[siMac]

I'd like to see application skins for the adobe apps in Shapeshifter.

With the recent SS2 update making dark themes a possibility, the chop and hack way Adobe seem to have layed out their interface/pallettes really shows up (this can also be seen in the, now largely redundant, CandyBar).

What I'd be interested to know is if it is possible for application skins that could 'fix' these issues for Photoshop etc? It would probably be a lot of work to theme these apps, but it would be nice to have the option to fix these 'holes' in their interfaces.

The problem seems to be that the Adobe apps use their own checkboxes/radio buttons etc that are made for grey backgrounds, while other parts use system elements - hence the ugly, ugly conflict.

Alternatively, could Shapeshifter be told, rather than to exclude the Adobe apps from being themed (as mine are at the moment), to use a different theme instead?

I'm not meaning to criticise the wonderful new SS release, I'm just "running some ideas up the flagpole" as they say in management-talk.

Damn us Shapeshifter users, eh? Always wanting more.

[cube3]

It's a hard enough task skinning all these extra apps already, adding more to the mix will just make it far too time consuming. It's already an issue with people if you don't skin apps, lets please not make even more work for the themers or we will never get themes out.

[siMac]

I think you misunderstand me, I'm not asking for other people to theme the apps for me, I'm asking for the option to make these apps themeable.

I can find my way around Themepark well enough to make my own Adobe app skins for any theme I liked enough (or one of my own making) - I've already added app skins to other people's themes for my own use. In fact, anyone who uses Photoshop and wants it skinning has access to the tools (PS itself, plus Themepark can be run for free) to make the skin, so the themers themselves aren't obliged to do anything extra.

I take your point about app skins though. People complain when every available app skin isn't themed in the guiKit they just downloaded for free, that took hours of someone's time. Nobody is obliged to theme anything for you, although personally I think iTunes and Safari are the bare minimum.

[cube3]

I understand where you're coming from mate, the problem I forsee though, is as soon as these options are available, people expect that app to be skinned.

Smeger is working on an intelligent compromise to these issues I can assure you, they have been brought up already in the beta forums.

[siMac]

Intelligent compromise eh?

A more specific exclude list would work, ie. for such and such apps theme only the menubar, menus and window headers, leave the rest alone.

I'm sure smeger will crack it, glad to hear it's being looked at.

[MacDog]

I would just be happy if the text could be altered in Adobe apps. Right now, dark themes can't be used because the text stays black... quite annoying.

Basically, I'm stuck using SIRO, Xmetal, Alumite and similar colored schemes simply so I can work in Adobe apps (not that those themes are bad, mind you).

[NetworkShadow]

You'll have to see what Jason says about Adobe Apps. All the iLife apps are easy because the way the interfaces are made, but I'm really not sure how Adobe apps would work.

[smeger]

The problem with the Adobe apps is that they store their resources in the resource-fork of the executable in Mac OS 9 style. ShapeShifter has rudimentary support for these, but it's not enough support to actually be usable. This is a technique that Apple has deprecated, and it's not recommended for new application development, and it IS recommended that existing apps transition away from it ASAP.

Microsoft Office uses this same technique, hence it has the same problem. Office also uses the nasty pink background trick for transparency, which would make skinning it even nastier. Yicky.

It's actually possible to give particular apps their own theme using ShapeShifter 2.0, but it's not supported, and there's no user-interface for doing so. You'd have to edit com.unsanity.shapeshifter.plist, and as soon as you applied a new theme, your changes would disappear. If you're clever enough to figure it out, congrats! I won't post instructions because it's not even remotely simple or user-friendly to do.

[siMac]

Originally posted by smeger:
If you're clever enough to figure it out, congrats!

Well, I had a look at said .plist, and no, turns out I'm not clever enough.

Glad to know it's possible though - maybe it could be implemented in a future update?

Thanks again for all the hard work, you rule!