Launcher - Add API to allow apps to override the Launcher tile colourisation with a colour of their choosing

[John Lea]

Add API to allow apps to override the Launcher tile colourisation with a colour of their choosing.

Currently the Launcher tiles are tinted using the average colour of the icon. The request is to add a API to allow apps to use any specific colour value to tint their Launcher tile. This could take the form of an extension to the .desktop file (that will work on png and svg) or a tag in the svg of the icon.

[Gary Ekker (gekker)]

Here's an example of where a couple of icons look quite bad on the launcher with the 'icon average colour'. The baidu and hao222 icons below firefox on the launcher on the icons in question.

[Gary Ekker (gekker)]

Here's how they looked before on the unity-2d dash, and how they would appear on a black background.

[Andrea Cimitan (cimi)]

Can't think of a best solution... maybe an extension to the .desktop file (that will work on png and svg) or a tag in the svg of the icon (better)

[Gary Ekker (gekker)]

@cimi, I prefer the .desktop file for working with ISVs who typically provide PNGs.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

This is one possible solution to bug 838050. It would be the least efficient and least reliable of the solutions proposed so far, because it would require work in every application where the launcher has the problem.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package unity - 6.0.0-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity (6.0.0-0ubuntu1) quantal-proposed; urgency=low

  [ Didier Roche ]
  * debian/rules, debian/control, debian/unity-autopilot.install:
    - install new unity-autopilot package, containing autopilot bindings and
      test for Unity
    - add some python build-dep for executing setup.py
    - use dh_python2 and add some python:Depends dep for automatic python
      version detection
  * debian/control:
    - remove gnome-desktop dependency: not needed upstream anymore
    - unity Breaks older lenses due to path change
    - remove libgdu in build-dep
  * debian/libunity-core-6.0-5.install, debian/libunity-core-6.0-dev.install,
    debian/control:
    - version bump in libunity-core, change soname

  [ Matthieu Baerts (matttbe) ]
  * Update apport hook for python3 ; thanks to Edward Donovan (LP: #1013171)

  [ Łukasz 'sil2100' Zemczak ]
  * New upstream release.
    - compiz crashed with SIGSEGV in get_current_slide() from
      unity::BGHash::OnSlideshowTransition() (LP: #889625)
    - Unity is visible on top of fullscreen apps (LP: #734908)
    - App icon on the Unity Launcher lost track of running instance
      (LP: #772063)
    - unity crashed with NameError in reset_unity_compiz_profile(): global
      name 'GError' is not defined (LP: #778470)
    - compiz crashed with SIGSEGV in CompWindow::id() from getPaintMask()
      [compizminimizedwindowhandler.h] from unity::UnityWindow::glPaint()
      (LP: #851982)
    - HUD - Formatting of text in the auto-complete is wrong (LP: #939436)
    - [regression] Launcher is silent to screen reader users (LP: #949448)
    - still some accent issues with unity/nux (LP: #950740)
    - [regression] [precise] 3D apps run much slower under Unity (LP: #987304)
    - No launcher icon or Alt+Tab entry for Gimp windows (LP: #995916)
    - Locked smuxi launcher icon does not indicate smuxi running status
      (LP: #999820)
    - When number of workspaces is set to 1, the Spread no longer works
      (LP: #996604)
    - Much slower OpenGL frame rates with unityshell loaded, than plain compiz
      (LP: #988079)
    - Port to libudisks2 (LP: #1012000)
    - Desktop, Launcher and menu bar still visible when screen locked
      (LP: #886605)
    - Searching in the HUD freezes unity (LP: #1016239)
    - Dragged icons rendered under dash (LP: #1021541)
    - Regression in Launcher keyboard navigation (with Alt+F1) (LP: #1021549)
    - Unity dash is is much slower/laggy after revision 2469. (LP: #1021665)
    - Dash and Launcher - As soon as a user starts dragging a file from the
      Dash, there is a 'flicker' before the Launcher icons that are valid drop
      receptacles re-saturate (LP: #863230)
    - Dash - when a file is dragged from the Dash (Dash home, file lens, or
      music lens) and dropped on a Launcher icon, the Dash should
      automatically close (LP: #865168)
    - Refreshing active blur makes the dash painfully slow (LP: #874230)
    - Open dash, press Alt+f1 - dash remains open (LP: #919209)
    - application reopens itself when last instance is closed from
      windows/application switcher (LP: #926406)
    - HUD D...

[Christian Giordano (nuthinking)]

How can this be manually tested?

[David Callé (davidc3)]

In the .desktop file of any application, you can add:
X-Unity-IconBackgroundColor=#hexvalue