[GH-ISSUE #1003] Windows tray icon is low resolution #803

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opened 2026-05-05 07:09:41 -06:00 by gitea-mirror · 7 comments
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Originally created by @DSteve595 on GitHub (Jan 5, 2021).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/issues/1003

On high-density displays, it's pretty ugly compared to other apps:

image

Worth noting, the taskbar icon looks good:

image

Originally created by @DSteve595 on GitHub (Jan 5, 2021). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/issues/1003 On high-density displays, it's pretty ugly compared to other apps: ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1078569/103683358-18fecc00-4f58-11eb-9031-7abcc816bc50.png) Worth noting, the taskbar icon looks good: ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1078569/103684344-67f93100-4f59-11eb-95da-323f79c2065a.png)
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@albertony commented on GitHub (Jan 6, 2021):

Do you use the scaling feature in Windows 10? I see some issues related to that, so that may be one cause. See:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3025083/windows-scaling-issues-for-high-dpi-devices. But in your case it seems all other icons are fine, so probably not.

The system tray icons used by barrier are 16x16 pixels. I see that Microsoft recommends including both a 16x16 and a 32x32 icons, so maybe including 32x32 (or changing to 32x32 and let windows scale down to 16x16 when needed) would solve it.

<!-- gh-comment-id:755193363 --> @albertony commented on GitHub (Jan 6, 2021): Do you use the scaling feature in Windows 10? I see some issues related to that, so that may be one cause. See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3025083/windows-scaling-issues-for-high-dpi-devices. But in your case it seems all other icons are fine, so probably not. The system tray icons used by barrier are 16x16 pixels. I see that [Microsoft recommends including both a 16x16 and a 32x32 icons](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/win32/shell/notification-area), so maybe including 32x32 (or changing to 32x32 and let windows scale down to 16x16 when needed) would solve it.
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@DSteve595 commented on GitHub (Jan 6, 2021):

Yes, I'm using scaling.

<!-- gh-comment-id:755279352 --> @DSteve595 commented on GitHub (Jan 6, 2021): Yes, I'm using scaling.
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@albertony commented on GitHub (Jan 7, 2021):

I did a quick test with 32px icons, and that will solve the issue, it seems. Maybe consider also 64px icons, for extreme scaling scenarios, but I have not tested if that works and is necessary.

@p12tic: I could only find 16px versions of the windows tray icons in the repo, do you have higher resolution originals somewhere? Mainly the gui tray icon image files (barrier-connected.png/.xcf etc), but also the client/server icon files (tb_wait.ico, tb_idle.ico etc) would be nice (these are even worse, 16px with only 4 bit colors).

<!-- gh-comment-id:756003814 --> @albertony commented on GitHub (Jan 7, 2021): I did a quick test with 32px icons, and that will solve the issue, it seems. Maybe consider also 64px icons, for extreme scaling scenarios, but I have not tested if that works and is necessary. @p12tic: I could only find 16px versions of the windows tray icons in the repo, do you have higher resolution originals somewhere? Mainly the gui tray icon image files (barrier-connected.png/.xcf etc), but also the client/server icon files (tb_wait.ico, tb_idle.ico etc) would be nice (these are even worse, 16px with only 4 bit colors).
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@p12tic commented on GitHub (Jan 10, 2021):

@albertony: I believe the originals were done by @walker0643, but he/she's nowhere to be found lately.

I actually wonder if it could be the time to redraw the icon, as it seems a little bit ugly to my eyes. It's fine when the project is just being started and there's no guarantees for its success, so it does not make sense to spend a lot of time on graphics. Now we know that a lot of people see this every day.

What do you think? If you agree, I could raise this with the rest of active Barrier developers and spend some effort designing it.

<!-- gh-comment-id:757560769 --> @p12tic commented on GitHub (Jan 10, 2021): @albertony: I believe the originals were done by @walker0643, but he/she's nowhere to be found lately. I actually wonder if it could be the time to redraw the icon, as it seems a little bit ugly to my eyes. It's fine when the project is just being started and there's no guarantees for its success, so it does not make sense to spend a lot of time on graphics. Now we know that a lot of people see this every day. What do you think? If you agree, I could raise this with the rest of active Barrier developers and spend some effort designing it.
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@albertony commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2021):

I actually wonder if it could be the time to redraw the icon

What do you think? If you agree, I could raise this with the rest of active Barrier developers and spend some effort designing it.

Sounds like a really good idea! And then redesign all application icons, such as the main application icon, gui application tray icons, and client/server tray icons - probably make all just variants of the same.

<!-- gh-comment-id:757678615 --> @albertony commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2021): > I actually wonder if it could be the time to redraw the icon > What do you think? If you agree, I could raise this with the rest of active Barrier developers and spend some effort designing it. Sounds like a really good idea! And then redesign all application icons, such as the main application icon, gui application tray icons, and client/server tray icons - probably make all just variants of the same.
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@alourie commented on GitHub (Jan 14, 2021):

I'm using it on Linux 4k and it's really bad looking:
image,

so would appreciate some work on this.

<!-- gh-comment-id:759962468 --> @alourie commented on GitHub (Jan 14, 2021): I'm using it on Linux 4k and it's really bad looking: ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/56583/104554066-95498b80-568b-11eb-8955-8195eee5c1b5.png), so would appreciate some work on this.
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@luccacondratiuk commented on GitHub (Feb 10, 2021):

@alourie, I'm also a linux user, it would be nice, if the tray icons weren't hardcoded... Then it could fit the System Icon theme (if the icon package has an icon designed of course...)

image

<!-- gh-comment-id:776758054 --> @luccacondratiuk commented on GitHub (Feb 10, 2021): @alourie, I'm also a linux user, it would be nice, if the tray icons weren't hardcoded... Then it could fit the System Icon theme (if the icon package has an icon designed of course...) ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/28022104/107525786-f33b9700-6b95-11eb-9a33-da940f6c55cf.png)
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Reference: github-starred/barrier#803
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