File: gettext.info,  Node: Icons,  Up: Desktop Entry

17.2.3.1 How to handle icons in Desktop Entry files
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   Icons are generally locale dependent, for the following reasons:

   • Icons may contain signs that are considered rude in some cultures.
     For example, the high-five sign, in some cultures, is perceived as
     an unfriendly "stop" sign.
   • Icons may contain metaphors that are culture specific.  For
     example, a mailbox in the U.S. looks different than mailboxes all
     around the world.
   • Icons may need to be mirrored for right-to-left locales.
   • Icons may contain text strings (a bad practice, but anyway).

   However, icons are not covered by GNU gettext localization, because
   • Icons cannot be easily embedded in PO files,
   • The need to localize an icon is rare, and the ability to do so in a
     PO file would introduce translator mistakes.

   Desktop Entry files may contain an ‘Icon’ property, and this property
is localizable.  If a translator wishes to localize an icon, she should
do so by bypassing the normal workflow with PO files:
  1. The translator contacts the package developers directly, sending
     them the icon appropriate for her locale, with a request to change
     the template file.
  2. The package developers add the icon file to their repository, and a
     line
          Icon[LOCALE]=ICON_FILE_NAME
     to the template file.
This line remains in place when this template file is merged with the
translators' PO files, through ‘msgfmt’.