macOS 12.4 Icon format change

[Ptujec]

It seems like Apple is not using the icns format anymore for keyboard layouts. I don't know if it is realistic but it would be nice if Ukelele could allow the new format … whatever it may be … maybe a pdf? It adjusts automatically to day and night mode. 

[Sorin Paliga]

I have not checked whether Apple is still using icns files, but my century-old icns files attached to a keylayout file, even if put separately in the /Library folder, are correctly displayed.

On 17 May 2022, at 10:42, 'Ptujec' via Ukelele Users <ukelel...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

It seems like Apple is not using the icns format anymore for keyboard layouts. I don't know if it is realistic but it would be nice if Ukelele could allow the new format … whatever it may be … maybe a pdf? It adjusts automatically to day and night mode. 

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<CleanShot 2022-05-17 at 09.4...@2x.png><CleanShot 2022-05-17 at 09.4...@2x.png>

[Sorin Paliga]

Is Ptujec related to the town of Ptuj < Poetovio in Slovenia? Just for my curiosity.

On 17 May 2022, at 10:42, 'Ptujec' via Ukelele Users <ukelel...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

It seems like Apple is not using the icns format anymore for keyboard layouts. I don't know if it is realistic but it would be nice if Ukelele could allow the new format … whatever it may be … maybe a pdf? It adjusts automatically to day and night mode. 

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[Tom]

Apple has replaced all flag icons with 12.4, and a number of users have complained about this in the Apple Discussions.  I hope Ukelele will continue to provide the old flag icons as part of its download so people who want to make a custom layout can include them if they want to.

[Sorin Paliga]

We have just discussed the issue on the Romanian mac forum:

https://macforum.ro/t/chat-topic-vol-4/3105/655

On the one hand, this seems logical, as the keylayout must not necessarily be associated to a state flag, this is politics. On the other, the flag, not necessarily national, adds life to a keylayout, otherwise it become an ugly greyish icon. 

Note that the custom keylayouts, with a custom icns file associated, are OK. Have a look (it is the last macOS updated yesterday).

On 18 May 2022, at 15:11, Tom <thge...@gmail.com> wrote:

Apple has replaced all flag icons with 12.4, and a number of users have complained about this in the Apple Discussions.  I hope Ukelele will continue to provide the old flag icons as part of its download so people who want to make a custom layout can include them if they want to.

On Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 3:51:34 AM UTC-4 Cattus Thraex wrote:

I have not checked whether Apple is still using icns files, but my century-old icns files attached to a keylayout file, even if put separately in the /Library folder, are correctly displayed.

On 17 May 2022, at 10:42, 'Ptujec' via Ukelele Users <ukelel...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

It seems like Apple is not using the icns format anymore for keyboard layouts. I don't know if it is realistic but it would be nice if Ukelele could allow the new format … whatever it may be … maybe a pdf? It adjusts automatically to day and night mode. 

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[Gé van Gasteren]

On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 2:11 PM Tom <thge...@gmail.com> wrote:

Apple has replaced all flag icons with 12.4, and a number of users have complained about this in the Apple Discussions.

I think it’s a good thing that they got away from the flags, but they should have gone all the way and made the icons customizable to general users.

As it is now, one has to select a keyboard layout based on text, which is very user-unfriendly and in fact un-Mac-like.

At least they could have let the user put a tag color on it like with files in the Finder, so one can more easily choose from multiple keyboard layouts.

[Sorin Paliga]

Gé

Right, this is what I wrote: the decision to not associate a keylayout to a national/state flag is entirely correct, mainly because for some cases this is impossible, e.g. for Old Italic, Old Church Slavonic or even for contemporary languages. Perhaps they are planning to remove associations like English U.S., English UK, English Irish etc. etc.., where the only difference would be the presence/absence of symbols like € or ₤ etc. 

The good news is that the custom keylayouts do continue to display the chosen icns file, so Apple simply removed the icns files, and the keylayouts display a greyish symbol and the language associated to it. 

Perhaps they are planning to add a customisable icon, be it a national flag or not, like when logging in. In my very specific case, the only system keylayout activated is U.S. Combining, but it is black-and-white anyway. 

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[Gé van Gasteren]

On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 3:37 PM Sorin Paliga <sorin....@gmail.com> wrote:

In my very specific case, the only system keylayout activated is U.S. Combining, but it is black-and-white anyway.

Sorin, you read my thoughts! I was wondering which of all those layouts on your list was the Apple one, as it's (most probably) still required to have at least one of those on the list.

Where did you get that US Combining? I don't find it in the list…

[Sorin Paliga]

On 18 May 2022, at 16:45, Gé van Gasteren <gevang...@gmail.com> wrote:

Where did you get that US Combining? I don't find it in the list…

OOps… it is staying there for years, if it is not in the sys files, then I downloaded it from somewhere! Frankly, I do not remember, I thought it is a part of the system!

[Gé van Gasteren]

On Tue, May 17, 2022 at 9:42 AM 'Ptujec' via Ukelele Users <ukelel...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

It seems like Apple is not using the icns format anymore for keyboard layouts. I don't know if it is realistic but it would be nice if Ukelele could allow the new format … whatever it may be … maybe a pdf? It adjusts automatically to day and night mode. 

If you start a new layout using Ukelele's command "New from current input source" you'll "inherit" the icon.

These icons are not a kind of image files, but bundles of several images: big, small, day-mode, night-mode, plus a mask.

I haven't tried this utility recently, but I guess one can create icns files as before with it:

https://github.com/lemonmojo/IconComposer2x/releases

Alternatively, you can use an online convertor like this one:

https://cloudconvert.com/png-to-icns

Note: It seems this one doesn't "compose" but just converts 1 image into the series needed for icns. But if you try it out, I'd be happy to hear your experiences.

[Gé van Gasteren]

OOps… it is staying there for years, if it is not in the sys files, then I downloaded it from somewhere! Frankly, I do not remember, I thought it is a part of the system!

Tom would know this better, but my guess is that it was once part of a previous OS version and that it was kindly left alone by various updates of your system.

[Sorin Paliga]

Yes, the icns files associated to my files were converted from a jpg or png file, there are apps which may do this, no major problem, it works like a charm. 

I have no idea how to add an icns file to an existing system keylayout which now has a generic greyish icon. I did not notice this new behaviour, it was reported in the Romanian mac forum, as most of my keylayouts are custom keylayouts, and these do preserve the associated icns file. 

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[Tom Gewecke]

On May 18, 2022, at 9:54 AM, Sorin Paliga <sorin....@gmail.com> wrote:

I have no idea how to add an icns file to an existing system keylayout which now has a generic greyish icon. 

For those which the Ukelele download Resources folder provides the old flag icon, you can just use that as your custom layout. 

[Sorin Paliga]

Yes, of course, but I guess you mean to replace the existing keylayout (with a greyish icon) by the older keylayout. 

I referred to adding an icon to an existing keylayout without replacing the new keylayout: keeping it and just adding an associated icon.

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[Tom Gewecke]

On May 18, 2022, at 10:43 AM, Sorin Paliga <sorin....@gmail.com> wrote:

 

I referred to adding an icon to an existing keylayout without replacing the new keylayout: keeping it and just adding an associated icon.

But you’ve never been able to modify anything about the layouts provided by Apple.  You have to duplicate it and edit it to change the mapping or icon.

[Sorin Paliga]

Yes, agreed. But the overwhelming majority of users would not do that, they would need something simple and outright.

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[Tom]

I find it hard to imagine them letting users modify system files like those, especially with all the added protections they have added in the last few years.  We may be lucky they still allow custom layouts.  In iOS there's no way at all to add a custom hardware keyboard layout.

[Gé van Gasteren]

On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 5:04 PM Tom <thge...@gmail.com> wrote:

I find it hard to imagine them letting users modify system files like those, especially with all the added protections they have added in the last few years.  We may be lucky they still allow custom layouts.  In iOS there's no way at all to add a custom hardware keyboard layout.

I have a feeling (or wishful thinking) that this is an intermediate stage, maybe Apple testing the waters, and then they’ll come up with an answer.

E.g. something like my suggestion of letting users put a "tag color" on each layout in the list.

That grey color sure isn’t Apple’s style – I hope.

[W.P.J. Rietbroek]

Dear all,

U.S. Combining was my modest contribution. I am sorry I have not put it up somewhere for others to use.

I attach it here in the hope that it will prove useful. I quote from the manual (included in the .zip file, as well as keyboard diagrams for both ISO and ANSI hardware keyboards):

WHAT IS THE U.S. COMBINING KEYBOARD LAYOUT FOR?

The U.S. Combining keyboard allows users of OS X to key so-called ‘combining characters’ easily: these characters (mostly accents and other character modifiers) have zero width of themselves, and they are therefore positioned above, below, or through the preceding character, or they bridge two characters. The range of characters-with-accents available on modern computing systems, which use the Unicode Standard, is large, but in essence limited. (These characters-with-accents are also called ‘precomposed characters’.) With combining characters, however, you can combine any diacritic in Unicode with any alphabetic character in Unicode, which enormously increases the possible number of combinations. This mechanism also makes it possible to type and display combinations of characters and diacritics hitherto not supported except in highly specialised software.

Have fun!

All the best,

Pim Rietbroek

[Sorin Paliga]

O, so you are the author?

I think I downloaded it from somewhere, though! I do not remember the details.

I guess the attached file is newer.

Best

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On 18 May 2022, at 15:51, Gé van Gasteren <gevang...@gmail.com> wrote:

OOps… it is staying there for years, if it is not in the sys files, then I downloaded it from somewhere! Frankly, I do not remember, I thought it is a part of the system!

Tom would know this better, but my guess is that it was once part of a previous OS version and that it was kindly left alone by various updates of your system.

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[W.P.J. Rietbroek]

Yes, I am the creator of U.S. Combining.

Version 2.3 which I just sent is the newest, but even so dates from 2015. It behaves very well on systems up to and including Big Sur, I am informed by my colleague, who has used it on her system (I am still on Catalina on my own machines).

On the matter of the icon format Apple has chosen some years ago (the one which flips when changing from light to dark modes and vice versa): I have not been able to produce an .icns file in that specific format. I do not even know if that format is .icns still, or some other. I am sure someone with XCode abilities will be able to produce one that works like the newer Apple keyboard icons, but I tried a couple of years ago and got stuck, due to inexperience with XCode – and an unwillingness to invest oodles of time to produce such a tiny thing.

I am hoping someone on this list knows of a tool to convert .eps, or .svg, or .ai, to this format. It would be so nice to emulate Apple’s icons!

All the best,

Pim

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[Gé van Gasteren]

@Pim: Thank you for that keyboard layout!

I am hoping someone on this list knows of a tool to convert .eps, or .svg, or .ai, to this format. It would be so nice to emulate Apple’s icons!

.icns is like a bundle of pictures, but I don’t expect the formats you mention to be supported. I think the simplest way is to display them on your screen in various sizes and take screenshots. Or at least make one for the largest size: 1024x1024.

Then drag those pictures into an .icns file, e.g. with Icon Composer 2x:

https://github.com/lemonmojo/IconComposer2x/releases

@Sorin: This leaves the question: How is it possible that the list of keyboard layouts in your "flag menu" doesn’t include any built-in keyboard layouts ?!

[Sorin Paliga]

On 20 May 2022, at 16:52, Gé van Gasteren <gevang...@gmail.com> wrote:

@Sorin: This leaves the question: How is it possible that the list of keyboard layouts in your "flag menu" doesn’t include any built-in keyboard layouts ?!

I wondered too, and that is why I initially guessed U.S. Combining belongs to the system! My only logical explanation is that the bundle includes the info that it is a sys-blessed U.S. keylayout (it is displayed in that area before activating it), and the system is satisfied with this trick/cheat.