I believe that the reason the pins are colored this way is to avoid copyright infringement. A Gramps user screen-capturing the view to share on the net will know that they should not publish Red Pin maps. ('cuz Microsoft could afford to hire all the lawyers in the world.)
And of course, the contributor creating the view modes made it to suit their purposes. It is a gift to the rest of us.
When I created the geography views, gramps was only used on Linux.
It is a free project. I could have removed the non free maps, but at the beginning, OSM maps were not already complete for many countries. This is the reason.
Here is a screen capture after swapping in renamed @bjpcorp PNG files…
the shadows might be a bit too pale/transparent :
gramps-geo-mainmap.png Green pin
gramps-geo-altmap.png red pin
gramps-geo-birth.png (+)
gramps-geo-death.png (-)
gramps-geo-marriage.png (x)
in Windoze, a properly scaled pin with the standardized name should have been dropped into these folders (I just stayed with the 48x48 so Gramps scaled them instead.):
C:\Program Files\GrampsAIO64-5.1.5\share\gramps\images\hicolor\16x16\actions
C:\Program Files\GrampsAIO64-5.1.5\share\gramps\images\hicolor\22x22\actions
C:\Program Files\GrampsAIO64-5.1.5\share\gramps\images\hicolor\24x24\actions
C:\Program Files\GrampsAIO64-5.1.5\share\gramps\images\hicolor\48x48\actions
The set did not include the SVGs yet. So these were left unchanged:
C:\Program Files\GrampsAIO64-5.1.5\share\gramps\images\hicolor\scalable\actions
gramps-geo-mainmap.svg Green pin
gramps-geo-altmap.svg red pin
gramps-geo-birth.svg
gramps-geo-death.svg
gramps-geo-marriage.svg
The originals in the Gramps project GitHub Repository:
https://github.com/gramps-project/gramps/tree/master/images/hicolor/scalable/actions
I really liked your idea of themes… and to add Map Icons to the Event/Subject/Place.
Maybe it could be something added to the Types and Roles?
E.G.,if you have an Event for a vessel or on a vessel, you can add a ship icon to the type of place, so all places with the type of “Ship” or “Vessel” got an icon of a ship, or all Events with the type of a battle got a “big red bomb” as an icon (if that was what the user wanted)?
It might be as simple as letting the user chose the Icons for each “Type” or “Role” when they chose the Role or Type for an object/subject.
By simple I do not mean the programming effort needed to create it, I know it will be a huge amount of work to get something like this to actually work.
A little button to the right of the field in the GUI, maybe?
And a setting in the Themes setting where the user can choose a template/theme, but that can be override by the individual setting in the GUI itself?
We’re 3 years after @bjpcorp Barrie contributed custom map pins for the Geography views. This was to be an experiment to see how hard it is to have aesthetic improvements adopted. It may be not possible for artists to contribute without a developer as a sponsor.
gramps-geo-altmap.png non-free map provider red pins
gramps-geo-mainmap.png free map provider green pins
gramps-geo-birth.png birth events
gramps-geo-marriage.png marriage events
gramps-geo-death.png death events
0012497: Development of a distinctive Gramps icon theme stencil
I can’t believe it’s been three years already! I’m still not happy with my custom map pins. While adapting a few icons, I noticed some flaws and inconsistencies, which sent me searching for the style guide. That led to a deeper dive into icon sets, a much bigger task than I expected. I started an Icon Stencil repository for Gramps on GitHub to keep track of my work, but it’s incomplete, and I ran out of time. Completing a style guide would make it easier for designers to contribute and help streamline change requests.
The following pages in the wiki may also be helpful:
There is no mention about map pin design, so you have some freedom to suggest a style.
Do you think that Ball Head pins would be more space efficient on the maps than Push Pin style for the Red and Green pins?
Whatever style considered should be in conjunction with the use of icons. So the Ball Head pin style is the most promising.
I saw that Mac Family Tree uses straight pins planted in a kind of golf-style hole, with a drop shadow. I find it makes them readable and easily findable. the fact that some are superimposed also adds to this readability, rather than using a particular type of pin when a place has several types of events
The number must, I suppose, correspond to the number of events in the location.
