6:41 p.m.
Hey,
So as we discussed on IRC. Attached is a draft of some guidelines for
artwork submissions and specifically desktop background contributions.
Parts of it are derived from the existing guidelines [1]. I'm hoping
this will help us:
* Clearly define the legal rules for submitted works
* Give some more explicit guidance to potential contributors
* Establish some general guidelines to frame the decision making process
What do you think?
Thanks,
Jon
[1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork#Fedora_Artwork_Guidelines
7:57 p.m.
On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 19:41 -0400, William Jon McCann wrote:
All submissions or contributions:
[ snip ]
This section is great, no comments - well one suggestion, we could call
out good sources of appropriately-licensed image sources.
Subject matter:
* Must not contain brand names or trademarks of any kind
* Must not contain material that is inappropriate, offensive,
indecent, obscene, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or
libelous
- No sexually explicit or provocative subject matter
- No images of weapons or violent imagery
- No alcohol, smoking, or drug use imagery
* Must not contain material that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or
harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based
on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation
or age
* Must not contain material that is unlawful, in violation of or
contrary to the laws or regulations in the jurisdiction where the work
is created
* No religious, political, or nationalist imagery (including flags)
* No images of hats, particularly fedoras.
This is a matter of respect for our primary sponsor, Red Hat, Inc.,
and is not negotiable. Of course, passive appearance of hats, such as
those upon heads in a crowd, may be allowed.
* No version numbers.
End users might prefer to continue to use an older theme, or use
the latest theme in their older version of Fedora. To enable that
choice, do not use any version numbers within the Fedora artwork.
this section is great up to here
* No text.
Text should not be used in the backgrounds because the artwork is
intended for a global audience and to be reused by derivative
distributions.
This is reasonable, but artistic use of type is permitted and should
probably be specifically called out here.
* Should not contain images of people (contemporary, historical, or
fictional)
Why is this? What about characters? The human figure? The human figure
abstracted?
* Should not contain images of pets, or captive or mistreated
animals
The latter part I understand, but I'm unsure of the concern with images
of pets. E.g., a horse could be considered a pet and Samuele submitted
some very nice imagery with horses... e.g. if we're just trying to avoid
the flickr-zomg-look-at-my-cat syndrome we should just call it out...
but we've never had a problem with people submitting pictures of their
cat.
Technical requirements:
* Must use a format that can be read by software available in Fedora
Package Collection
Preferred image formats include SVG and PNG. Master files, which
may be further edited, should be maintained in non-lossy formats.
Preserving vector graphics, raster layers, and channels is important
for such materials.
I would word it slightly differently, maybe break it out into proposals
vs. source files. Source files are required. Proposals should be in PNG
irregardless of whether or not it's vector or bitmap. Source files must
be SVG for vector format submissions and XCF or compressed XCF (xcf.bz2
or xcf.gz).
We also require that any source images, brushes, textures, etc. used in
the design must be cited individually, referenced properly (download
site, author, license), and be under a license compatible with CC-BY-SA.
* Originals for landscape formats must be a minimum of 1600 pixels
wide and 1200 pixels high
The larger the better. Photographic submissions should be made at
the highest resolution the camera is capable of.
I think we need to require higher resolution. But then again I'm not
sure what you're considering 'original.' I'm considering the submission.
I don't think you can make requirements for source images just because
someone might only use part of a We support up to 2048x1536
for standard resolution, 1920x1200 for wide, but those are single-screen
too, what about dual... so you see it becomes a bit of a slippery slope
I think when trying to dictate a minimum resolution.
* Should be provided in a 16 x 9 aspect ratio
16x9 not ideal unless it's high resolution enough. It's easier
compositoinally to go to a 16:9 ratio with a 4:3 ratio image rather than
vice-versa.
* No watermarks, signatures, photographer/creator names, or
messages
may be included in any part of the work
Composition:
* Should strive for subtlety and poetry
I think I know what you're trying to get at with this but I think it's
going to confuse a lot of people. I'm not sure how to word it better,
though. If you're trying to guide people towards non-explicit /
non-obvious interpretations of ideas better to state that openly.
* Avoid high frequency images
(http://forensicphotoshop.blogspot.com/2009/04/low-frequency-vs-high-frequ...)
Might be easier to understand to expand on this point a bit more by
saying it should not have too much high contrast, and it shouldn't be
overly bright or dark either.
- A soft focus is one way to achieve this
* As the name suggests, visually, it should settle into the
"background" of the activity scene.
* Fewer details on left side allows for good readability for primary
icons on the desktop.
- Keep in mind that many users have icons covering the entire
desktop view.
* Do not compete for the user's attention
I'd even expand this and say, the purpose of the wallpaper is to serve
as a backdrop for the user's documents and applications, and it's a
supporting actor - the documents and applications are the stars.
Specific guidelines.
I wouldn't consider these guidelines so much as suggestions or ideas...
* Default background:
* The following adjectives should be used to select an appropriate
design:
- Fresh
- Light
- Calm
- Clean
- Modern
- Harmonious
- Unfettered
- Elegant
- Graceful
- Hopeful
- Delightful
These seem like great suggestions to get artists into the right mindset
but I wouldn't consider them exclusive nor all absolutely required.
* Additional Themes:
* May use following categories:
- Nature
- Landscapes
- Cosmos
- Scenes
- (Region/country specific content)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_wallpaper
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork#Fedora_Artwork_Guidelines
This is a wonderful start at a great document, thank you so much for
kicking this off!
~m
3:29 a.m.
On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 20:57 -0400, Máirín Duffy wrote:
On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 19:41 -0400, William Jon McCann wrote:
<snip>
> * Should be provided in a 16 x 9 aspect ratio
16x9 not ideal unless it's high resolution enough. It's easier
compositoinally to go to a 16:9 ratio with a 4:3 ratio image rather than
vice-versa.
Depends on the design, sometimes it's easier to go from 16:10
(yes,
computer screens are 16:10, not 16:9) to 4:3. I'd therefore encourage
submission of both wide and standard variants.
I agree with all your other comments.
Martin
9:13 a.m.
Hey,
Some comments inline and a new draft attached.
2009/8/7 Máirín Duffy <mairin(a)linuxgrrl.com>:
On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 19:41 -0400, William Jon McCann wrote:
>
> All submissions or contributions:
>
[ snip ]
This section is great, no comments - well one suggestion, we could call
out good sources of appropriately-licensed image sources.
> Subject matter:
>
> * Must not contain brand names or trademarks of any kind
>
> * Must not contain material that is inappropriate, offensive,
> indecent, obscene, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or
> libelous
> - No sexually explicit or provocative subject matter
> - No images of weapons or violent imagery
> - No alcohol, smoking, or drug use imagery
>
> * Must not contain material that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or
> harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based
> on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation
> or age
>
> * Must not contain material that is unlawful, in violation of or
> contrary to the laws or regulations in the jurisdiction where the work
> is created
>
> * No religious, political, or nationalist imagery (including flags)
>
> * No images of hats, particularly fedoras.
> This is a matter of respect for our primary sponsor, Red Hat, Inc.,
> and is not negotiable. Of course, passive appearance of hats, such as
> those upon heads in a crowd, may be allowed.
>
> * No version numbers.
> End users might prefer to continue to use an older theme, or use
> the latest theme in their older version of Fedora. To enable that
> choice, do not use any version numbers within the Fedora artwork.
this section is great up to here
>
> * No text.
> Text should not be used in the backgrounds because the artwork is
> intended for a global audience and to be reused by derivative
> distributions.
This is reasonable, but artistic use of type is permitted and should
probably be specifically called out here.
That's fine. This part was copied mostly from the current guidelines.
> * Should not contain images of people (contemporary, historical,
or
> fictional)
>
Why is this? What about characters? The human figure? The human figure
abstracted?
That would be fine as long as the character doesn't convey a message
or ideology, give the appearance of preferring a specific region,
culture, race, politics, religion, etc. We should make this more
clear I suppose. An invented character without any of those
attributes should be fine.
> * Should not contain images of pets, or captive or mistreated
animals
The latter part I understand, but I'm unsure of the concern with images
of pets. E.g., a horse could be considered a pet and Samuele submitted
some very nice imagery with horses... e.g. if we're just trying to avoid
the flickr-zomg-look-at-my-cat syndrome we should just call it out...
but we've never had a problem with people submitting pictures of their
cat.
If the animal is in a domestic or beast of burden setting I think we
are best to avoid it. If the horse does not appear with a saddle,
reins, in a corral, etc it can be assumed to be a wild horse - and
that would be fine. This is a very subtle issue. This goes to one of
the "experience tones" (adjective list) I mention below.
"unfettered"
> Technical requirements:
>
> * Must use a format that can be read by software available in Fedora
> Package Collection
> Preferred image formats include SVG and PNG. Master files, which
> may be further edited, should be maintained in non-lossy formats.
> Preserving vector graphics, raster layers, and channels is important
> for such materials.
I would word it slightly differently, maybe break it out into proposals
vs. source files. Source files are required. Proposals should be in PNG
irregardless of whether or not it's vector or bitmap. Source files must
be SVG for vector format submissions and XCF or compressed XCF (xcf.bz2
or xcf.gz).
Sure sounds ok, except let's say "regardless" there. This part was
mostly copied from the current guidelines.
We also require that any source images, brushes, textures, etc. used
in
the design must be cited individually, referenced properly (download
site, author, license), and be under a license compatible with CC-BY-SA.
Sure, sounds fine too.
> * Originals for landscape formats must be a minimum of 1600
pixels
> wide and 1200 pixels high
> The larger the better. Photographic submissions should be made at
> the highest resolution the camera is capable of.
I think we need to require higher resolution. But then again I'm not
sure what you're considering 'original.' I'm considering the submission.
I don't think you can make requirements for source images just because
someone might only use part of a We support up to 2048x1536
for standard resolution, 1920x1200 for wide, but those are single-screen
too, what about dual... so you see it becomes a bit of a slippery slope
I think when trying to dictate a minimum resolution.
Sure I was being a bit conservative. Let's increase the minimum to
1920. One of the reasons for this is we have a lot of very nice CC
artwork on the web but unfortunately much of it has been posted at a
very low resolution. Also, we may want the option of changing the
cropping/framing of the image and we'll need a larger source to do
that.
I don't think it is a requirement to support the dual mode.
I don't see any slippery slope here.
> * Should be provided in a 16 x 9 aspect ratio
16x9 not ideal unless it's high resolution enough. It's easier
compositoinally to go to a 16:9 ratio with a 4:3 ratio image rather than
vice-versa.
The vast majority of displays are wide today. See:
http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=220
So, I'm suggesting we should design for the wide case and crop for the
4:3 case. Pan and scan.
> * No watermarks, signatures, photographer/creator names, or
messages
> may be included in any part of the work
>
>
> Composition:
>
> * Should strive for subtlety and poetry
I think I know what you're trying to get at with this but I think it's
going to confuse a lot of people. I'm not sure how to word it better,
though. If you're trying to guide people towards non-explicit /
non-obvious interpretations of ideas better to state that openly.
>
> * Avoid high frequency images
>
> (http://forensicphotoshop.blogspot.com/2009/04/low-frequency-vs-high-frequ...)
>
Might be easier to understand to expand on this point a bit more by
saying it should not have too much high contrast, and it shouldn't be
overly bright or dark either.
Actually that isn't about contrast or brightness at all. It is more
about the amount and quality of the fine (especially sharp) details.
In image analysis terms, if you use a transform to convert an image
into the frequency domain it shouldn't have too much energy in high
frequencies.
Contrast and brightness might be better to simply be "balanced". It
is probably better to be a bit vague here and allow some artistic
license.
> - A soft focus is one way to achieve this
> * As the name suggests, visually, it should settle into the
> "background" of the activity scene.
> * Fewer details on left side allows for good readability for primary
> icons on the desktop.
> - Keep in mind that many users have icons covering the entire
> desktop view.
> * Do not compete for the user's attention
>
I'd even expand this and say, the purpose of the wallpaper is to serve
as a backdrop for the user's documents and applications, and it's a
supporting actor - the documents and applications are the stars.
OK.
>
> Specific guidelines.
>
I wouldn't consider these guidelines so much as suggestions or ideas...
Actually, I do consider them guidelines. I think these should be the
way we focus what is produced and submitted, and also the criteria for
how we judge them.
> * Default background:
> * The following adjectives should be used to select an appropriate
> design:
> - Fresh
> - Light
> - Calm
> - Clean
> - Modern
> - Harmonious
> - Unfettered
> - Elegant
> - Graceful
> - Hopeful
> - Delightful
>
These seem like great suggestions to get artists into the right mindset
but I wouldn't consider them exclusive nor all absolutely required.
This is one of the most important parts of designing an experience
that is consistent and harmonious - and in the right key.
I think we should come up with a relatively short list of experience
"tones" like the above (should have been 12 not 11). Each artwork
submission should strive to exhibit some of these - and we should
judge them based on whether they do and by how the result feels.
So let's try to come up with how we want Fedora to feel. The above
list is a starting point. The 12 tones of Fedora.
(updated draft attached)
Jon
3:02 a.m.
On 08/08/2009 05:13 PM, William Jon McCann wrote:
2009/8/7 Máirín Duffy:
> On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 19:41 -0400, William Jon McCann wrote:
>> All submissions or contributions:
>>
> [ snip ]
> This section is great, no comments - well one suggestion, we could call
> out good sources of appropriately-licensed image sources.
>
>> Subject matter:
>>
>> * Must not contain brand names or trademarks of any kind
>>
>> * Must not contain material that is inappropriate, offensive,
>> indecent, obscene, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or
>> libelous
>> - No sexually explicit or provocative subject matter
>> - No images of weapons or violent imagery
>> - No alcohol, smoking, or drug use imagery
No weapons would have ruled out Samuele's Invinxible from F10 (which was
very popular until we learned about its licensing problems) and would
probably rule out Jayme's Constantine.
However, I don't see the sword in Constantine's hand (in Jayme's
wallpaper proposal) as a weapon, but as a leadership symbol.
>> * Should not contain images of people (contemporary,
historical, or
>> fictional)
I thought the "no images of people" is due to extra legal troubles (need
for signed model release forms and such). I think if the legal steps are
followed, then people should be fine.
For example I think Ubuntu's "circle of friends" was brillinat for its
time:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/ubuntu%20%252522circle%20of%20friends%...
Highly controversial, yes, but this was part of what made it brilliant.
> Why is this? What about characters? The human figure? The human
figure
> abstracted?
That would be fine as long as the character doesn't convey a message
or ideology, give the appearance of preferring a specific region,
culture, race, politics, religion, etc. We should make this more
clear I suppose. An invented character without any of those
attributes should be fine.
Characters are good: Tatica's "kids" concept is awesome
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tatadbb/3723154997/). Myself, I had really
fun time creating characters for my comic. If Zod was not FC6 but now, I
can think of the characters we would play with...
>> * Should not contain images of pets, or captive or
mistreated animals
>
> The latter part I understand, but I'm unsure of the concern with images
> of pets. E.g., a horse could be considered a pet and Samuele submitted
> some very nice imagery with horses... e.g. if we're just trying to avoid
> the flickr-zomg-look-at-my-cat syndrome we should just call it out...
> but we've never had a problem with people submitting pictures of their
> cat.
If the animal is in a domestic or beast of burden setting I think we
are best to avoid it. If the horse does not appear with a saddle,
reins, in a corral, etc it can be assumed to be a wild horse - and
that would be fine. This is a very subtle issue. This goes to one of
the "experience tones" (adjective list) I mention below.
"unfettered"
Here I was expecting again a legal background: to use photos of
someone's pet, you may need signed property release forms.
>> Specific guidelines.
>>
>
> I wouldn't consider these guidelines so much as suggestions or ideas...
Actually, I do consider them guidelines. I think these should be the
way we focus what is produced and submitted, and also the criteria for
how we judge them.
>> * Default background:
>> * The following adjectives should be used to select an appropriate
>> design:
>> - Fresh
>> - Light
>> - Calm
>> - Clean
>> - Modern
>> - Harmonious
>> - Unfettered
>> - Elegant
>> - Graceful
>> - Hopeful
>> - Delightful
>>
>
> These seem like great suggestions to get artists into the right mindset
> but I wouldn't consider them exclusive nor all absolutely required.
This is one of the most important parts of designing an experience
that is consistent and harmonious - and in the right key.
I think we should come up with a relatively short list of experience
"tones" like the above (should have been 12 not 11). Each artwork
submission should strive to exhibit some of these - and we should
judge them based on whether they do and by how the result feels.
So let's try to come up with how we want Fedora to feel. The above
list is a starting point. The 12 tones of Fedora.
I agree about those being suggestions, not a check list. We may want to
break the rules from time to time and go with something like
"steampunk", which is somewhat the opposite of "modern". Or
"fresh"
would mean we won't ever use again a moon or an underwater view?
Also, some items like "harmonious", "elegant" or
"delightful" are so
vague and subjective that one can't quantify them.
--
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/
photography: http://photoblog.nicubunu.ro/
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/
11:08 a.m.
Hi,
On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 4:02 AM, Nicu Buculei<nicu_fedora(a)nicubunu.ro> wrote:
On 08/08/2009 05:13 PM, William Jon McCann wrote:
> 2009/8/7 Máirín Duffy:
>> On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 19:41 -0400, William Jon McCann wrote:
>>> All submissions or contributions:
>>>
>> [ snip ]
>> This section is great, no comments - well one suggestion, we could call
>> out good sources of appropriately-licensed image sources.
>>
>>> Subject matter:
>>>
>>> * Must not contain brand names or trademarks of any kind
>>>
>>> * Must not contain material that is inappropriate, offensive,
>>> indecent, obscene, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or
>>> libelous
>>> - No sexually explicit or provocative subject matter
>>> - No images of weapons or violent imagery
>>> - No alcohol, smoking, or drug use imagery
No weapons would have ruled out Samuele's Invinxible from F10 (which was
very popular until we learned about its licensing problems) and would
probably rule out Jayme's Constantine.
However, I don't see the sword in Constantine's hand (in Jayme's
wallpaper proposal) as a weapon, but as a leadership symbol.
Yes it would rule them out. As it should. A leadership symbol to the
victorious is a symbol of oppression, conquest, or death to the rest.
Again, simply not something we should be associating ourselves with.
>>> * Should not contain images of people (contemporary,
historical, or
>>> fictional)
I thought the "no images of people" is due to extra legal troubles (need
for signed model release forms and such). I think if the legal steps are
followed, then people should be fine.
For example I think Ubuntu's "circle of friends" was brillinat for its
time:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/ubuntu%20%252522circle%20of%20friends%...
Highly controversial, yes, but this was part of what made it brilliant.
That was never used as a default background. I don't think we should
be in the Politically Correct people of the world business. We are
not Benetton. There is a good rationale for why body parts and people
are not a great idea here:
http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/icons-design.html.en
>> Why is this? What about characters? The human figure? The
human figure
>> abstracted?
>
> That would be fine as long as the character doesn't convey a message
> or ideology, give the appearance of preferring a specific region,
> culture, race, politics, religion, etc. We should make this more
> clear I suppose. An invented character without any of those
> attributes should be fine.
Characters are good: Tatica's "kids" concept is awesome
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tatadbb/3723154997/). Myself, I had really
fun time creating characters for my comic. If Zod was not FC6 but now, I
can think of the characters we would play with...
>>> * Should not contain images of pets, or captive or mistreated animals
>>
>> The latter part I understand, but I'm unsure of the concern with images
>> of pets. E.g., a horse could be considered a pet and Samuele submitted
>> some very nice imagery with horses... e.g. if we're just trying to avoid
>> the flickr-zomg-look-at-my-cat syndrome we should just call it out...
>> but we've never had a problem with people submitting pictures of their
>> cat.
>
> If the animal is in a domestic or beast of burden setting I think we
> are best to avoid it. If the horse does not appear with a saddle,
> reins, in a corral, etc it can be assumed to be a wild horse - and
> that would be fine. This is a very subtle issue. This goes to one of
> the "experience tones" (adjective list) I mention below.
"unfettered"
Here I was expecting again a legal background: to use photos of
someone's pet, you may need signed property release forms.
>>> Specific guidelines.
>>>
>>
>> I wouldn't consider these guidelines so much as suggestions or ideas...
>
> Actually, I do consider them guidelines. I think these should be the
> way we focus what is produced and submitted, and also the criteria for
> how we judge them.
>
>>> * Default background:
>>> * The following adjectives should be used to select an appropriate
>>> design:
>>> - Fresh
>>> - Light
>>> - Calm
>>> - Clean
>>> - Modern
>>> - Harmonious
>>> - Unfettered
>>> - Elegant
>>> - Graceful
>>> - Hopeful
>>> - Delightful
>>>
>>
>> These seem like great suggestions to get artists into the right mindset
>> but I wouldn't consider them exclusive nor all absolutely required.
>
> This is one of the most important parts of designing an experience
> that is consistent and harmonious - and in the right key.
> I think we should come up with a relatively short list of experience
> "tones" like the above (should have been 12 not 11). Each artwork
> submission should strive to exhibit some of these - and we should
> judge them based on whether they do and by how the result feels.
>
> So let's try to come up with how we want Fedora to feel. The above
> list is a starting point. The 12 tones of Fedora.
I agree about those being suggestions, not a check list. We may want to
break the rules from time to time and go with something like
"steampunk", which is somewhat the opposite of "modern". Or
"fresh"
would mean we won't ever use again a moon or an underwater view?
I really think we should describe the experience we want for Fedora
and use that to select the wallpaper - not the other way around. I
don't think steampunk would pass this test since it doesn't really
express any of the tones in this list.
Also, some items like "harmonious", "elegant" or
"delightful" are so
vague and subjective that one can't quantify them.
Those are perhaps the three most important ones actually. They are
subjective - that is true - everything descriptive can be subjective.
That doesn't mean that we shouldn't attempt to make something that is
elegant, harmonious, and delightful.
Thanks,
Jon
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5 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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Martin Sourada -
Máirín Duffy -
Nicu Buculei -
William Jon McCann