Hi all.
Some weeks ago I asked here on BA forum if it was possible to customize the Blender 2.8 icons. After the answers, with a bit of study, application and tests, I was finally able to get the result.
I know that the choice of the new icons for Blender 2.8 has been argument of heated discussions. I waited for the official final release and then compared the new UI with the 2.79 one. Apart from other important changes, the problem is that I love colors and don’t like modern minimalist trends.
So, after learning how to compile Blender, and understood which are the important files, this is the effect: a fully working Blender 2.8 with the colorful icons of 2.79 (when possible):
Unfortunately, up to now there is not a direct way to change the icons from within the program, so here a brief how-to:
If you already know how to compile Blender from sources, you can skip to point 2)
The official Wiki present a Quick Setup Guide (https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Building_Blender/Windows). By carefully following it, you will able to compile the latest Blender from sources. I tried the method and succeeded the first time.
(This works for Windows, for other OSes there are similar instructions on the Wiki)
Test if it works correctly. You should see the UI with the new monochromatic icons.
The time-consuming task has been to (very) carefully adapt the old icon sheet to the new environment. I fully respected the note of the original author: Icons within Blender must be used only for functions they were designed for in order to maintain GUI’s internal integrity, to keep good UX under control and to avoid confusion.
For the task I found very useful the references provided by mkbreuer here on BA forum (Icon Reference Sheets 2.79/2.80)
When possible, I substituted the monochromatic icons of 2.80 with the colorful ones of 2.79. For new features that don’t have previous correspondences I left the monochromatic icons.
You can download the modified icon sheet here:
If the forum/browser gives a long, strange name, rename the file as blender_icons.svg
Substitute the file with the same name in the folder …\blender-git\blender\release\datafiles.
For safety, delete the contents of the folders …\blender-git\blender\release\datafiles\blender_icons16 and …\blender-git\blender\release\datafiles\blender_icons32
Run the python script blender_icons_update.py present in the folder …\blender-git\blender\release\datafiles. I used Pycharm Community Edition to avoid permission or path errors, but you can use any working Python IDE/console.
If you find problem with the script, I attach the new content of the two folder …\blender-git\blender\release\datafiles\blender_icons16 and …\blender-git\blender\release\datafiles\blender_icons32
Now the final step. From the DOS console cmd.exe, go to …\blender-git\blender and write: make full
In this way you will compile Blender with the new icons.
After the compilation, go to …\blender-git\build_windows_Full_x64_vc15_Release\bin\Release, and you will find the file blender.exe. Run it, and voilà Blender 2.80 (2.81 if you download the latest sources), with the old familiar and colorful icons.
To avoid unwanted modified colors by the program, go to Edit/ Preferences/ Themes/ User Interface/ Icon Colors and set them all to White. Check if all the icons are in the correct places. Some examples:
I surely hope that some developers will finally provide some simpler methods to use custom icon sheets, but for the moment this can be a solution.
You can ask here if you find problems in applying the modified icon sheet.
Thank you for this guide! I like the old icons too!
But all major programs went through this development once.
And in the end, they had a mixture of both.
Simple icon but with color accents are maybe a good compromises for everyone? …
Hi mkbreuer.
Your reference sheets have been precious, because they allowed to exactly compare each single icon between the two versions, and maintain the same function. And, by staring for hours at rows and columns of icons, I am still more convinced that colors actually are really important for distinguish them at glance, with less mind and eye efforts. But, considering the endless threads and comments about the issue, I am convinced that this depends on the perception characteristics of each single user. For this reason I hope and suggest that Blender will allow a simple method to use custom icon sheets.
Thank you for putting up the effort to build this. I remember when I went code deep for some things that couldn´t be handled directly on the icon sheet, but yeah, basically overriding it should yield the same results… You didn´t described the process completely, tho. For a new experimental users there are a lot of terminal commands to check and do before re-compile. Will you address that as well?
Hi David.
As we discussed earlier, it seems that Blender developers have been able to streamline some processes, and the Wiki documentation reflect them.
My how-to guide, with the Wiki link, describes exactly all the steps necessary to build Blender from sources (and libraries) and use my modified icon sheet in Blender 2.8.
I hope that some fellow users will try, and let us know if they succeed.
I also hope that the presence of different complete icon sheets could motivate some developers to create a more direct way to swap them, in order to avoid the necessity to compile for standard users.
HI.
Some people at BlenderNation are reporting problems in correctly running the script blender_icons_update.py (point 4 of my guide). To overcome these problems, I edited the original post here and attached two zip files, with the content of the two folders modified by the script. You only have to unzip the files in the relative folders, and recompile Blender.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for the heads up.
You could’ve mentioned to them the folders where the .svg icons are going to be compiled, needs to be emptied first -before compilation- This process is mentioned in my training for the “Change Blender UI (2.79)”
I mentioned -in our previous conversation- that a software engineer -expert in developing software for oil rig excavations- guided me into that process. If that is a reference
<Yogata!> Now it´s easier to do on 2.8.
But my guess is some people did reported what I mentioned before.
I´m glad it all got to a good port.
Actually I already put that caution at the end of point 3. But it seems that some people had problems in running the script, getting various Python error messages. Now they can directly use the zip files to fill the icon folders, and then recompile.
I’m finding that, as you say, collecting documentation about some aspects of the Blender UI is as difficult as finding new hidden oil fields.
This is amazing!! Today I was casually trying 2.49 for the fun and the retro vibes and I saw it had the ability to change icons by JUST replacing the png file!! I hope they make them themable again.
but the story with the programmer is true. He even pointed me why -if blender doesn´t change coding structure- with A, B,C choices for making more reliable software now a days, then Blender can´t grow like it could. I could say more about the code, because we spent weeks on this. So whenever I approach a function issue on Blender, I do it with respect, because…really you don´t want to know what´s going on behind curtains. I hope all of that gets straightened after version 3. (at least)…
I sincerely don’t know exactly how the revision of Blender patches work, but we also asked exactly about that work authored by gsrb3d recently on devtalk forum (https://devtalk.blender.org/t/i-adapted-the-2-79-icon-sheet-for-use-in-blender-2-80-it-works-how-to-manage-the-licence/8892/), and we did not receive any answer. What exactly does it mean that it needs revision? Because it has been submitted more than 4 months ago, but the silence seems have fallen over.
That one or a similar solution would be ideal for the normal user to be able to change icon sheet without the need for recompile.
It seems like it was already being reviewed, and the dev doing the review asked for some changes in the code as usual, but the patch owner seems to have disappeared since then and didn’t finished it…
Old colorful icons for 2.8 - its very very good news , but please make a video on youtube, because some people do not understand the instructions, we need a video guide. Thank)
i have a question… i wanted to use the current stable release (2.82a i think it is), but the ‘make update’ commands and such downloaded alpha 2.90. do you know how i tell it to get the other release version? thanks!
thanks!