Gnome icon theme

[ilia_kr]

I use FC4 with Gnome 2.10 on an old Plll mashine. I've noticed that some icon themes are drawn in a nautilus window slower than other, I mean that when you click on a folder it takes more time to view its content using some themes. Usually all themes I've ever downloaded are slower than these come with default installation. For example: Tango-Blue-Materia wich I'm using now is slower than Clearlooks. Also I noticed that in native themes there is a "icon-theme.cache" file while downloaded ones doesn't have it.

 

Two questions: why some icon themes are slower? How can I make Tango theme faster, if possible?

 

Thanks.

Edited August 26, 2006 by ilia_kr

[arctic]

The reasons is that some icons themes like tango do not use pixmaps primarily but scalable vector graphics. Vector graphics need longer to load but the result is better and the base package is smaller as you have to create only one scalable icon folder instead of a 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, 72x72 and so forth pixmap folder. Thus, svg-icon themes can be as small as 500 KB while a pixmap theme can be as big as 16 MB. I don't think there is a way to make svg-icons loading faster.

[ilia_kr]

The reasons is that some icons themes like tango do not use pixmaps primarily but scalable vector graphics. Vector graphics need longer to load but the result is better and the base package is smaller as you have to create only one scalable icon folder instead of a 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, 72x72 and so forth pixmap folder. Thus, svg-icon themes can be as small as 500 KB while a pixmap theme can be as big as 16 MB. I don't think there is a way to make svg-icons loading faster.

 

[ilia@linux-fc4 icons]$ cd Tango-Blue-Materia
[ilia@linux-fc4 Tango-Blue-Materia]$ ls
16x16  22x22  24x24  32x32  48x48  index.theme  scalable

 

As you can see, I have both scalable and ordinary icons (.png & .svg). What will happen if I delete the scalable folder?

Trying right now...

[ilia_kr]

Thanks arctic, you were absolutely right. Themes that don't have scalable icons are faster indeed, like the 'clearlooks'. When I removed scalable folder from Tango, the icons became shrinked and ugly (use 75% zoom in nautilus) but loaded faster.