Icons

Node icons

Node icons are icons that a user can attach to a node, offered in the left toolbar.

User icons

In FreeMind 0.9.0 beta, you can add your own icons to your minds maps, alongside the standard set of icons delivered with FreeMind, such as the priority icons or the flower icon. To do that, add PNG files of your icons to the folder <user_home>/.freemind/icons. FreeMind treats all *.png files in <user_home>/.freemind/icons as user icons, offering them in the list of available icons.

The size of icons can be arbitrary, not limited to 16 x 16 pixels.

If you send a mind map with your custom icons to another person, the person won't be able to see the icons, though, as the icon files are only stored at your local computer. To see the same icons as you do, the receiver of your mind map has to copy your icon files to his local folder with user icons.

Tool icons

Tool icons are icons used in the menus and toolbars of FreeMind to represent tools or actions, such as "Save". Tool icons are not meant to be changed by users, but they can be changed. If you are a technically minded user, you can set your own tool icons by replacing the standard ones in the "Freemind.jar" file. To do that, you need to unzip the "Freemind.jar" file, replace the icons, and zip it again. TODO: Describe the location of the icons in the zip file.

Implementation

Implementation of node icons and user icons:

Classes and methods:

• MindMapController.addIconsToMenu (CVS)
• MindIcon (CVS)
• IconAction (CVS)

Various:

• Location of PNG files of node icons: git (was: freemind/images/icons/, CVS)
• Location of user icons: ~/.freemind/icons (see also Home folder)

TBD: add links to Git and perhaps keep CVS links as old

Sources of icons

FreeMind uses (a) tool icons used in the toolbars, and (b) node icons attached to nodes. Especially for the node icons, a good comprehensive source of free icons is needed. FreeMind uses PNG icons, in the size of 16 x 16. Nowadays many icons are drawn in SVG vector format first, and converted to 16 x 16 bitmap images afterwards.

Ideally, it would not be the task of FreeMind team to draw icons; this task should be outsourced instead. Whether this is a realistic assumption remains to be seen.

Sources of free icons:

• Icon Pack (freemind.sourceforge.net) from Christopher Belliard
• Icons, kde-look.org
• Icons, gnome-look.org
• Crystal icons – an icon set often used in KDE desktop environment; TBD: add WayMach link; add a link to Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Crystal_icons; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Crystal_Clear_icons; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Crystal_Project; TBD: find galleries in Commons; add a link to https://store.kde.org/p/1002590/ from Commons (updated 17 years ago; added 19 years ago); https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Crystal/64/apps
• Tango Desktop Project — an icon library for KDE and Gnome, licenced under Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike; the web is now only in Wayback Machine, but there is Wikimedia Commons: Tango icons.
• Silk icons – 1000 icons licenced under Creative Commons attribution license; Silk icons, commons.wikimedia.org – 16x16 PNG icons (some of the earliest uploads there are from Nov 2005)
• Open Clip Art Library – a library used for some MediaWiki icons, mostly not suitable as a source of icons but rather as of clipart; licensing: "we use the Creative Commons Zero license"[1]; TBD: is it in Wikimedia Commons, and if so, add link
• Open Clipart, commons.wikimedia.org
• Fugue Icons, https://p.yusukekamiyamane.com/, Creative Commons (TBD), "3,570 icons are included in PNG format (16x16 pixels) + 352 bonus icons"; "These icons are available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License"; has a nice search tool online
• FatCow "Farm-Fresh" Icons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Farm-Fresh_web_icons
• LibreOffice, e.g. here: https://git.libreoffice.org/core/+/refs/heads/master/icon-themes/elementary/cmd (but there are different themes); lc_ are larger ones; sc_ are smaller ones
• OpenOffice? TBD?

More relevant links:

• Icons by Jimmac, jimmac.musichall.cz (only in Wayback Machine now; TBD: add link)
• Comparison of icon sets, commons.wikimedia.org

Java look and feel icons

Apparently, FreeMind 0.7.1 and earlier used Java look and feel icons for tool icons, e.g. Bold24.gif. See also https://web.archive.org/web/20031216012629/http://java.sun.com/developer/techDocs/hi/repository/.

Limitations

• User icons are not stored in the mind map, so another person who receives an email with a mind map that contains custom user icons does not see the custom icons.
• Node icons are PNG images instead of SVG images, so they scale up poorly upon zooming.

List of built-in node icons

The built-in node icons have corresponding PNG files and per-language texts:

• PNG files in freemind\images\icons: attach.png, back.png, bell.png, bookmark.png, broken-line.png, button_cancel.png, button_ok.png, calendar.png, clanbomber.png, clock.png, clock2.png, closed.png, decrypted.png, desktop_new.png, down.png, edit.png, encrypted.png, family.png, fema.png, female1.png, female2.png, flag-black.png, flag-blue.png, flag-green.png, flag-orange.png, flag-pink.png, flag-yellow.png, flag.png, folder.png, forward.png, freemind_butterfly.png, full-0.png, full-1.png, full-2.png, full-3.png, full-4.png, full-5.png, full-6.png, full-7.png, full-8.png, full-9.png, go.png, gohome.png, group.png, help.png, hourglass.png, idea.png, info.png, kaddressbook.png, kmail.png, knotify.png, korn.png, ksmiletris.png, launch.png, licq.png, list.png, Mail.png, male1.png, male2.png, messagebox_warning.png, password.png, pencil.png, penguin.png, prepare.png, redo.png, smiley-angry.png, smiley-neutral.png, smiley-oh.png, smily_bad.png, stop-sign.png, stop.png, up.png, wizard.png, xmag.png, yes.png
• Icon texts in English, from Resources_en.properties: icon_Mail = Mail, icon_attach = Look here, icon_back = Back, icon_bell = Remember, icon_bookmark = Excellent, icon_broken-line = Broken, icon_button_cancel = Not OK, icon_button_ok = OK, icon_calendar = Date, icon_clanbomber = Dangerous, icon_clock = Time, icon_closed = No Entry, icon_decrypted = Unlocked, icon_desktop_new = Do not forget, icon_down = Down, icon_edit = Refine, icon_encrypted = Locked, icon_family=Family, icon_fema=Females, icon_female1=Female1, icon_female2=Female2, icon_flag = Red Flag, icon_flag-black = Black Flag, icon_flag-blue = Blue Flag, icon_flag-green = Green Flag, icon_flag-orange = Orange Flag, icon_flag-pink = Pink Flag, icon_flag-yellow = Yellow Flag, icon_folder = Folder, icon_forward = Forward, icon_freemind_butterfly = FreeMind, icon_full-0=Priority 0, icon_full-1 = Priority 1, icon_full-2 = Priority 2, icon_full-3 = Priority 3, icon_full-4 = Priority 4, icon_full-5 = Priority 5, icon_full-6 = Priority 6, icon_full-7 = Priority 7, icon_full-8 = Priority 8, icon_full-9 = Priority 9, icon_go=Green Traffic Light, icon_gohome = Home, icon_group=Group icon_help = Question, icon_hourglass = Waiting, icon_idea = Idea, icon_info=Info, icon_kaddressbook = Phone, icon_kmail = E-Mail, icon_knotify = Music, icon_korn = Mailbox, icon_ksmiletris = I am happy, icon_launch=Launch, icon_licq = Nice, icon_list=List, icon_male1=Male1, icon_male2=Male2, icon_messagebox_warning = Important, icon_password = Key, icon_pencil = To be refined, icon_penguin = Linux, icon_prepare=Yellow Traffic Light, icon_smiley-angry = Angry, icon_smiley-neutral = No Mind, icon_smiley-oh = Surprising, icon_smily_bad = I'm not amused, icon_stop = Red Traffic Light, icon_stop-sign = Stop, icon_up = Up, icon_wizard = Magic, icon_xmag = To be discussed, icon_yes = Important
• They are listed in freemind.properties: icons.list=idea;help;yes;messagebox_warning;stop-sign;closed;info;button_ok;button_cancel;full-1;full-2;full-3;full-4;full-5;full-6;full-7;full-8;full-9;full-0;stop;prepare;go;back;forward;up;down;attach;ksmiletris;smiley-neutral;smiley-oh;smiley-angry;smily_bad;clanbomber;desktop_new;gohome;folder;korn;Mail;kmail;list;edit;kaddressbook;knotify;password;pencil;wizard;xmag;bell;bookmark;penguin;licq;freemind_butterfly;broken-line;calendar;clock;hourglass;launch;flag-black;flag-blue;flag-green;flag-orange;flag-pink;flag;flag-yellow;family;female1;female2;male1;male2;fema;group
• There are 71 used node icons; clock2.png, decrypted.png, encrypted.png and redo.png are not used as user icons.

Terminology

node icon

An icon that a user can attach to a node, offered in the left toolbar.

tool icon

An icon that is assigne to a tool or action such s "Save as" or "Unfold".

user icon

A node icon that is not part of the standard FreeMind, but rather is added by a user.

Links

• Search patches for icons: https://sourceforge.net/p/freemind/patches/search/?q=icons
  • Selected patches
    • #84 Connector - arrow type icons -- has different versions of arrow-mode-backward.png, arrow-mode-both.png, arrow-mode-forward.png, arrow-mode-none.png
    • #112 Public domain icons to replace unfree ones -- replacement Bold16.gif, Italic16.gif, etc.
    • #82 Smoothed font style icons -- Bold16.png, Italic16.png and Normal16.png; by Dan Polansky; GPL V2+; created on 2007-12-04
    • #151 FreeMind 0.9.0 Artwork (including node icons) -- node icons from Predrag and other contributors; etc.; originally posted to freemind-developer mailing list on 13 Apr 2009[2] and now replicated in a patch