Week 7 recap GSoC 2025 - Add Action Buttons continued with Icons

Intro

This week builds on the work from last week, where I started adding selection action buttons to the floating toolbar in Krita. The focus this time was on integrating more actions and improving the user interface by adding icons to those buttons.

Adding Buttons and Icons

After learning how Selection Tools are triggered through existing UI buttons, the next step was figuring out where those actions originate in the code and how to reuse them in new buttons. I also explored how to visually represent each button using Krita's icon system.

Here’s a simple example of how I added an icon to a button:

d->buttonCopyToNewLayer = new QPushButton();
d->buttonCopyToNewLayer->setIcon(KisIconUtils::loadIcon("duplicateitem"));
d->buttonCopyToNewLayer->setIconSize(QSize(25, 25));

This pattern forms the basis for a reusable template I can follow as I implement additional action buttons across the toolbar.

Finding Icons

Icons play a huge role in usability. Much like how we can recognize cartoon characters by their silhouettes, users often identify tools in a UI by their icons. Good icons make interfaces faster to use and easier to understand.

To find appropriate icons for my buttons, I’ve been referencing these sources:

Krita’s official icon library:
scripting.krita.org/icon-library

Krita source file:
$KRITASOURCE/krita/krita.action

If I couldn’t find an icon there, I searched the codebase for related keywords or looked at how similar tools were implemented with icons. When I exhaust these options, I can also reach out to @Animtim who helps create Krita's custom icons.

Conclusion

Buttons are most powerful when they’re not only functional but also accessible and visually intuitive. This week extends on the work from last week

Next on my list, while I continue adding selection buttons and icons, is to make the floating selection bar movable on the canvas!

Contact

To anyone reading this, please feel free to reach out to me. I’m always open to suggestions and thoughts on how to improve as a developer and as a person. Email: ross.erosales@gmail.com Matrix: @rossr:matrix.org