[Idea] A Fix For The Hard-to-see Dark Smileys

[spoRv]

I love those ones! I'd go with a lighter green for the sick one, and red for the angry one, but that's all!

I wonder if you would like to recreate the ones who are actually black, using your creation as a base. Then, we could have a "fan restored" smilies set!

[BronzeTitan]

I've come across something odd and wonder if you know anything about it . .

The left side is a screen-cap .PNG of the image on the default-theme page (white bkgd.). My paint program reads the capture as "24bit pixel depth, 16m colors / 1 layer".

The right side is a save-as .PNG of the same image from the same page. It reads the downloaded picture as "8bit pixel depth, 256 colors / 1 layer".

What are the original smileys you use? The screen-cap clearly shows an alpha channel at work. Yet, the saved image is using only 256 colors (maximum) - the "black" corners could be defaulted as transparent but there is no other layer for variable transparency as shows the screen-cap.

[spoRv]

This: https://fanrestore.com/images/smilies/smile.png

[BronzeTitan]

Yep, that's the same one. It's transparency (the edge against the background) is different on the default theme as opposed to the dark theme. Yet my previous snags of it show no sign of transparency once in the paint program (and Windows Paint, too). Oh well. 

[BronzeTitan]

I've worked up a few dark smileys (in a repeatable process for the paint program). This is the  "flat" version, even though the background color changes across the face (same as the lite's background). The approach here is just a plain conversion -- no reworking the expressions, as they look good as is. Most of the work is getting each dark smiley to show equally well against both backgrounds.

Here's the test array in both default and dark themes, magnified for examination . .

. . and the actual size to judge clarity . .

Next is a variation of the dark's with a more rounded look (it's quick to do). Then, a conversion of The Blacy. I'm thinking the best way to go there is to simply grab the features (eyes, mouth, whatever) and size/move them to show up in the round background.

[spoRv]

Thanks! Eagerly waiting to see the whole set!

[BronzeTitan]

Before I move too far ahead (and then have to backtrack), I tweaked the face features to come through stronger while working up the rounding effect (now on the far right) . .

[spoRv]

You know what? I'd use The Blacy whole set (tweaked as the last ones), eventually replacing the old boring yellow ones, and the yellow set tweaked for the others. Ready for the task?

[BronzeTitan]

For The Blacy conversion, here's a test of the dark round face with Blacy features resized to fill the face (so we don't get that "hard to see" effect) . .

This "sad Blacy" test used different eyes and mouth in the main set. Some of the other features are just too small or too thin to be show easily. Some of the detailed mouths need tweaking to clear up ambiguity of expression. This test still needs a little balancing, but I thought you'd like to see the direction it could go. 

[spoRv]

Yes, I definitely like that direction! Go for it!