[Chet Ript]

OK, gonna try this again....if IE dosn't crash first.



This is a mock-up of the theme I'm starting to work on. Right now there is some stuff in there that I'm not sure is possible at this time (at least for my theming-newbie self ) Making the text in the Menu/Window bars white is my main concern. Synotic, you explained this a while back but I don't have a 10.0 extras.rcrs available or theminator....and I probably wouldn't know what to change if I did. I'm also not sure if it's possible to have a gradiant in the window "status" bar like I do in the mock-up. And.....I'm still trying to figure out this whole premultiplying thing. I know this is old and redundant for some but like I said...I'm new at this. If anyone could point me toward a good explanation of premultipling (trust me, I've looked) and the tools I need (photoshop plugs?) that would rule. Thanks for your help or suggestions/comments. Later.

[ 11-06-2001: Message edited by: Chet Ript ]

[ 11-06-2001: Message edited by: Chet Ript ]

[Toyin]

Originally posted by John Tewksbury:
<STRONG>


I have no idea if my Titanium theme is one of the great themes that you are referring to, but it is now available on the Themination website as an actual .theme file that will work in MetamorpheX3.1 so you can use it virtually without hacking your Mac. Click here and check it out...
http://at%20www.chook.net/themeshop/skins.htm#theme5

</STRONG>

Thanks John, that's a great theme. So that's 1. Still waiting for a few others. It's nice to have a choice.

[+ spiral +]

I'm really hung up about pre-multiplying alpha masks. I've been reading these threads since they started and have most of the other components of theming under control. Could you (anyone, some people, everyone) give a short how-to, start to finish, about how you create masks for your widgets and get them from photoshop so they are premultiplied and back into sprocket? Pretend i am a total idiot (not hard). I'm also really curious what other people are doing as i've not heard much about it. Thanks.

(aaronhax0r i sent a private message via this board becuase i had no email for you.)

[v0id7]

We should start trying to port some of the good Kaleidescope themes. I think BBX Mercury, Bychrom!, or I/OS X Graphite would look badass in OS X! I don't know anything about theme editing for OS 9 but if its similar to X i shouldn't be too hard to port them would it?

[Groovy]

Void ,

Just help me firgure out HOW to fix that damn scroll bar bug first : )


read the "Riddle me this" thread to see what I'm talking bout.


It really has me stumped : (


later


Groovy

[Sine]

Chet Ript
Cool looking theme! I like that blue in there.

[SS3 GokouX]

Originally posted by v0id7:
<STRONG>We should start trying to port some of the good Kaleidescope themes. I think BBX Mercury, Bychrom!, or I/OS X Graphite would look badass in OS X! I don't know anything about theme editing for OS 9 but if its similar to X i shouldn't be too hard to port them would it?</STRONG>

I tried porting ByCrom! but I have no idea how to change the text color for menus or title bars (I don't have, nor know where to find, theminator). Since the scheme is originally so dark, text is nearly impossible to read. However, I did get the scrollbars working... but that's about it :/

The big problem: I can't make the uber cool title bar, since in OS X you can't have a background just for the text of a title bar, only the full thing

If your curious of how bad my port looks, click here. This is the kaleidoscope scheme, with some very minor changes.

[Chet Ript]

Originally posted by SS3 GokouX:
<STRONG>

I tried porting ByCrom! but I have no idea how to change the text color for menus or title bars (I don't have, nor know where to find, theminator). Since the scheme is originally so dark, text is nearly impossible to read. However, I did get the scrollbars working... but that's about it :/

The big problem: I can't make the uber cool title bar, since in OS X you can't have a background just for the text of a title bar, only the full thing

If your curious of how bad my port looks, click here. This is the kaleidoscope scheme, with some very minor changes.</STRONG>

Yeah, that's the problem I'm having. I have theminator but I don't think it's the latest one. It won't even open a 10.0 extras.rsrc file. So...I'm kinda stuck until someone chimes in with a solution or.....ehhhheemmm...sends me an edited extras file so I can just build off of that!!! Hell, I'm not even sure if that's where you have to change it. Regardless, I'm coming up with a version of my them that doesn't depend on the dark blue menu and title bars, although I don't like it nearly as much. hasta.

[ehemmete]

First of all... Chet Ript that theme looks great! please let us know when it is complete!

Also a random theme question why have all the themes I can find done away with dividers in menus? I really liked those, Is it a theming issue or a themer's pref?

--So I went back to Aqua and oops... no menu dividers. So never mind. I guess the pin striping fooled me. So I guess my new question is... can they be added?

[ 11-07-2001: Message edited by: ehemmete ]

[ 11-07-2001: Message edited by: ehemmete ]

[mrtew]

Originally posted by Sine:
<STRONG>Well there are 20 files so far that are changed in Sosumi.</STRONG>

This kind of all encompassing theming is getting dangerous and raising the bar for everyone! When all these files are replaced by MMX and then another theme is selected that doesn't have them they are left behind in each computer forever. I still have a Xenogenesis login screen from when I installed that theme a few weeks ago, and now my HiToolbox has been written over by another theme (glad I backup my entire drive a lot!)
Non-hackers who innocently install themes are going to end up with little pieces of different themes all over their computers and will never be able to get rid of the mismatched look. I loved doing my Titanium theme but I have no desire to get into icons or login screens and would not assume that people want my trash can or finder icon on their computers just because they want my theme and I don't want all my files written over by different themes and I don't want to constantly back dozens of files up and keep replacing them manually to keep the look I want just because I want to try people's themes.
I think we need to either have a gentleman's agreement that themes will only include a .rsrc file, or somehow fix MMX so that it will offer an option to only install parts of a theme. What does everyone think?

[mogura]

Just a thought...has anybody tried to stop the default button, as in the Cancel and OK buttons from throbbing. Is it possible? I know they are only on the screen for a few seconds before you click one, but I find they burn their presence in my brain for a short time there after.

p.s. some of these features kinda remind me of that movie, Electric Dreams...

BTW, there is some excellent work going on here.

[Sine]

Originally posted by Chet Ript:
<STRONG>


Yeah, that's the problem I'm having. I have theminator but I don't think it's the latest one. It won't even open a 10.0 extras.rsrc file. So...I'm kinda stuck until someone chimes in with a solution or.....ehhhheemmm...sends me an edited extras file so I can just build off of that!!! Hell, I'm not even sure if that's where you have to change it. Regardless, I'm coming up with a version of my them that doesn't depend on the dark blue menu and title bars, although I don't like it nearly as much. hasta.</STRONG>

Use Sprocket.. it was posted earlier in this thread.

[Sine]

Originally posted by John Tewksbury:
<STRONG>

This kind of all encompassing theming is getting dangerous and raising the bar for everyone! When all these files are replaced by MMX and then another theme is selected that doesn't have them they are left behind in each computer forever. I still have a Xenogenesis login screen from when I installed that theme a few weeks ago, and now my HiToolbox has been written over by another theme (glad I backup my entire drive a lot!)
Non-hackers who innocently install themes are going to end up with little pieces of different themes all over their computers and will never be able to get rid of the mismatched look. I loved doing my Titanium theme but I have no desire to get into icons or login screens and would not assume that people want my trash can or finder icon on their computers just because they want my theme and I don't want all my files written over by different themes and I don't want to constantly back dozens of files up and keep replacing them manually to keep the look I want just because I want to try people's themes.
I think we need to either have a gentleman's agreement that themes will only include a .rsrc file, or somehow fix MMX so that it will offer an option to only install parts of a theme. What does everyone think?</STRONG>

The installer for my theme comes with a de-installer in case anyone wants to ditch it and go back to Aqua. A lot of the problems is either people manually trying to remove them and don't know where to look.. or there is a bug in MMX.

[Mediaman_12]

Originally posted by John Tewksbury:
<STRONG>

This kind of all encompassing theming is getting dangerous and raising the bar for everyone! When all these files are replaced by MMX and then another theme is selected that doesn't have them they are left behind in each computer forever. What does everyone think?</STRONG>

This is a problem for MMX. It neads a way of grabbing all the Aqua resorces and making it into as theme when it's first installed (It neads to gram them because it thay distro'd it with the Aqua resouces Apple legal would come down on 'em like a ton of bricks). It then neads to automaticaly reload the Aqua stuff in between you switching themes (i.e. you have theme A loaded, and you then decide to use theme B, MMX would also switch to Aqua first before Theme B to try and make sure that no parts of theme A where left in use).

[mrtew]

Originally posted by Mediaman_12:
<STRONG>
This is a problem for MMX. It neads a way of grabbing all the Aqua resorces and making it into as theme when it's first installed (It neads to gram them because it thay distro'd it with the Aqua resouces Apple legal would come down on 'em like a ton of bricks). It then neads to automaticaly reload the Aqua stuff in between you switching themes (i.e. you have theme A loaded, and you then decide to use theme B, MMX would also switch to Aqua first before Theme B to try and make sure that no parts of theme A where left in use).</STRONG>

I don't think that would do it either. I certainly wouldn't want the Aqua resources back!!! It's just that I want to keep MY toolbox etc and still change themes (rsrc's) Maybe if MMX would just grab what ever is there when it is started up though... kinda like a big fancy undo button!!!

[starfleetX]

Okay, guys. I'm pissed off now.

I finally decide to start working on my old theme again, and I soon discover that Apple never fixed the bug in the widgets for Cocoa windows! Don't know what I'm referring to? See below:



See how there's a ghosted X over the other widgets? I assumed that between 10.0.4 and 10.1 someone would realize that the window manager is drawing the alpha for the close widget over the minimize and maximize ones.

Oh well, Apple doesn't have to worry about this with their "candy" buttons.

[edit] By the way, this only affects "background" windows in Cocoa apps. All others work fine, AFAIK.

[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: starfleetX ]

[mrtew]

Originally posted by starfleetX:
<STRONG>Okay, guys. I'm pissed off now.
See how there's a ghosted X over the other widgets? I assumed that between 10.0.4 and 10.1 someone would realize that the window manager is drawing the alpha for the close widget over the minimize and maximize ones.
</STRONG>

Not only that, but it is using the alpha for the close widget from the BLUE theme even when you are in GRAPHITE. All three of the buttons are the same in my theme, but are completely different from blue to graphite and I couldn't figure out what was going on until I just read your post... I had the same ghosts around my inactive buttons but they were from the other theme!

[Sine]

Yeah and not only that. Cocoa apps don't recognize the "mouseover" effect of the "toolbar" button if you added one. But carbon does.

[Phoenix1701]

&lt;plug type="shameless"&gt;
For anyone needing to premultiply images with their masks, may I recommend Premultiplier, a little program (for OS 9 and OS X) that I created for exactly that purpose. Just drag and drop, and it premultiplies automatically.
&lt;/plug&gt;

[malvolio]

Well, I'm quite enjoying the new themes that are coming out, and I'm happy to see more & more folks getting into the act (Hi, John Tewksbury & Chet Ript!)
About the issue of themes that install a whole bunch of elements in different places, and the occasional disasters that some folks have experienced - some folks just don't read!
That being said, I think it would be a good idea to include a banner with every theme, in 64-point bold typeface, saying something like:
THIS AIN'T KALEIDOSCOPE! YOU ARE SCREWING AROUND WITH YOUR SYSTEM RESOURCES, AND VERY BAD THINGS CAN HAPPEN IF YOU AREN'T CAREFUL!!!

[Phoenix1701]

Hey Chet... while I'm not sure if this will work, try the following...

Open your Extras.rsrc theme file in ResEdit. Look for clr# resource ID 384. It should be mostly zeros, with a few 7FFF's thrown in. Now, here's the thing; if it ends on the line with offset 000118, with two bytes (four characters of hex) blank at the end, this will almost certainly work. Replace the entire resource with the following:

0000002F0000000000007FFF7FFF7FFF
0000000000007FFF7FFF7FFFFFFFFFFF
FFFF7FFF7FFF7FFF0000000000007FFF
7FFF7FFF0000000000007FFF7FFF7FFF
000000000000FFFFFFFFFFFFA8F5A8F5
A8F5FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFA8F5
A8F5A8F5FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
A8F5A8F5A8F5FFFFFFFFFFFF00000000
0000000000000000FFFFFFFFFFFFA8F5
A8F5A8F5FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
FFFFFFFFFFFFA8F5A8F5A8F5FFFFFFFF
FFFFA8F5A8F5A8F5FFFFFFFFFFFF0000
00000000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
FFFFA8F5A8F5A8F5FFFFFFFFFFFF0000
00000000FFFFFFFFFFFFA8F5A8F5A8F5
7FFF7FFF7FFF000000000000FFFFFFFF
FFFFA8F5A8F5A8F5000000000000

[edit: you'll need to remove the carriage returns before you paste, sorry...]

Note that I've made a few assumptions (though I might be getting ahead of myself since I'm honestly not even sure these colors are correct or will work):

• The text on bevel buttons, push buttons, popup buttons, window titles, and the menu bar will all be white.
• The text in windows, for selected menu titles, and for icons in the Finder will be black.
• The frontmost tab in a tab panel will have white text; the other tabs will have black text until pressed, at which point their text will be white.

Seem reasonable? I'm in OS 9 right now, but I'll reboot into OS X momentarily to test this out and fix any problems I find (assuming they're not too horrible)... good luck!

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: Phoenix1701 ]

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: Phoenix1701 ]

[Phoenix1701]

You guys are just gonna love this... as if we didn't already have enough reasons to hate the Extras.rsrc format...
I tried out those changes I made, and there IS some good news: the menus, for example, work perfectly, so you can have your nifty black menu bar no problem. Unfortunately, the clock and ASM (among other things) seem hard-coded to black, so they might not work very well.
The text color settings for title bars, bevel buttons, push buttons, and popup menus work perfectly too -- in Carbon. In Cocoa, however, they are completely ignored. Yet another inconsistency...

[Sine]

Originally posted by Phoenix1701:
<STRONG>&lt;plug type="shameless"&gt;
For anyone needing to premultiply images with their masks, may I recommend Premultiplier, a little program (for OS 9 and OS X) that I created for exactly that purpose. Just drag and drop, and it premultiplies automatically.
&lt;/plug&gt;

</STRONG>

I HAVE and still do recommend it. It speeds the process up TONS.

[Chet Ript]

Originally posted by Phoenix1701:
<STRONG>You guys are just gonna love this... as if we didn't already have enough reasons to hate the Extras.rsrc format...
I tried out those changes I made, and there IS some good news: the menus, for example, work perfectly, so you can have your nifty black menu bar no problem. Unfortunately, the clock and ASM (among other things) seem hard-coded to black, so they might not work very well.
The text color settings for title bars, bevel buttons, push buttons, and popup menus work perfectly too -- in Carbon. In Cocoa, however, they are completely ignored. Yet another inconsistency...</STRONG>

Thanks Phoenix! I'll give it a shot this weekend sometime. That sucks about the Cocoa apps. I still don't understand why they don't both share all the same resources. I'm already coming up with an alternative to the inversed menu bar appoach. I too was concern about the clock, you confirmed that one....

[aaronhax0r]

Which of the clr# resources are used? If I recall there are three clr# resources: 2, 3 and 384. Resources 2 and 3 are raw color lists, resource 384 is a text color list. Are resources 2 and 3 actually used anywhere? Are they worth writing an editor for? I'm going to write an editor that can properly manipulate resource 384 and was wondering if I should add support for raw color lists or whatever you call the format 2 and 3 are in.

[hengx]

Chet Ript

That's one of the nicest layout I've ever seen for OS X (MacOS 9 as well) - simple and nice ;-)

[fmalloy]

I would love only the following: a theme which is identical to the default Apple interface only without the stupid horizontal gray lines that run thru the windows and the menus. These are really annoying - I think its like one of those optical things where you still see the lines even when you close your eyes

Is this easy to do?

Hi boys,
I tried several hours today to get the Platinum X theme to OS X. To prevent other people from trying so wrong as I did, my problems:
- Some Resources are new in 10.1 - e.g. for the Double Scrollbars
- lots of resources changed in size and in type. For example there are some resources that are about 300000 in resedit and in the 10.1 theme they are about 500 or so.

The 2nd is the biggest one. There are from what I've seen at least about 40 resources that changed in type and size. However, if they stay wrong and you just add the new ones from #1 you run into my trouble.

Any suggestions to get akos theme, platinum x and those old stuff over to x.1?

Steve

[Jim Paradise]

I haven't used any of the themes yet but am insanely impressed by all of the work that the likes of Sine, Groovy, and company are putting into these. I must say that Chet Ript's theme is the most appealing to me right now... I love the colour scehme and the layout from that one pic... I have a question for all you themers, though... is it possible to have themes only work for one users (so say I wanted to use Chet Ript's theme but didn't feel like making someone like my sis have to learn a new interface) *and* how easy is it to switch back to Aqua (because I happen to like Aqua a lot too)? Keep up the work, guys! This is truly great stuff!! ^.^

[israces]

Chet Ript's theme reminds me of the old IBM OS/2 interface. Anyone else notice this??

[sandman]

With Sprocket d4, I can't seem to open the ppat files. How can I edit them if I can't see them?

[squiggy]

Originally posted by aaronhax0r:
<STRONG>Which of the clr# resources are used? If I recall there are three clr# resources: 2, 3 and 384. Resources 2 and 3 are raw color lists, resource 384 is a text color list. Are resources 2 and 3 actually used anywhere? Are they worth writing an editor for? I'm going to write an editor that can properly manipulate resource 384 and was wondering if I should add support for raw color lists or whatever you call the format 2 and 3 are in.</STRONG>

They're all the same format, actually. I think the templates Dave wrote just special case resource 384 since it was the original theme clr# resource.

What'd be cool is a generic list type editor that you could plug-in modules (XML?) to define the different formats for tdat, tinf, tmet, plut, clr# et al.

[aaronhax0r]

Originally posted by squiggy:
<STRONG>
What'd be cool is a generic list type editor that you could plug-in modules (XML?) to define the different formats for tdat, tinf, tmet, plut, clr# et al.</STRONG>

Actually that's exactly what a TMPL resource (template) is. In fact the templates Dave wrote work just fine. The only reason I'm considering writing a clr# editor is because not everyone might have Resorcerer.

[starfleetX]

Originally posted by sandman:
<STRONG>With Sprocket d4, I can't seem to open the ppat files. How can I edit them if I can't see them?</STRONG>

Sprocket isn't supposed to see them. Sprocket only edits pxm# resources. Get ResEdit or Resorcerer to edit the ppats.

[numac]

Hey!!

Where are we with the new theme creator/editors??!! X-Themination doesn't seem to have anything happenning at this point...And Theme World apparently still hasn't found a permanent homesite yet (its last post was Nov. 2!!!). Even this thread appears to have been abandoned!

So, what's happenned to/with the themes that everyone seemed to be working on as well?? Sosumi is out but none of the other, more colorful themes appear to have shown up anywhere...is anything going on???

If you have info, email me @ EMAIL][email protected][/EMAIL] Thanks!!![

[barbarian]

&gt;Sprocket only edits pxm# resources. Get ResEdit or Resorcerer to edit the ppats&lt;

True right now, but Sprocket could edit ppats or just about any other resource. If you take a look at the author's source he's made it plug-in-able. I know enough to know this, but not enough to do anything about it... Sprocket is a very cool open source project, potentially a nice reseditor. I'm suprised more folks haven't downloaded the source and started fiddling.

[Sine]

I know two features sprocket needs. A search feature and for it to support scroll wheels

[Synotic]

Originally posted by numac:
<STRONG>Theme World apparently still hasn't found a permanent homesite yet (its last post was Nov. 2!!!). Even this thread appears to have been abandoned!</STRONG>

We basically have the location down already... we make one last move.. but it is doubtful. We are looking for someone just to add themes... go around the web, look for them, and add them. Some of the stuff you'll have to do are... make the file into a .theme if it is not already, make a preview for it (even if it has a preview with it, I want all of the themes to have a standard preview, like I did at http://homepage.mac.com/ThemeWorld/), upload the files through FTP, and then finally log-in to a cgi interface and add the theme update to the site. E-mail me at [email protected] if you are interested.

[mattstoton]

X Themination is coming along. We will be posting more of our members themes (some of which can't be found elsewhere). ThemeShop will first go beta then public beta. The problem is that our devs our busy with other things so we no need people who can help more. Finding experienced devs that have time isn't easy. We should have a public beta by December 10... or atleast a semi-solid date for it.

[Sine]

Originally posted by Synotic:
<STRONG>We basically have the location down already... we make one last move.. but it is doubtful. We are looking for someone just to add themes... go around the web, look for them, and add them. Some of the stuff you'll have to do are... make the file into a .theme if it is not already, make a preview for it (even if it has a preview with it, I want all of the themes to have a standard preview, like I did at http://homepage.mac.com/ThemeWorld/), upload the files through FTP, and then finally log-in to a cgi interface and add the theme update to the site. E-mail me at [email protected] if you are interested.</STRONG>

Synotic I noticed the links to the dev apps are broken.

[carver]

There's a new theme out (DSX), it's beta but holds some promise. You can find it here:
http://www.desktopper.net/izawa/

[Sine]

Originally posted by carver:
<STRONG>There's a new theme out (DSX), it's beta but holds some promise. You can find it here:
http://www.desktopper.net/izawa/</STRONG>

I didn't see a OS X theme here..

[Toyin]

Originally posted by Sine:
<STRONG>


I didn't see a OS X theme here..</STRONG>

http://www.desktopper.net/izawa/DSXbeta091.sit

Cool theme. A bit dark for my tastes but they were able to change the menu fonts white

[mattstoton]

Cool theme Would like to see some more yellow in it, though.

A little update on ThemeShop: We are getting close to having a Public beta. The core is done. We will support Duality. Umm, I think thats it. Maybe we should have a contest to guess the release date

[Sine]

Originally posted by mattstoton:
<STRONG>Cool theme Would like to see some more yellow in it, though.

A little update on ThemeShop: We are getting close to having a Public beta. The core is done. We will support Duality. Umm, I think thats it. Maybe we should have a contest to guess the release date </STRONG>

October 2002

[pathogen]

I really like the DSX theme, but... being beta and all... when I switch back to Aqua, the DSX buttons are still there in finder windows, and the clock text is still white, and the little widgets at both ends of the some of the scrollbars are still black...

Help! I want to switch these back to the Aqua default (eventually... right now I'm still in DSX and loving it) without having to reinstall the whole OS. MetamorphX (most recent version) is still living those things behind.

Is it a 10.1 thing?


Hey, also... Why is it that Iridium Quicksilver doesn't show up in my MetamorphX theme list anymore? It keeps telling me there is a duplicate already, but it never lists it in the rescan after I choose to add it... I love that theme to pieces too.

[mikemako]

I would really like a theme that leaves the buttons,scroll bars, and apple logo aqua blue, but changes the close/minimize/restore buttons to the graphite color and makes window edges square instead of rounded. I do not expect this would be difficult to make if it isn't already, so can someone direct me to a good resource on how to make a theme? I really don't know where to start or which tools to use. thanks a lot!

MIKE
another fan of radiohead

[brachiator]

that sounds a lot like Synotic's Square Edged Aqua theme. Look at homepage.mac.com/synotic (or ~synotic, I can never recall)... I'm using SEA now.

another one I like is Unlined Charcoal for X.1. I can't recall the site, but the guy who makes it goes to a school called Rose-Hulman, so if you search for "unlined charcoal rose-hulman" on google, you'll get the hit. UC is square edged with (I think) graphite widgets, and all the Aqua lines removed. The only problem is that there are some remaining strange lines in some spots.

I prefer UC over, say, Xenogenesis, because of the graphite widgets, although Xeno is cool because it has turned off all the menu and titlebar transparency!

Does anyone know of a square-edged with graphite widgets and the transparency turned off?