Windows "Up In Hierarchy" Button - Part Deux (Request for graphic design aid)

[savar]

Hey All--

Thanks for the help with the first thread I posted on this topic. Tonight I sat down to code out my ideas and I've got something useable. Basically, I wrote a faceless Carbon app that sits in the background and when it gets clicked on in the Finder, it sends Finder the cmd-up keystroke, which tells finder to open the parent directory of the current directory. Then I dragged the application up into the Finder's toolbar. The idea is to make the app's icon look just like an Aqua button so that it doesn't stick out.

It seems to work pretty well so far, the only problem is that I'm a terrible artist. See the attached photo as evidence: my current prototype. If somebody would be so kind as to whip up a 128x128 tiff file of a prettier button, I would list their names in the credits. Then I will package it up and make it available for download somewhere -- free, of course.

 

[savar]

Image

Lets see if I can figure out how to post the image:

 

[whocares]

I didn't read your previous thread nor do I want to discourrage you from coding, but do you know of this personnalized toolbar item:

 

[Nermal]

Yeah he mentioned that menu in the previous thread, but he wants a single click à la Windows.

 

[lexfuzo]

Something like this?

Unfortunately, I'm no artist either..

 

[savar]

Unfortunately, I'm no artist either..

Haha! Yours is faaaar better than mine! An 8 year-old could draw mine in KidPix. I've screwed around with Aquafying graphics in the past but really just can't get the hang of it. Mostly because I'm totally lost in Photoshop.

Anyway, thanks for the submission. I threw it into my app bundle and I'm attaching a pic of the updated version.

Do you think you could do a full-size, 128x128 px version? And have the button use up the entire canvas...that should make it the same size as the other buttons there. And also add an alpha channel for making out the background?? (Trying not to push my luck here )

Anyway, I'm going to run some tests on it -- see what kind of RAM it uses, how fast it runs, etc. Then I'll bundle it up and make it available for download if anybody is interested.

thanks again--

 

[savar]

I didn't read your previous thread nor do I want to discourrage you from coding, but do you know of this personnalized toolbar item:

Actually, if you look at the attached screenshot, I already have that widget in my toolbar. It's just slow sometimes to use a drop down menu when I know I want to go one level up. Anyway, too late to stop me from coding, the thing is basically done. Luckily it only about a half hour -- after I figured out what API references to read.

 

[lexfuzo]

Do you think you could do a full-size, 128x128 px version? And have the button use up the entire canvas...that should make it the same size as the other buttons there. And also add an alpha channel for making out the background?? (Trying not to push my luck here )

Hi, I'm back from weekend..
I'll give it a try tonight and will post the results as soon as possible.
Stand by...

 

[lexfuzo]

Alright, here is what I did:
I took the original button graphics from Safari (suppose they are the same as in Finder) an manipulated one of them.

This is probably not quite legal, but since it's just a little Finder hack, I hope that Apple's lawyers have mercy on me

It has an Alpha channel and fills the size of the canvas. Hence it should fit the other icons quite well.
The size is not 128x128 as you requested, since the original icons aren't either. It is 28x25 px. I don't know if Finder (or Safari) actually uses other - bigger - sizes as well, but this is what i found in the 'Resources' folder of Safari.app.

If I find the time and you have use for them, I can try to make the color variants for 'pressed' and 'disabled' as well.

lex

 

[savar]

If I find the time and you have use for them, I can try to make the color variants for 'pressed' and 'disabled' as well.

That's alright...the Finder does the "pressed" coloration automatically, and the app isn't smart enough to know when to disable itself.

I played with the icons some. It still didn't fit perfectly and I finally figured it out: the Finder's Icons are slightly taller than the icons it allows you to add. So I just made the button slightly smaller so that it at least is centered relative to the other buttons. I changed the arrow a bit to something a little more adventurous.

I'm leaving town tomorrow and will be in Australia for a month, so I'm going to post the app here with source code and let anybody who's interested play around with it/modify it.

 

[lexfuzo]

I'm leaving town tomorrow and will be in Australia for a month, so I'm going to post the app here with source code and let anybody who's interested play around with it/modify it.

Yep, that's great
Have a nice stay down under!

-lex