Create smaller banner for libraries

[tst]

When you create a library, its banner (the strip on the top of the icon) is 12 pixels high. This is pretty useless. NI is taking 10% of the icon's height (3 pixels) more than is needed to have a line of text using the default font in the editor. These 3 pixels can be very useful for the rest of the icon, which is what actually shows which specific VI you're dealing with.

I suggest that this be changed to be 9 pixels high, as shown on the right side:

[AristosQueue (NI)]

True, it is more space than you need for a line of text, but it is the right amount of space for most of the glyphs that ship with the icon editor, which is important if you're actually going to provide a good *graphical* heading for your libraries, akin to using the queue glyph for all your queue VIs. Good libraries have icons that are understandable without regard to whether or not you can read the VI author's language.

[elset191]

Lowercase p's and other letters will get cut off.

[tst]

 elset, I almost always using caps in my icons. They're uniform in height and are easier to read. 

AQ - 3 points:

1. I know that NI people keep using the "use icons" excuse, but that doesn't wash. Some people (me, for instance) don't usually manage to understand all of the icons, especially those with a lot of details. The ones in the advanced file palette are a particularly bad example. I challenge you to find the one you want in the palette just by sight or to read code which has them. An icon with a single glyph is reasonably easy to understand, but once you have more, it's game over for me. I usually just figure out which VI/primitive it is either by looking at its I/O or by using the context help window. To more generic/specific, for instance, always confuse, because they have the same I/O.

2. Most of us probably don't have an international audience. If we do, we can often expect them to be able to work with English. And the capper - text is easier to come up with. The new shipping icon editor will probably help, but still.

3. This isn't so much about the banner having too much space as it is about the rest of the icon not having enough space. The prefered solution would have been the ability to make VIs larger.

P.S. I actually got the inspiration for posting this idea from something YOU posted - have a look at the hook VIs for the class member creation. They have a smaller banner and presumably were written by someone on your team.

P.P.S. We could have this as an environment option (default size of library banner).

[smercurio_fc]

I have to concur with tst on this. I have NEVER accepted the unconvincing argument about icons. There are few internationally recognizable icons because cultures are so different. Even if we're talking about one culture the argument about recognizing icons is debatable. Let's take a real example from some instrument drivers: I have a VI that's to set the trigger for a scope. The icon has a picture of a gun on it (yes, it's true). Ummm.. yeah.... Because when I think of a trigger for a scope, I immediately think of a gun, and when I see a gun, I immediately think of a trigger for a scope. OK. Sure. What I really think is that the person who wrote the driver probably belongs to the NRA. (No political comment meant by that.)

[jgcode]

I disagree.

I prefer to use 8pt Small Fonts Capitals (lower case is too messy).

As such I like using a 11 px banner as I have 2 px spacing above and below my banner text.

However, with the new 2009 editor - using a default banner of 12 px and addding 3 lines of text to the body results in 1 px spacing between body text - which looks really neat.

So I am happy to stay with 12 px default banner.

Although a configuration option to change would be well suited for others. 

Message Edited by jg-code on 08-07-2009 10:32 PM

[tst]

Personally I find that one pixel spacing between lines in the body makes the icon very dense and harder to read, but you certainly have the right to be wrong. 😉

[jgcode]

Well use two lines then 🙂

I used to only use 2 lines for most icons, as I used the default spacing of hitting the [enter] key. Now I can have 3 lines, with less work, which is cool.

As to crowded - I had an extended play with what you have mentioned, and with the smaller banner you get 2px spacing which, I agree, does help read readability. But if I want to include graphics in my API then I want more space. 

However, with the new Icon Editor, you can quickly change the template.

[tst]

In case you're interested, the icon editor ships with 521 glyphs, divided as following (by height):

65 - 9 px or less

78 - 10-12 px

378 - more than 12 px.

So most glyphs don't fit in either size. Obviously, you will get more into 12, but you can extend that logic all the way to 32 (or at least to 16, where you get the most glyphs).

Personally, BTW, if I had a glyph which was larger than the banner, I would probably usually rather have it spill over than enlarge the banner.

[Neil.Pate]

I had no idea why the banner was bigger for clases and libraries until reading this thread.

I would vote to make it the same size as normal subVI banners. The wire going in/out will make it obvious it is a class on the BD.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

> I would vote to make it the same size as normal subVI banners.

SubVI icons don't by default have banners, except when libraries apply banners to subVIs. There are users who create banners for their VIs, but there's nothing built into LV that I know of. I'm not sure what you're referring to here.

On the main topic:

When you go in to edit the banner of your library to type text on it, you can reduce the height of your banner. You can even have a template that is the smaller banner. Does knowing that help? I'm still reluctant to change the default size, and I have a new reason: I cannot find a font on the Mac Mac platform that fits in a 10 pix banner. They need the 12 pixel banner even for text.