Menu Icons in Mint 18.3/Cinnamon

[foberle]

Hi:

I've noticed when editing the menus that it is quite easy to set an icon for any menu entry, but setting an icon for a category (e.g. Accessories, Internet, etc.) is much more finicky. Some icons that can be successfully used for an app are not recognized for a category. Are there different requirements for these (e.g. certain types, sizes, etc.)? Looking at the ones that worked versus the ones that didn't work didn't lead me to any conclusions and I couldn't find anything in the help.

So I was wondering if anyone can let me know a) the answer and/or b) where these specs are located.

Thanks in advance.

[roblm]

Read the info under Mint 18.3 Cinnamon Menu and Panel Editing, which is found in my last post in this topic:

viewtopic.php?f=208&t=124153

Go down to the section Changing the Menu Category and Application Icons:

[foberle]

Wow! Thanks for pointing me to that.

I guess I have a lot of reading for today. My initial impression is that all of your comments on this subject could be the basis for a tutorial with a bit of editing, but hopefully I can learn a bit more about Cinnamon while going through it all. Like you, I'd rather have a more compact, bare-bones menu; I also believe that bare-bones doesn't have to mean unattractive.

Again, thanks.

[Ozo]

Icons are not needed to have a nice looking menu, a theme will do that. Here is my menu stripped to the bone. I seldom use the menu anymore except when adding launchers to my dock or desktop. I shutdown from the panel applet so that is stripped from the menu. Favorites are also stripped as they are all on the dock. The panel is stripped too. The panel is free of active launcher icons due to the use of Workspaces which currently has numerous programs active.

The Menu and Panel are large because I use double scale. You should see the dock which are much larger than the panel icons.

[roblm]

Here is a menu similar to Ozo's but compacted further. The Shutdown Applet was added to the panel but I replaced it's dull gray default icon with a more vibrant red one. Also, the panel has a color gradient which matches the menu.

menu-purple-4.png

[Ozo]

Ozo,

Here is a menu similar to yours but compacted further. The Shutdown Applet was added to the panel but I replaced it's dull gray default icon with a more vibrant red one. Also, the panel has a color gradient which matches the menu.

I have that icon on the panel applet (Shutdown). This theme has a colored panel too but I have the Transparent Panels extension installed. I do not get the red icon on the panel itself though and most of the time that icon is a very tiny size anyway. Looks great on the themed popup. The tiny panel launcher is orange in the photo due to the theme highlight not the red icon.

The tiny Shutdown launcher suits my current minimalist panel however, but it is that way purely by chance.