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CarbonG4 · 03:54 PM

Hey everyone, I'm proud to annouce the release of my first theme, Watercolor. If you're interested head over to my page and grab a copy:

Select a page:
http://mypage.siu.edu/bmuhlach/themes.html

Edit: I've posted Watercolor 1.1 which addresses all bugs addressed in this forum and also includes a Wallpaper I threw together. The 621 mirror will be updated later tonight.

Thanks and enjoy
-Carbon

[EDIT: Updated thread title, at Carbon's request. Or rather, I tried to; although the change stuck, the threat appears to still use the old title... -Millennium]

mrfrost · Dec 18, 2002, 05:29 PM

very nice CarbonG4, like I said before..it's hard to believe that this is your first theme.

Now excuse me while I relaunch Chimera

EDIT : the tabs are the slickest I have ever used !

CarbonG4 · Dec 18, 2002, 05:35 PM

Heh, thanks man... glad to hear someone likes it

macmike42 · Dec 18, 2002, 05:45 PM

First an formost, for all you wimps out there: it works perfectly. (ie I logged out and back in, re-launched all my apps, no hiccups)

Now, my mini-review.

Holy fancy new trousers Batman! I didn't think I would like this theme (I only downloaded it because, you know, gotta catch 'em all!). I was totally wrong. I mean, it looks great in the screenshots, but they really don't do it justice (the rest of CarbonG4s desktop is too neat to look "real"). Plus I'm not a huge fan of flat themess. However, this theme is just really nice to look at. One of (the many) really nice touches is the default button effect. You have to see it to believe it. Very creative given the constraints. Max: something along those line in Classic Platinum would make it 'not so ugly'. My final critera for OS X themes: how does it look in apps with hardcoded Aqua widgets? To my surprise, ProjectBuilder still looks fantastic! The ever-so-slight beige really goes well with those mini-tabs. Word, on the other hand, probably needs some adjusting. Then again, Word doesn't look so good with the default Aqua, so what do I expect.

All in all, I give it a 9.5. I honestly like this more than Raphsodized, which is the only other non-Aqua-ish scheme I've used long-term. (I'm sure he knows, but Max, this is a compliment, not an insult. Plus I really, really like Aqua to being with.)

One bug: the toolbar button has no state of any kind. It should have at least a 'pressed' state.

mrfrost · Dec 18, 2002, 05:54 PM

Originally posted by macmike42:
One bug: the toolbar button has no state of any kind. It should have at least a 'pressed' state.

I completely agree, it would be very nice to have a 'pressed' state.

The 'pressed' state of the scrollbar arrows are amazing though, very nice effect.

This is actually the first colored theme that I might use on a daily basis. As suggested in the other thread some alternate colors (I love gray themes *hint*) would be very nice I think.

I think this theme has made my top 3 (Milk still at #1)

torifile · Dec 18, 2002, 06:05 PM

Dang, carbon, I had been able to resist the allure of theming until I saw this one.

Now, I've got to figure out this whole madness and hope nothing goes wrong. Maybe I should wait til the weekend so that I can learn some about this process before I jump in. Good work, though. It looks great!

Gatorzx2 · Dec 18, 2002, 06:06 PM

Wow Carbon, you did a terrific job on this theme.

One bug I have noticed: In the graphite option the toolbar buttons pressed state is still aqua.

CarbonG4 · Dec 18, 2002, 06:12 PM

doh! thanks for the heads up Gatorzx2 -- i completely overlooked the graphite elements in the Localized.rsrc file....

well please bear with me, not sure when i'll get around to updating that but it's at the top of the update to-do-list now.

as for the toolbar widget, i'll look into it -- i had a lot of difficulty early on with that. maybe i can get a more attractive solutoin figured out for the next update.

Thanks for the feedback guys, keep it coming.
-Carbon

macmike42 · Dec 18, 2002, 06:15 PM

Hmm. It seems that the toolbar button actually *does* have a pressed state. The problem is that the color is the same as the foreground color of the righthand side of the titlebar, so it only shows up when you click it while the window in question is in the background. Not sure what I would suggest to 'fix' it, though.

ambush · Dec 18, 2002, 06:55 PM

'tis a nice port, gj.

CarbonG4 · Dec 18, 2002, 07:02 PM

I've posted a full screenshot for those who are interested but don't want to install it quite yet:

http://mypage.siu.edu/bmuhlach/images/watercolor.jpg

-Carbon

mrbiiggy2 · Dec 18, 2002, 07:22 PM

Thanks for making the theme, looks awesome! Can't wait to install it.

SwarmyCurve · Dec 18, 2002, 08:52 PM

I agree that this is an excellent first time theme for you, Carbon.

HorseyBoy · Dec 18, 2002, 08:52 PM

This is a lovely theme, Carbon, and the attention to detail is fantastic. I haven't used a whole lot of themes because I've always found that they're simply not as complete and integrated as Aqua (for the obvious reason that Apple has a huge head start here). But I can see Watercolour as a viable replacement to Aqua, and that's high praise indeed.
Two questions from the screenshot you posted:
1. The text in your menu bar is white (and looks great) while mine is black. How did you do that?
2. How did you make your iTunes window transparent? I have no idea how to do that.
Also, my "About this Mac" box has not changed (using Duality MS4, which might be the problem).
Thanks for your efforts.
HorseyBoy

CarbonG4 · Dec 18, 2002, 09:05 PM

HorseyBoy: iTunes is transparent due to WindowShadeX by Unsanity, which gives you many other options such as rolling up your windows as in the classic Mac OS. The reason your About Box isn't updated is most likey because you have not restarted or logged out since you installed Watercolor -- lemme know if otherwise. The same goes for the menubar I am guessing, there is no reason for it to still have black text if you've installed the theme using Duality (though it has not been tested with the MS4 ThemeStep yet -- I suppose it something may be going on there but I doubt it)

Sorry I couldn't be of much help, I think all you need to do is reboot your system to see all of the changes... if others are seeing similar issues with Duality MS4 installs let me know please.

-Carbon

tiffer17 · Dec 18, 2002, 09:19 PM

great job carbon!
any chance that we will be seeing the other color variations?

oh and the text on the menubar is still black for me too using Duality MS4
it works great using MS3 though

HorseyBoy · Dec 18, 2002, 09:23 PM

Hi Carbon.
I switched to Duality MS3 and the menu bar text did indeed go white except for the menu bar clock, which still uses black text (weird, I know). The "About this Mac" box is still not changed. I might run AquaFix and try again.
HorseyBoy

CarbonG4 · Dec 18, 2002, 10:27 PM

tiffer17 & HorseyBoy: thank you for the follow-ups on Duality 4 MS4 -- very interesting...

I don't know that there is much I can do about this, I'll talk with some people later on and see if I can resolve this or if it's entirely being caused by ThemeStep.

(HorseyBoy: The AboutBox should install w/ Duality 4 MS3, but as you said it did not for you... lemme know if you get that figured out)

-----------------------------------------
I've been working on the 1.1 update -- man did those Localized buttons (view, path, back/forward) need a *ton* of work. Hehe, if you recall I originally did the Localized.rsrc file at 3:30am... it helps doing them over on a sober mind

There were more things wrong with those buttons than right, but I have resolved every last one of them now. I've also got proper "press-states" on the Toolbar widget in both Carbon and Cocoa applications now.

Look for the update shortly -- just putting the finishing touches on the Localized.rsrc file and then I may go to work on a Wallpaper.

Later
-Carbon

HorseyBoy · Dec 18, 2002, 11:20 PM

Hi Carbon.
I did manage to get the "About this Mac" box changed. Duality MS3 didn't want to do it, so I tried using ThemeChanger and it worked just fine.
For some reason, I still can't get the menu bar clock to use white text (like the rest of the menu bar). Maybe I'll wait for Watercolor 1.1 and try again.
Everything else is working great.
HorseyBoy

Gatorzx2 · Dec 18, 2002, 11:25 PM

For what it is worth my menu bar icons and the clock text remain black for me too. I may be wrong but usually when a theme has custom menu bar icons (like white ones) they are usually packaged in the theme. I don't see them in the theme package Carbon.

KidRed · Dec 18, 2002, 11:37 PM

Carbon- Any chance of you doing the tan version that was posted in your orignal thread? I'd love to see that one.

Dace · Dec 19, 2002, 12:04 AM

Carbon didn't provide a white clock text...nor did he provide the white menu tiffs. The clock's text color and the menubar's text color are not related. they're independant of each other. Someone should release a haxie or app to be able to change the clock's text color.

Gatorzx2 · Dec 19, 2002, 12:09 AM

Originally posted by Dace:
Carbon didn't provide a white clock text...nor did he provide the white menu tiffs. The clock's text color and the menubar's text color are not related. they're independant of each other. Someone should release a haxie or app to be able to change the clock's text color.

In Carbon's most recent screenshot, his menu bar icons and the clock text are both white. It looks really good and I was assuming it was part of the theme.

CarbonG4 · Dec 19, 2002, 12:11 AM

HorseyBoy: sorry i forgot to address the menu extras (clock, volume, etc) comment -- those are not controlled by the theme and therefore should remain black. The only way to have them appear white is by modifying the resources inside the menu extras themselves.

I did not intend to package white menu extras with my theme, but I have done the PPP and Battery monitors in white for use on my system. The clock I'm using is not the default menu extra clock, it is PTHclock -- which lets you choose the color, it's a better program anyway and I recommend you try that out (search for it on versiontracker.com). I believe there is a nice set of white menu extras that Max Rudberg modified and packaged with his XP Luna theme. Perhaps in the future I'll throw some white menu extras in with my theme package but for now you can just grab 'em from the XP theme if you want them.

Sorry for the confusion.

As for the color-alternative --- I'd really like to do the Silver/Gray one but it's not all that simple. You can't simply do a 75% desaturation on the blue elements because they will appear too close to the 100% desaturated inactive-states of the current Blue version of the theme. I'm still thinking about it, and maybe a posible easier solution. I'll have more on this later on, perhaps if someone would like to co-op w/ me on this and do one of the more popular color-variations that would be helpful until I have more time. Either way, I'm sure the Silver/Gray version will come in time. Enough of this rambling... I'm getting ready to package up Watercolor 1.1 and upload it, keep your eyes open.

-Carbon

CarbonG4 · Dec 19, 2002, 12:28 AM

Ok, Watercolor 1.1 has been posted on my university page:

http://mypage.siu.edu/bmuhlach/themes.html

[ps - how do i change the thread name? i tried editing first post in this thread but it didn't take the new name referencing the 1.1 update... do i have to start a new thread with each update to Watercolor?]

goMac · 12:46 AM

I'll check out the problems. MS4 is on hold right now because of a very odd problem with ThemeStep that is occuring outside the ThemeStep engine.

Dace · Dec 19, 2002, 12:46 AM

Originally posted by CarbonG4:
Ok, Watercolor 1.1 has been posted on my university page:

http://mypage.siu.edu/bmuhlach/themes.html

[ps - how do i change the thread name? i tried editing first post in this thread but it didn't take the new name referencing the 1.1 update... do i have to start a new thread with each update to Watercolor?]

Maybe u should ask the moderators?

What's so hard about packaging white menu tiffs?? It is possible to do. Max did it...Izawa did it. So what's your reason for not doing it?

Brien · Dec 19, 2002, 12:49 AM

Just start a new thread, or ask DH or a mod.

CarbonG4 · Dec 19, 2002, 12:58 AM

Dace:
What's so hard about packaging white menu tiffs?? It is possible to do. Max did it...Izawa did it. So what's your reason for not doing it?

It's not whether it's hard to do or not, it is rather easy... my point was (and I agree with Max on this issue) that there are too many third-party menu extras and menulings out there that will remain black by default so it would just be rather pointless and inconsistent to provide the white menu extras. I use 3 menu extras at the momment, so I took the time and made them white for use with this theme. There's no way I could account for every individual person's Menu-extra setup, nor for the third party ones... therefore I choose to leave it up to the user to get/make the white menu extras if he/she wants them to be white. I also noted the fact that Max (and now Izawa) both have already made the default menu extras white and packaged them with some of their themes (ie XP Luna) and suggested that as a source for white menu extras if the user does not or cannot make them on their own.

Anyway, once again I'm sorry for the confusion or "laziness" in this respect, but it simply isn't very practical to take the time. If it becomes a life or death situation and you cannot get your hands on the white menu extras then maybe I'll do them at a later time ;P

swiz · Dec 19, 2002, 12:59 AM

Originally posted by Dace:

Maybe u should ask the moderators?

What's so hard about packaging white menu tiffs?? It is possible to do. Max did it...Izawa did it. So what's your reason for not doing it?

The blue menu bar version of SimpleX has them too.

Gatorzx2 · Dec 19, 2002, 01:15 AM

Using ThemeChanger, I first installed DSX (which uses white menu bar icons and white clock text). Then I loged out/in. Then I applied the Watercolor theme and then logged in/out again and "viola", it kept the white menu bar icons and white clock text.

Dace · Dec 19, 2002, 01:25 AM

Originally posted by Gatorzx2:
Using ThemeChanger, I first installed DSX (which uses white menu bar icons and white clock text). Then I loged out/in. Then I applied the Watercolor theme and then logged in/out again and "viola", it kept the white menu bar icons and white clock text.

It would've been easier if you had simply added the white menu tiffs from XP Luna and the white clock text to the Watercolor theme. Modified Watercolor's info.plist to install the new files and voila!

Sarc · Dec 19, 2002, 01:35 AM

hey G4 ... what's that IM app. you are using there ???

Sarc

CarbonG4 · Dec 19, 2002, 01:42 AM

Sarc: that's Adium - www.adiumx.com

jambajooz · Dec 19, 2002, 02:12 AM

Originally posted by CarbonG4:
Heh, thanks man... glad to hear someone likes it

like it??? its the best theme ive ever seen! im using it right now and planning to for a long while. Exact taste of my color and design...its like you read my mind

thanks Carbon!

Andrew 8808 · Dec 19, 2002, 02:16 AM

Just installed it. Very nice!! Especially for your first theme!

J_Anderton · Dec 19, 2002, 02:43 AM

Wonderful Carbon. It's really great. I've been waiting for this theme to come out for OS X for SO long...FINALLY!

I really would like to see the [***] or [START] for the menu icon instead of the Apple icon.

Please.

24...Tuesdays

Beer Penguin · Dec 19, 2002, 03:35 AM

At the Log In screen, the Shut Down button is not replaced by Watercolor. Also, the scrollbar is really hard to distinguish because it's so white.

And I'd be willing to help work on an Olive version, if I'm correct in assuming that all I'd have to do is pull out the pxm resources and change hue in photoshop.

swiz · Dec 19, 2002, 03:43 AM

Way to got Carbon, this release version has come so far and it is a ver ytight theme for anyone, especially a first timer

Now you know what everyone expects from you. Yikes.

CarbonG4 · Dec 19, 2002, 05:34 AM

Beer Penguin
And I'd be willing to help work on an Olive version, if I'm correct in assuming that all I'd have to do is pull out the pxm resources and change hue in photoshop.

Knock yourself out if you're still interested... just please contact me first with the file once you finish or do all that you can on it.

----------------------------------------

Swiz, heh indeed... don't expect another theme from me until the tools get better (I like what I'm hearing about the Jan/Feb '03 scheduled ThemePark updates though.

Thanks
-Carbon

CarbonG4 · Dec 19, 2002, 05:45 AM

In reference to the Olive variation... I just played with an image real quick in Photoshop, looks like it might involve both a hue and slight desaturation to get the right MS colors, lemme know what you think if you end up working on it... otherwise no big deal.

And for those who are wondering, yes I do sleep ... on occasion.

::carbon::the::insomniac::

Bombia · Dec 19, 2002, 07:37 AM

Lovely theme!

Thanks!

bOOzo · Dec 19, 2002, 07:44 AM

I just tried the theme and I must say that it's very impressive and extensive, especially for your first theme! Good job!

Mediaman_12 · Dec 19, 2002, 09:34 AM

I may have a go at the silver. Don't count on anything though, I once attempted a theme. I started, then noticed all the dam repeats in the extras.rsrc and quickly lost interest.
But as doing the Silver version won't require changing all the object's I will give it a go.

kmkkid · Dec 20, 2002, 12:24 AM

Originally posted by CarbonG4:
In reference to the Olive variation... I just played with an image real quick in Photoshop, looks like it might involve both a hue and slight desaturation to get the right MS colors, lemme know what you think if you end up working on it... otherwise no big deal.

And for those who are wondering, yes I do sleep ... on occasion.

::carbon::the::insomniac::

The "ergonomic" (the one your using), "silver" and "olive" colours are colours I added, not default MS colours (Original watercolor was only the bright blue). And yes the olive is a hue change and a bit of desaturation.

Chris