bitmap)

Icon Size Conventions

Table 14–1shows the recommended pixel dimensions for desktop icons.

Table 14–1 Icon Sizes and File Names

Icon Size 

Bitmap Name 

Pixmap Name 

16 by 16 (tiny) 

name.t.bm

name.t.pm

24 by 24 (small) 

name.s.bm

name.s.pm

32 by 32 (medium) 

name.m.bm

name.m.pm

48 by 48 (large) 

name.l.bm

name.l.pm

Table 14–2 shows the icon sizes used by the desktop components. In some cases, the size of the icon used depends on the display resolution.

Table 14–2 Desktop Components and Their Icon Sizes

Desktop Component 

High Resolution 

Medium Resolution 

Low Resolution 

File Manager and Application Manager (View by Name and Icon) 

medium 

medium 

medium 

File Manager and Application Manager (View by Name and Small Icon) 

tiny 

tiny 

tiny 

Main Front Panel controls 

large 

large 

medium 

Front Panel subpanels 

medium 

medium 

tiny 

Front Panel switch controls 

small 

small 

tiny 

Minimized windows 

large 

large 

medium 

For example, if you specify an icon named mail for a data type, have a color display, and have set the File Manager preferences to small icons, the icon image used is mail.t.pm.

Icon Search Path

The desktop finds an icon file, or image, by searching for the file in a list of directories. This list of directories, called the icon search path, is determined by the value of several environment variables. Which variables are used and how they are put together to create the icon search path are discussed in Icon Search Path.

The default search path is:

Accessing Icons across the Network

The desktop can access icons on remote systems. For information on creating an icon server, see Configuring Database, Icon, and Help Services.