[barney ntd]

I've just uploaded the first beta of Pattern Picker, a new plug in for the system colour picker which allows you use tiled pattern colours. It has lots of features, so have a good play and let me know what you think!

Download it from: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/b.hilke...n%20Picker.dmg

P.S. Users of Spot Picker or Border, please upgrade to the latest (beta) versions for best results.

Barney.

[barney ntd]

What, no response? Has no-one tried it?

Here is a quick screenshot of pattern colours applied to text. I did this in TextEdit, and you can do the same in almost any Cocoa app



Hope this persuades you all to give it a try!

Barney.

[hoopz]

OK, I'll bite.

I'm not sure I'm your ideal beta tester because I use numerous third party hacks which may break your plug-in, notably some .APEs including Shapeshifter (exclusively running DXB), Windowshade, and ClearDock.

I have a dual 2.5 G5 with a GeForce 6800 Ultra video card, running 10.4.1.

I followed the instructions for installation, and rebooted for good measure.

I first tested it in PandoCalendar, a freeware calendar. This was unsuccessful. Upon selecting a texture, the system would beep at me and the texture did not take.

Next I tested it in the latest version of OmniGraffle. It worked perfectly. May I suggest that you post some screenshots from this app using your plugin, as I think they would be quite a bit more exciting than the text-based shots you originally posted.

Next, I fired up System Preferences>Desktop & Screensavers. When selecting the option center, you can use the Color Picker to select the color of the desktop surrounding the selected picture. Unfortunately, your plugin failed to work with this. Although it allowed me to enter a texture (unlike PandoCalendar), the selection simply didn't take. Repeated fiddling with this caused System Preferences to 'unexpectedly quit'.

That's what I have so far. Keep on at it! It's a pretty nifty plugin.

[hoopz]

Oh, forgot to mention my major UI concern: when clicking on the Texture tab, the resulting menu should persist until you click on a selection or click outside the menu. Currently if you click that tab and then move the mouse, the menu disappears, so one has to click and hold in order to select a texture.

Also I should mention that after my initial reboot, all my .APE settings were disabled, ie it came up standard Aqua. A subsequent reboot set everything right. I have no idea if this was due to the plugin or just a random .APE hiccup, but I thought I'd mention it FYI.

[barney ntd]

Thanks hoopz, I'll have a look at the points you mention. Some apps convert all colours to RGB, which means Pattern Picker will never work. Generally, cocoa apps work best.

The menu is meant to stay up when clicked, but defining your own menus in cocoa is a real pain, and it doesn't always work. More debugging for me.

Barney.

[undotwa]

I'm using OS 10.3.9 and it doesn't work. Does ColorPicker require Tiger?

[barney ntd]

Ok, new version is up!

- Fixed two causes of unexpected quits (hope that's all!)
- Fixed menu not sticking when clicked
- Should now work on 10.3
- Several minor improvements

All beta testers please upgrade. Same download as before.

Here's another screenshot: a quick pie chart in Pages, using one texture colourised several ways.


Works in Keynote too!

Barney.

[undotwa]

Originally Posted by barney ntd

Ok, new version is up!

- Fixed two causes of unexpected quits (hope that's all!)
- Fixed menu not sticking when clicked
- Should now work on 10.3
- Several minor improvements

All beta testers please upgrade. Same download as before.

Here's another screenshot: a quick pie chart in Pages, using one texture colourised several ways.


Works in Keynote too!

Barney.

OK, the texture picker now shows up in the Color Picker, however whenever I try to use the texture picker in TextEdit, TextEdit crashes (10.3).

[barney ntd]

OK, fixed the 10.3 problem (and I've actually tested it a bit this time!). Same download.
Here's a screenshot from Chartsmith: