A Complete Guideline For Making elementary Icons Dark Variant

[rizmut]

Problem

Fully supported system-wide dark preference has been being a concern for elementaryOS, thus implying a special need for each element in the operating system to support the campaign. Unfortunately, for icon themes, I didn't find any kind of directions or guideline to do so.

This requirement is actually intended for LibreOffice applications which require relatively has more icon files compared to ordinary elementaryOS application. In LibreOffice, elementary icon themes in dark UI look suboptimal due to loss of readability and contrast. However, this request for instructions/guideline or perhaps sample files is expected to be applicable to elementaryOS in the long term as well.

Here the screenshot of the issue:

Proposal

• Provide a guideline how to make elementary icon in dark variant. This kind of request is not related to symbolic version which has no need for discussion.
• Provide some example files/additional color palettes/etc to do so

Prior Art (Optional)

No response

[fitojb]

The development of a dark variant of the elementary theme for LibreOffice needs an officially-sanctioned, adjusted color palette for dark mode that replaces the darker hues of the light theme with ones that contrast more agains the backdrop. Having this would solve issues in elementary OS’ own UI, like #853.

[rizmut]

My current idea is to make the color more gray like the one in the "find and replace" icon in the screenshot of the post. Can this meet the need for sufficient contrast?

It's really regrettable that in LibreOffice, elementary as the default theme for GTK-based desktop doesn't have a proper dark variant while other desktop counterparts already have it all.