AROS World Exec
Development => AROS Software Development => Topic started by: miker1264 on July 05, 2023, 02:01:01 PM
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I'm making my first window theme.
After producing all the new PNG images which are inconveniently converted to 32bit by my favorite paint program there is some post-processing to do. It involves a lot of image manipulation. There's room for automation. ;)
So far for each image I need to open the 32bit image and save as 24bit bmp. Then open in MultiView and save as 24bit PNG. Then I use DT2GIF which use Neuquant to convert the 24bit bmp to 8bit GIF. Then open the gif in MultiView and save as 8bit LUT.png.
So I may write a small conversion program with two buttons - Convert & Close. It will use a File Requester to browse for the 32bit image. It will convert to 24bit and save as "default" without extension in the same directory. Then it uses the same 32bit image to quantize to 8bit then saves as "default_LUT" (PNG without extension) to same directory. So I just have to keep pushing the "convert button" instead of doing it all manually. I have completed the first set of 32bit images for my first AROS window theme.
Now to write the helper program to convert images.
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Great work miker, I am curious to test your Theme, and put it on the new AROS One v2.2
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Great work miker, I am curious to test your Theme, and put it on the new AROS One v2.2
Almost done!
I used the OS4 blue theme as a template. For the new OS4 green theme I only had to change the images in System & Zune. Menu & Gadgets remain unchanged.
I used HSL color shifting to find the correct color range (261,-28,-5). Then the same shift was applied to all images resulting in 24bit PNG images which were renamed to default without extension per folder. This was all done on Windows 10 using Pine Tools & PaintDotNET. The last step is to finish processing using AROS where DT2GIF will quantize each image. Open each GIF in MultiView & save default_LUT. Let's hope it works as expected. ;)
If all goes well then in the near future I'd like to make an improved OS3.x blue theme and then color variations based on that such as green, brown, red, yellow, orange & purple. I like the thin border style of the original. I'd like to also make the Windows Whistler window themes & Windows 2k & 98 for fun.
The last step is to load the theme to see how it looks.
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We need to modernize so that the operating system is attractive, many people except old Amiga fanatics, when they see an old-fashioned system still based on the old Amiga styles, they don't consider and trash it without even trying it, the old look makes people think of an old operating system !
AROS One is successful precisely because of its modern look, this is what many users say on the various forums, modernity and beautiful graphics is an indication of a modern system !
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AMIGASYSTEM
I agree. A beautiful workbench environment makes for a better AROS experience. :)
In my experience things don't usually go perfectly the first time. I managed to get ScreenGrabber working. The new OS4 Green theme looks good except for the left border, right border & bottom border which are still blue.
I wonder what corresponds to those areas? What do I need to change to make it green instead of blue ?
Hmmm...I found BaseColors & ActiveGradient in the Config that seem to be color ranges.
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Have you checked in the "Container" folder ?
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Have you checked in the "Container" folder ?
It was BaseColors & ActiveGradient values in the Config in System folder. These are color ranges.
I plotted the original blue color ranges in sample3.png at top. Then I applied the same color shift to make them green. Then I transferred the new hex color values to the System/Config file. Now the OS4 Green theme looks good.
My window has an extra Lock gadget. How do I remove that ?
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Here is the new OS4 Green theme if you'd like to try.
Here are also some color variations based on the OS4 theme showing what is possible for the window themes.
I'll make more window themes when I have some time.
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Is there a way to use antialiased truetype fonts in the titlebar? It's subtle, but would make it look more modern.
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Is there a way to use antialiased truetype fonts in the titlebar? It's subtle, but would make it look more modern.
I suspect the Titlebar Font is controlled by the Config file.
TrueType Fonts would look better if that can be achieved.
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My window has an extra Lock gadget. How do I remove that ?
The "Lock" Gadget is added by Dopus5, you can still remove it, by deleting the "lock" folder
Dopus5 however does not support all gadgets (they are activated from Zune Prefs, although some still don't work on Wanderer), with Wanderer you can view all gadgets except "lock", see screenshot !
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5123;image)
Fonts are also handled differently by Dopus5, on Wanderer they look better (see AROS One), too bad you can't have a proper "black" Font for white backgrounds
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That window theme is looking good. Lots of nice icons too!
BTW - this first theme took me about 6 1/2 hours to finish. It only took about an hour for the new images for System folder & Zune folder. But I spent a lot of time experimenting with different color variations.
When it came time for final processing I used DT2GIF on AROS itself to quantize the 24bit PNG images to 8bit GIF. Then I had to open each GIF in MultiView 1.9 to save as 8bit PNG.
The next theme should take about two hours or less. Whereas the second part of the processing was done on AROS using my own quantizing tools that must be the longest time that I've spent with AROS doing actual work!
In retrospect it could be better. It will be faster at the moment to process the initial images on Windows 10 & Pine Tools HSL Converter. Then for final processing I can use a DotNET based color quantizer that saves both 8bit GIF & 8bit PNG. So then I would just copy the PNG images & rename as default_LUT.
More automation for AROS processing would be great. ;)
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If I'm honest I don't know what "default_LUT" is for, Themes use the file called "default", if you delete the "default_LUT" files the theme works fine.
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If I'm honest I don't know what "default_LUT" is for, Themes use the file called "default", if you delete the "default_LUT" files the theme works fine.
LUT means "Look Up Table" which means 8bit color mapped images. But for RTG screens such as with AROS x86 & x86_64 these aren't needed.
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Ok thank you !
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I spent a couple hours studying the structure of the OS3, OS4, Morphos & AROS themes.
The OS3 & OS4:theme structures seem to be good for producing AROS themes. The artwork is 24bit PNG. Of those two styles the OS4 themes seem most similar to AROS as far as bitmaps which are 24bit PNG and the Config file is also very similar. The OS3 PNG images seem to be in pieces. It's all there but it's like a jigsaw puzzle. :o
I'm in the process of porting an OS3 theme (skin). So far I have pieced together the Titlebar image. It's not a simple task. It may take several hours to piece it all together.
The bright green sample on top is the OS4 Lime Green theme that I finished yesterday. The forest green sample on bottom is the new OS3 theme being converted for AROS. The Titlebars are of different heights (26 & 23) so I may need to adjust that in the custom config file. The OS3 theme doesn't seem to have a config file so I need to make one.
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Here are a few OS3 themes I'd like to make for AROS. See screenshot.
Tree Hugger on top in the middle is the one I'm currently working on. I also may try to make Pea Soup and LiteMetal. The problem with some of them is that the buttons are just transparent 32bit PNG images of just the line work that need to be composited over the 24bit colored bar images.
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Here themes are not from OS3 "Incompatible with AROS/OS4/MOS", they are from AfA OS Amiga OS 3.9 BB4, you can find them all on AfA One, there are also ones created by me.
Also AfA OS is the only OS that can change Themes on the fly without rebooting the system, you can see the theme change on this old video of mine:
https://youtu.be/Y-0gQFB8dQw
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Here themes are not from OS3 "Incompatible with AROS/OS4/MOS", they are from AfA OS Amiga OS 3.9 BB4, you can find them all on AfA One, there are also ones created by me.
Also AfA OS is the only OS that can change Themes on the fly without rebooting the system, you can see the theme change on this old video of mine:
https://youtu.be/Y-0gQFB8dQw
Are those themes from OS3.9 BB4 or from AfA OS ? The structure based on the video looks like the OS3.x themes I'm trying to convert for AROS x86. The folders all have numbers and the PNG files all have .info extensions.
I have Amiga OS 3.5 & OS3.9 as well as the OS3.9 BB's up to BB4. I could look in there for any OS3.x themes. These "skins" only seem to be for OS3.5/3.9 since OS3.1 doesn't seem to have anything but a basic built-in window theme.
For the AROS x86 themes I'm actually making them based on samples from Amiga OS3 & OS4. Some others are color variations based on existing AROS themes. Most of the artwork is there in some form, but some needs to be made from pieces or approximated based on other similar themes.
For example in the OS3 Forest Green theme based on "Tree Hugger" skin only the scrollbars and titlebar have pieces of images that need to be assembled. All else including config file must be made new. For the buttons I may use my OS4 Lime Green theme and approximate the colors to match.
Although programming is fun and very rewarding, graphics design is what I do on a daily basis so this is all very interesting. :)
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Those themes as said belong to AfA OS, actually AfA OS also installs on OS 3.1 and OS 3.1.4, AfA OS is not only supported by OS 3.2, but you can use it "partially" to bring Antialiased Fonts to OS3.2, we discussed it HERE (https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=113210) on AEB.
As mentioned it would be nice to take advantage of the AfA OS (AROS for AMIGA) capability to get a hot theme change without rebooting, basically in my opinion just rebooting Wanderer would be enough !
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Is there a way to use antialiased truetype fonts in the titlebar? It's subtle, but would make it look more modern.
I suspect the Titlebar Font is controlled by the Config file.
TrueType Fonts would look better if that can be achieved.
The latest version of Icaros has antialiased title bar fonts, and they look quite nice.
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Try this OS4 Lime Green theme to see if it uses the antialiased fonts.
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I finished the images for three new themes:
OS4 Forest Green, OS4 Cocoa Brown & OS4 Powder Blue.
OS4 only refers to the layout style of the window theme.
You can see which colors are for each theme from the color of the sliders in the screenshot. It seems that slightly darker colors are better for contrast. The Lime Green theme is nice but it's difficult to read the title text, for me at least.
It only took three hours for these so it's getting easier. It's an average of about two hours per theme for complete assembly.
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For Themes with uniform image like that of OS4 and quick and easy to do it manually, when you have to use backgrounds like "Tiffany", to match the gadgets becomes complicated.
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Try this OS4 Lime Green theme to see if it uses the antialiased fonts.
Definitely Dark Colors with Wanderer the "White" Fonts look Great on AROS One, see screnshot, for the system uses I use "Arial" and "ttcourier" Fonts, Dopus5 by default uses "Black" Fonts and I don't know if it makes use of Antialiased Fonts.
Actually I don't know if the Fonts included in AROS are all anti-aliased including "Arial"
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5140;image)
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This is my new OS4 Style - Forest Green theme.
I think it looks better than the Lime Green theme. ;)
Many other themes on the way...
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Try this OS4 Lime Green theme to see if it uses the antialiased fonts.
I have tried using the same Fonts with Dopus5 Magellan, the difference is obvious, the fonts on Wanderer look qualitative, better even than Windows, the DualPNG Icons on Wanderer look better graphically, on Dopus5 there is a loss of quality even in the Glow, Also the quality of the Theme is better on Wanderer
Also the icon arrangement is not professional, to order the icons you have to do it by hand one by one, otherwise the automatic arrangement arranges them in a messy way, without using the spaces.
I enclose scrennshot of Dopus5 Magellan on AROS One, the resolution is not the best, but it is the same as the one made with Wanderer (screenshot above), in fact the screenshot of Wanderer given the quality the file had a bigger size so I had to degrade it, try to do these tests too, of course for Wandere you have to use AROS One !
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5146;image)
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The green OS4 theme looks very nice! I like it.
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AMIGASYSTEM
You said that AfA OS can "Hot Swap" themes without restarting. But doesn't AfA OS use Amiga Workbench instead of Wanderer? And it also uses Amiga Intuition.
I'm not sure how that works but on AROS there is a file in Env-Archive/SYS called "theme.var" that changes when a new theme is loaded. It is just a text file with the name of the new theme such as "os4_forest green".
At startup Intuition must load all the elements in the theme specified in theme.var into memory for rendering. I say it loads it all into memory because I was using my new os4_forest green theme to open windows at the same time that I was deleting files from the current theme! But the deleted images had no effect for the current session. Everything seemed to work fine for drawing windows.
Perhaps Wanderer & Dopus Magellan need to restart so that Intuition can load the new theme into memory? But how does AfA OS store the new theme? Or does it simply read it directly without storing it in memory? Since Amiga OS is very thrifty with memory maybe it reads the theme elements directly from the themes directory each time it renders a new window. I'll have to research it further.
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Yes AfA OS uses Workbench, the file that contains the setting is called default.afaprefs, when you change theme it is immediate.
Basically you can change on the fly without any kind of reboot being done, you can also utilize USE without saving, see small video attached.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JhBhccgMHlJBqyLGhgB9dVIzBYv5Omev/view?usp=sharing
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Here is the completed Forest Green Theme.
For Icaros users place the unzipped theme in Prefs/Presets/Themes. In Prefs drawer is an icon called "Theme" that's the Lua-based Theme Manager by paolone.
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Here is a better screenshot.
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Is it possible for AROS to have shadows around windows like AmigaOS 4?
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I'm not sure if Drop Shadow is possible in AROS but if so it might be in some of the Prefs.
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Here is a new style AROS Modern Forest Green.
The slider knobs are different and the button gadgets and size gadgets are drawn directly on the flat window frame. Also there are no separators between the gadgets in the Titlebar which gives it a cleaner, more modern look. :)
Of course this style will also have many color variations. I'd like for it to be one of the default AROS window themes. The banded themes called "Pearl" are also quite standard for AROS. But it depends on who is setting up the distro.
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Here is AROS Modern Bright Blue.
I believe it looks nice and clean. Very modern.
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One tiny issue I see is that the right side of the vertical scrollbar looks clipped. I don't see the edge of it.
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One tiny issue I see is that the right side of the vertical scrollbar looks clipped. I don't see the edge of it.
Good eyes!
I noticed it also. I have since fixed it.
Which looks better - Convex Titlebar or Concave Titlebar ?
Note that the far right edge of the vertical slider bar is fixed.
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I had the same problem on the OWB Bar and other application bars, then on AROS One v2.1 I changed the "convex" appearance of the bars on Zune Prefs, now writing on the bar is immediate and better visible.
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Note that the far right edge of the vertical slider bar is fixed.
I think you still need a pixel or two. There should be a 1-pixel black border surrounding the entire slider. Sorry to nitpick. ;D
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Note that the far right edge of the vertical slider bar is fixed.
I think you still need a pixel or two. There should be a 1-pixel black border surrounding the entire slider. Sorry to nitpick. ;D
You are correct. It seems there is something wrong with the coordinates in the Config file for the vertical slider knob & container. The slider knob image is correct but it's in the wrong location. The vertical slider knob needs to move to the left.
I'm trying to figure out the values in the Config file. There does not seem to be much documentation. I found information about the Titlebar & ScreenBar but so far nothing about the slider bar values.
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Indeed it's not easy to interpret, especially if you don't know English well, I made my Tempi using a bit of intuition and a lot of testing, your OS4 themes I'd say are already great, I'll put them on AROS One at the must of my less qualitative ones.
This is an OS4 version I made up by doing a mix of themes :)
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Nice composition. Which theme is that?
I'd like to examine it and take a peek at the config file.
Could you post it here or is it for OS3 instead?
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You can find this Theme on AROS One x86/68k, the theme is called AfA OS, see Icon in screenshot ! I don't remember where I got the pieces from and what modification I made, you find all the pieces in the various themes included on the latest versions of AROS One
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Thanks. I found it. It seems similar to pixblue & OS4 blue.
I'll look at the config file to try to make sense of it. :o
After much research and experimenting I have concluded the obvious. No matter what we put in the Config file AROS will do what it wants to display the window theme. I'm not sure why.
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AMIGASYSTEM
I keep using your screenshots. But they look so good.
I thought I was going nutty. I couldn't get my config file set to properly draw the window themes.
But then I remembered how nice the Wanderer screenshot looked that was posted earlier.
Why would using Dopus Magellan vs Wanderer affect the drawing of window themes? The same theme looks great on AROS One x86 using Wanderer. But it looks wonky in Magellan. Hmmm...
There's nothing wrong with the config or the slider gadgets. :o
So for testing window themes I will use AROS One x86.
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So for testing window themes I will use AROS One x86.
I have always pointed out the various incompatibilities of Dopus5 with AROS on both x86 and 68k, not only for Themes, Icons and Fonts but for many other things, which maybe are not visible to those who use little AROS and a well configured Wanderer.
Dopus5 is a thing of the past and is no longer updated, consequently no improvements there can be anymore, unlike Wanderer which still has a lot to grow and is always under development.
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Two more themes almost ready. Maybe there will be two more tomorrow. Then a few more after that. When all are finished I will upload them to AROS Archives for all to see.
Processing the images is very labor intensive. It takes about two hours per theme. Custom themes could take longer.
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Thanks miker, I will add all your themes on AROS One x86/68k and will create scripts to associate with your themes also background and Pointer !
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Here is a custom window theme that I'm calling "AROS plastic". I'm working on a similar one called "Lite Plastic" as opposed to LiteMetal which is a slightly different theme.
I think it looks very sleek. The slider knobs are smaller with a new narrow container. The titlebar is convex ( curved outward) and the gadgets are all black outline in AROS style. The Lite Plastic theme is the same but the titlebar gadgets are Lite Metal Style with black outline not white.
There's one more custom theme that I'm planning called "Classic" which is a tribute to Amiga OS 3.1 but modern. The slider knobs will be larger than classic OS3.1 and the gadgets will be black outline just like AROS Plastic Theme.
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Beautiful I like it !
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Beautiful I like it !
Thanks! I designed it myself.
I like the simplicity of it. It just looks nice.
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Each time I finish a new theme when I see it on screen I kinda like it. ;)
This one is "os4_lavender blue".
It reminds me of the default drawer icon color for Icaros.
Maybe it's more lavender than blue.
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This new theme is called "os4_powder blue".
I kinda like it too! So many choices. :)
The next two themes are a tribute to Caffeine OS. They are "os4_coffee bean" & "os4_cinnamon stick".
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My new AROS Plastic Style can generate much richer color variations based on the initial bright blue.
It's all about color and style. There are several theme styles out there but what about colors? Colors are important too.
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Here is os4_lavemder blue theme if you'd like to try it.
I prefer shades of greens, blues and browns.
But someone may like it.
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It would be nice if AROS had a color picker similar to the classic theme in Windows 95 and later where the user could choose a color for individual gadgets and other GUI elements.
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It would be nice if AROS had a color picker similar to the classic theme in Windows 95 and later where the user could choose a color for individual gadgets and other GUI elements.
Individual Prefs are used to setup most items we would usually associate with a theme. In Windows for example a "theme" is a group of items to give the OS a certain new look including window style, startup & shutdown sounds, wallpaper image, and even a new cursor style.
It would great if AROS had an app that allowed us to set all these things at one time. We could select window theme, background image, cursor color, startup sound and icon set.
It seems that AMIGASYSTEM has made some progress towards that in his themes for AROS One. Each theme has an icon that activates a script which copies things where they need to go. It handles window theme, cursor color, background image and some icons. So it may be possible.
On AROS I generally think of apps that deal with things like this as a "manager". We already have a Theme Manager at least for Icaros Desktop but that only deals with window themes. On AROS "appearance" is closer to what we want. So an Appearance Manager would set all these things. But we already have an Appearance App in Prefs. Maybe it could be expanded to deal will these new theme features.
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It seems that AMIGASYSTEM has made some progress towards that in his themes for AROS One. Each theme has an icon that activates a script which copies things where they need to go. It handles window theme, cursor color, background image and some icons. So it may be possible.
Si negli script puoi aggiungere anche altre opzioni, come la risoluzione dello schermo, i fonts, la musica e qualsiasi altra preferenza, questi script li ho creati anche su AfA One, dove perņ puoi eseguirli a caldo senza riavii del sistema o dello schermo.
On AROS I generally think of apps that deal with things like this as a "manager". We already have a Theme Manager
On AROS One in addition to the scripts there are 2 Theme Managers in SYS Prefs, "Appearance" and "ThemePrefs"
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Here is os4_lavemder blue theme if you'd like to try it.
I prefer shades of greens, blues and browns.
But someone may like it.
Tested and inserted on AROS One x86/68k your 2 themes (added backgrounds to Wanderer and Windows), I just adjusted your theme for AROS One by changing "STitlebar", in yours there is the logo that Icaros uses, by the way, you can also remove the logo from the "STitlebar", and add it in a folder called "SBarLogo", this way the user can customize the logo.
With your Themes I also noticed a strange thing, if I look at the screenshot, you will notice that DigiClock has 2 colors, but actually it should be all black, with my themes this does not happen, I have to investigate why !
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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AMIGASYSTEM
Thanks. I wasn't aware of the optional SBarlogo. I will adjust the themes that I made recently.
Wow! Is that the os4_lavender blue theme? It looks great on AROS One!
It looks good on Icaros Desktop also but the horizontal and vertical slider knobs are not centered correctly. That's probably because of Dopus Magellan. But it looks great on AROS One using Wanderer.
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In the Prefs drawer the Appearance Prefs can potentially be used to set the window theme, cursor image & background image. We just need to add a couple Zune gadgets for Cursor & Image as well as a couple Browse buttons for them.
That may work with Wanderer but I'm not sure about Magellan. I suppose I'll make the changes then compile it so we can test. ;)
That way we can set everything in one go rather than setting individual Prefs.
Can AROS use a startup sound or a chime sound at boot?
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Can AROS use a startup sound or a chime sound at boot?
Yes you can run the sound "for its duration", verify the user-startup of AROS One, find the string at the bottom of the script !
This is the command used by AROS one:
Run >Nil: C:PlayMus SYS:Prefs/Presets/BootSounds/IntroSound.wav
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Can AROS use a startup sound or a chime sound at boot?
Yes you can run the sound "for its duration", verify the user-startup of AROS One, find the string at the bottom of the script !
This is the command used by AROS one:
Run >Nil: C:PlayMus SYS:Prefs/Presets/BootSounds/IntroSound.wav
Awesome! Thanks.
I'll give that a try.
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Finally a new theme style!
AROS Modern Blue theme is ready.
The grippers on the horizontal & vertical slider knobs have changed style. The arrow gadgets & size gadget now use black outline. And there are no separators between gadgets on the window titlebar.
Thanks to AMIGASYSTEM the screen titlebar now has a replaceable screen bar logo.
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Here is AROS Modern Blue theme if you'd like to try it.
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Yes I install it and complete it with Wallpapers, this is the complete theme of your OS4-Green !
I found the solution for DigiClock, now it is in transparency :)
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Here is AROS Modern Blue theme if you'd like to try it.
Also created the Complete Theme for OS4-Modern Blue for AROS One x86/68k (renamed so that OS4s are together in the list)
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Wow! Look at that. DigiClock looks nice too!
It's the star of the show. AROS One looks good in blue. ;)
I suppose the next one will be called "OS4-Plastic". It's Plastic because of the narrower slider knobs & thinner container as well as the convex Titlebar.
This one was called Modern because of the cleaner titlebar and the black outline for the arrow gadgets & size gadget.
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Looking very nice! The wallpaper, OS4 window theme, and everything go together nicely! Great job! :D
Would it be possible to move DigiClock onto the screen's titlebar to be more visible (kind of like what macOS and Ubuntu do)?
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Looking very nice! The wallpaper, OS4 window theme, and everything go together nicely! Great job! :D
Would it be possible to move DigiClock onto the screen's titlebar to be more visible (kind of like what macOS and Ubuntu do)?
Maybe you were asking AMIGASYSTEM...
DigiClock opens a tiny window so it can draw in the rasterport. Usually it's a flat grey color. But maybe transparent in the Screen Titlebar may work.
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The new theme style OS4-Plastic Blue is almost ready.
It's called "Plastic" because of the convex Titlebar. The horizontal & vertical slider knobs are thinner. The container is also narrower. The titlebar has been redesigned & the Titlebar gadgets have been updated to the plastic style.
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Here is OS4-Plastic Blue & the updated OS4-Modern Blue.
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Would it be possible to move DigiClock onto the screen's titlebar to be more visible (kind of like what macOS and Ubuntu do)?
On AROS everything is simple if you have the tools, almost all clocks on AROS as on AMiGA have in the Toltype Icons the ability to set X/Y and store the Position.
Here is an Ubuntu Theme created by me for AROS One with DigiClock stored on the top bar:
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Would it be possible to move DigiClock onto the screen's titlebar to be more visible (kind of like what macOS and Ubuntu do)?
On AROS everything is simple if you have the tools, almost all clocks on AROS as on AMiGA have in the Toltype Icons the ability to set X/Y and store the Position.
Here is an Ubuntu Theme created by me for AROS One with DigiClock stored on the top bar:
Would you mind sharing it by posting a zip file here? ;D
The screenshot doesn't do it justice. I'm sure it looks better.
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Would you mind sharing it by posting a zip file here? ;D
The screenshot doesn't do it justice. I'm sure it looks better.
I post it ugly, Ubuntu can't be more beautiful than AROS ;D
If you have downloaded AROS One, you will find the Ubuntu Theme and many others created by me in the Prefs\Presets\Themes path.
At your Themes I made a small modification, reduced the top bar to fit DigiClock and AROS One "Text" Logo, also I gave to "SDepth" the color of the Theme, in my opinion it looks more elegant, don't blame me for that !
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AMIGASYSTEM
It looks great. Thank you.
Currently if I were to add 8 color variations of the Modern & Plastic styles plus some odds & ends as well as a few more I could put together about 50 AROS themes.
So my long-term plan is to post "100 AROS Themes" on AROS Exec for everyone to use & enjoy. These will be themes built by me including some variations of current themes as well as completely new themes for AROS users.
That's my plan. It may take several weeks to finish it all. :)
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All 100 of them I will not put on AROS One otherwise the DVD is not enough anymore ;D
I will surely choose the ones that fit best on AROS One x86/68k
If you need or want to modify some of my Themes you are free to do so !
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All 100 of them I will not put on AROS One otherwise the DVD is not enough anymore ;D
I will surely choose the ones that fit best on AROS One x86/68k
If you need or want to modify some of my Themes you are free to do so !
Thanks. You have some interesting themes. Some of them look really nice!
All 100 themes may only be less than 10MB. Each theme averages 50kb in size. But 100 themes might represent 200 hours of tedious work. :o
But I wouldn't want anyone to say "I can't find any theme to match my background image" or "why are we stuck with using lavender blue drawer icons. Where are the colors?" or lastly, "Why can't we have neon blue, neon green, or red or orange, or purple glow borders?". Yes. All of this is being done by me. No more boring icons or lack of window themes!
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Would something like this be possible?
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Would something like this be possible?
Yes. That theme is possible. It's a custom theme.
It just takes some time to do the graphics and for processing to put everything in it's folder and renaming. The config file sometimes needs adjustment as well.
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well, you get some alpha effects, and some differences in the windows scrolling gadgets, but I think it's actually quite neat!
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Would something like this be possible?
The Theme is easy to create, the diffile is to create of icons in that style, AROS has hundreds of Icons :o
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This is the AROS Modern Forest Green theme.
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This is my concept for the "AROS Tree Hugger" theme.
The concept itself comes from an OS3.x skin. This is my interpretation of it for AROS. Of course I re-created all of it. As you can see I had to actually draw the mitered corner. The original os3.x version is provided in the top right corner. It took a good two hours or more to paint the corner and to superimpose the gadgets to make them all blend together.
But now this will be a template for other themes with those 3d mitered corners with opaque arrow gadgets. I like it.
Now that the concept is complete I just need to take the artwork for the arrow gadgets and size gadget and divide them up into PNG images then the theme will be complete.
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AMIGASYSTEM
Do you know where I can find a Tiffany theme for AROS x86 ?
Notice that I don't mean AfA OS which use os3.x skins. I'm looking for the AROS version.
I suspect that AROS doesn't use BorderBottom, BorderRight & BorderLeft images for themes. So AROS can't display 3d rounded bottom & side window borders like for AfA OS Fourone theme or the Tiffany theme & many more.
I may take a look at the AROS theme code to see what it's doing or not doing. 8)
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I don't think there is Tiffany theme for AROS, as I had mentioned it is complicated to adapt it, but it might be useful to study the similar Themes like MOS and Glass, see screenshot !
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I asked about Tiffany as a test case. It has the 3d mitered right corner drawn on the window frame. Os3.x & OS4 & possibly MOS use BorderBottom, etc.
I took a look in the code for window decoration class in intuition library in the rom. It doesn't have a provision for drawing 3d rounded borders. It only draws flat frames.
So perhaps the AROS code needs to be expanded for the window decoration to allow more complex window themes.
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I couldn't answer that, but the MOS Theme for AROS seemed to me to have something that could help !
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This is a design I came up with yesterday.
It is called "Geometric Blue". The theme style is squared, geometric that uses Tiffany colors such as red, green, blue & maybe orange or purple.
The all-white window frame is also reminiscent of Tiffany & I intend to change the Close gadget to an 'X' like Tiffany.
I suppose we may call it a Modified Tiffany theme design.
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I like it, the white sliders are very nice, I will probably borrow them to improve the look of some of my themes :)
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I like it, the white sliders are very nice, I will probably borrow them to improve the look of some of my themes :)
No problem. I hope that my themes are useful. And I hope that they inspire others to make new window themes. ;)
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As far as AROS window themes I intend to made some additions to intuition window decoration class while at the same time maintaining compatibility with existing themes. As with anything these changes may take some time. 8)
At first I will verify the latest code from ABIv1 to make sure the changes haven't been made yet so as to not duplicate it.
The main change will be the addition of code to draw three new image objects - Border Right, BorderBottom & Border Left. The workflow will be "if these images exist then draw them before drawing the window gadgets. Otherwise just draw a default flat window frame to maintain compatibility."
Also, if not already present I'd like to add TitleVOffset. We already have TitleOffset which is the Left Offset of the TitleText from the Left Edge of the TitleBar Image in pixels. The TitleVOffset if present would be the Top Offset of the TitleText from the Top Edge of the TitleBar also in pixels.
Otherwise, if not present, the TitleText will be centered. The only constraint for TitleVOffset is that the lower edge of the TitleText based on font size should not extend beyond the very bottom edge of the TitleBar itself to avoid clipping. So the possible values of TitleVOffset range from 0 to some magic number that is the greatest vertical offset that does not cause clipping of the text. If TitleVOffset isn't present any existing themes will still work as they did previously.
The advantage to using TitleOffset with TitleVOffset is that it allows for more elaborate themes such as Tiffany where the TitleText may need to be adjusted so that it is not exactly centered in the TitleBar but rather centered in the desired area such as a colored area instead of the decorated area. If there is a band of colors at top or bottom that act as decoration the text would be too close to the top or bottom of the colored area without using TitleVOffset. Instead the user can choose to center text in a colored area.
That's the long version and hopefully very informative explanation. ;D
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So my intent with above mentioned proposed additions to window decoration class is to allow for more elaborate themes and to be more fully compatible with Amiga skins.
This would allow to draw the 3d rounded mitered corners for the bottom right corner of the window frame where the arrow gadgets & size gadget are located. Many themes including Tiffany, Tree Hugger & AfA OS FourOne to mention a few, actually use this type of 3d imagery for the corners.
In the Tree Hugger concept that I posted earlier you can see in the bottom right the 3d rounded & mitered corner that I hand painted. At the moment AROS can't display these frames.
So in order to test these new image objects I will plan to make three different themes. The first is a modified (squared) Tiffany. The next will be a Reverse Tiffany & the last will be a Full Tiffany theme with 3d mitered corners.
Although the equivalent or similar versions of Tiffany & Tree Hugger & FourOne themes already exist for os3.9 or os4 the AROS versions of these themes are completely re-done. All the artwork is re-painted by me in a similar style to resemble the originals but they are not simple "translations" of those original themes. Mostly because Amiga OS 3.5/3.9 & AfA skins aka themes are completely different so they can't be used.
These Amiga skins are arranged in folders with numbers that represent the max height for the images in each folder such as '28' which contains sub-folders Titlebar & STitlebar. Inside each subfolder such as Titlebar are separate small 24bit PNG images such as LeftSide.info & MidSection.info & RightSide.info that would need to be re-assembled since AROS uses a single Titlebar image that is named "default". So all the artwork for these new AROS themes are redone. This still involves two hours or more of work per new theme.
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Upon investigation some things are obvious.
First is that Intuition in ROM is huge! It's beyond my ability to add three new image objects related to drawing borders.
The best I can hope for is to increase the max width, max height in window decorator class. That would provide the appropriate overlap between arrow gadgets & size gadget.
With those gadget image overlaps the 3d imagery for the bottom right corner can be drawn directly in these gadgets.
If you look at the bottom right corner in the screenshot the black rectangles are the current gadget limits. Max width is set at 18 pixels. That leaves large gaps. The red rectangles represent the gadget limits if max width & max height are set to 24x24 pixels. That provides adequate image coverage. This is all in window decoration class. That's do-able. 8)
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In the new InstallerAROS present in the last Build of "ABIv1", the buttons "Back", "Proceed" "Cancel" and "Help" (I just improved her colors), now have a Gadget, guess where it looks for these Gadgets ?
I'm trying to find out from where it gets the icon placed in the "ata.device" Tab (I would like to improve it), that icon in the system doesn't exist, other thing I need to find out is why the "NoDOS" Disk is recognized (use my Def_Icons)
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5222;image)
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There is a "mysterious" location where AROS stores it's images. It's a directory called "Images". That may be where you find the elusive grey hard disk icon. I believe it's somewhere in Prefs/Presets/Images or maybe Prefs/Presets/Patterns/Images. You have to search.
As for the small buttons I would also look in the current theme for "Images" as well.
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I have an idea...
To speed up theme production some automation would be helpful. What about a theme parser/builder to make themes? So how would it work?
We setup a small text file obviously called "settings.txt". In it we include the width & height of the TitleBar gadgets as they may vary. That also goes for the close gadget. We can include as much information as possible that goes in config. We also include the width & height of the arrow gadgets and the size gadget as well as the BorderGadget values for right side & bottom. Then what?
We paint a full concept mockup of our window theme design. Many graphics artists are good at painting but processing the images for gadgets, Titlebars, sliders, containers then renaming them all is very tedious. As long as the theme mockup is of the proper dimensions & in the correct format the Theme Builder will slice the mockup image into all the correct images, rename them & copy them to the subfolders where the settings.txt file is found. I believe the process is called Bit Blit to PNG image. Actually, it may be as easy as ReadPixelArray from the RasterPort using rectangular coordinates then save the pixel data using PNG datatype to the correct file & location (folder).
The programming for such a theme parser/builder is also tedious work but once it works correctly then it makes it so much easier to build new window themes. Just paint it. 8)
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There is a "mysterious" location where AROS stores it's images. It's a directory called "Images". That may be where you find the elusive grey hard disk icon. I believe it's somewhere in Prefs/Presets/Images or maybe Prefs/Presets/Patterns/Images. You have to search.
As for the small buttons I would also look in the current theme for "Images" as well.
About the images, that ata.device icon doesn't exist, consider on AROS One there is no default icon (first operation I usually do on builds is to delete all icons "for targeted search") that icon I think is embedded in some file, usually that icon AROS uses it when the icon doesn't exist, to replace it I should find out AROS where it looks for that icon and its name, Sashimi didn't help me, I will try to examine the InstallAROS executable.
No mystery, for System Images, AROS does use the System/Images path, the images go unnoticed because they have no extension, on AROS One I replaced all of them.
In System/Images, there you find BoingIconBar backgrounds, some small Gadgets, AROS Logo (Install, login, Floppy, AROS logo), Pointer, Network Prefs images: wireless, interface and host.
About the buttons "Back", "Proceed" "Cancel" and "Help, yes they are new buttons found in the current Thema, folder "Images/Gadgets", so you have to copy them on all themes.
For THEMES editing, you could take a cue from the "ThemePrefs" since it is a LUA script, maybe enable the "Use" Button as well, in addition to a hot restart like on AfA OS.
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Here is AROS Modern Blue theme if you'd like to try it.
the length of the STitlebar is not exact for resolutions more| high on the subject os4_green is exact
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Here is AROS Modern Blue theme if you'd like to try it.
the length of the STitlebar is not exact for resolutions more| high on the subject os4_green is exact
You can customize the Screen Titlebar & Logo how you like to fit your needs. The one included in the themes are a sample.
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ok many thanks :)
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You can customize the Screen Titlebar & Logo how you like to fit your needs. The one included in the themes are a sample.
The Titlebar stretches and shortens according to the size of the screen, this also involves moving a logo if it is present on the right-hand side, which is why I have placed Digiclock before the "AROS One" text logo
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This is the status of my Modified Tiffany (Geometric) theme.
The two-color Titlebar with decorative band on top wasn't easy. I spent a few hours designing the Titlebar graphics. Then I spent a few more hours researching & adjusting the config values. If you have good eyes you can see in the screenshot that it keeps drawing an extra column of pixels at the very right edge of the TitleBar. I'm not sure about it. The arrow gadgets & size gadget will use a black outline.
At some point I hope to assemble a comprehensive PDF that will act as an instructional guide about making AROS window themes. It's not as easy as drawing graphics. As others can agree who have made themes it is a science. It requires precision at the pixel level & in depth knowledge of the structure & functions of the values in the config file.
I'm still working on this Geometric Blue theme. I've started the TitleBar graphics for Geometric red (it looks great). :P
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very good Miker
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miker, the Modified Tiffany is refined, I'll put it on the next AROS One 2.2, I'll also prepare the script and find some nice suitable backgrounds!
Modified Tiffany resembles my Thema "AROSOne-Heavenly", itself inspired by a Morphos Theme :)
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miker, the Modified Tiffany is refined, I'll put it on the next AROS One 2.2, I'll also prepare the script and find some nice suitable backgrounds!
Modified Tiffany resembles my Thema "AROSOne-Heavenly", itself inspired by a Morphos Theme :)
It's not quite finished. I wanted to change the arrow gadgets to black outline & fix the glitch on the right side of the TitleBar. Then I can post the final version of it for you.
I was having a problem centering the TitleText so I increased the height of the TitleBar. ;D
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Thanks miker, AROS users who like Themes will be happy, especially AROS One users who use Wanderer!
If you need them I can attach the new gadgets "the ones used by the new InstallerAROS", as mentioned I slightly changed the colours from the "less flashy" ones in the Build "ABIv1"
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thanks Miker I included some of your themes on tiny aros I added a custom logo
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Tiny Aros OS4 Green
(https://i.ibb.co/2KRDGKw/tiny-aros.png) (https://ibb.co/tCn7VCS)
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thanks Miker I included some of your themes on tiny aros I added a custom logo
In the OS4 themes such as this one of you open the config file in the editor you can change RightBorderGads = 24 to 26 then save the config. For Magellan it forces the slider knob (vertical) to appear centered.
Also there is a white screen titlebar graphic that will blend better with you logo. If you post your logo here I'll find the ScreenBar graphic. I'd like to use your logo. :)
Here it is.
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Tiny Aros OS4 Green
(https://i.ibb.co/2KRDGKw/tiny-aros.png) (https://ibb.co/tCn7VCS)
Looks good.
Try this updated OS4 Lime Green theme.
I updated the config file.
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The Geometric Blue Theme is looking good.
I need to adjust the arrow gadgets & size gadget as well as add a few more titlebar gadgets then the theme is complete.
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The Geometric Red Theme is also looking good. ;)
These will be followed by Geometric Green, Purple & Orange to complete the Tiffany Colors. They are so vibrant.
Do you prefer the fancy size gadget or the open triangle?
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thank you miker
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thank you miker
No problem. The STitlebar.zip I posted is all white to match your new logo.
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Salvo, if you want I can make your logo transparent, so it will look good on any colour!
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[ If you post your logo here I'll find the ScreenBar graphic. I'd like to use your logo. :)
Here it is.
miker, you will find the AROS 'Kitty' logos here:
https://tinyurl.com/55bspu6s
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Salvo, if you want I can make your logo transparent, so it will look good on any colour!
thanks I do not know how to do it many thanks
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thank you miker
No problem. The STitlebar.zip I posted is all white to match your new logo.
My transparent logo of "Kitty'" can be used on different color bars, which then is the same logo I use on the GRUB menu of AROS One
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thank you miker
No problem. The STitlebar.zip I posted is all white to match your new logo.
My transparent logo of "Kitty'" can be used on different color bars, which then is the same logo I use on the GRUB menu of AROS One
Did you post the logo or just the screenshot?
Maybe I missed it.
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I had attached a link where you can find all the AROS logos, of the "Transparent" ones you see in my screensht which one should I flood you (small one for the bar, or the big one)?
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5247;image)
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I had attached a link where you can find all the AROS logos, of the "Transparent" ones you see in my screensht which one should I flood you (small one for the bar, or the big one)?
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5247;image)
Small one for the bar please.
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I am sending you what you see in the screenshot in 2 sizes 46x28 and 35x20
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The Geometric Blue Theme is finished.
Here it is if you'd like to try it. ;)
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This is what aros_geometric blue looks like.
In sequence geometric red will be next, then orange, green & of course purple. There are five in this series using Tiffany colors.
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The Geometric Blue Theme is finished.
Here it is if you'd like to try it. ;)
Geometric Blue Works well, full Theme
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The New Plastic Blue theme is ready.
The theme "templates" all start with blue because it's easy to make color variations based on the base blue version. There are now twelve color variations for os4_classic, os4_modern, os4_plastic, new_plastic & lite_plastic themes. Thats a total of sixty themes. There are five color variations for the Geometric series (Tiffany colors). So that's sixty-five!
My goal is "100 AROS Themes" for everyone to use. They will be posted on AROS Archives & Aminet when complete.
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Here is the New Plastic Blue theme.
It's Plastic because of the convex Titlebar & it's New Plastic because of the style of the black outline Titlebar gadgets. :)
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The Geometric Red Theme is also complete.
Here is a sample screenshot.
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Here is the Geometric Red Theme for AROS.
Beware! It is a very bright red. :)
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This is the Modified Tiffany Theme ( aka Reverse Tiffany).
It's almost ready. It just needs some small refinements. ;)
In the image attached you can see the Full Tiffany to the right of the actual screenshot of the Modified Tiffany theme . I'm beginning to comprehend what the data in the config file means. In the bar area of the config BarPre & BarPreGadget are the same value. They represent the left end cap of the TitleBar we wish to draw. The values are 0 4. But what does it mean? It's offset & length. At offset 0 copy 4 pixels.
We must first realize the values in bar section of the config text file in System inside our theme are not the co-ords we see on screen. These are the offsets & lengths as measured from the original Titlebar graphic located in System/Titlebar.
For the transition area just to the left of the TitleBar gadgets I got lucky. I measured the size of the transition in Paint as 21 x 29 pixels. I assumed it would cover at least two gadgets after the transition so I gave it another 45 pixels as fluff. So 21 + 45 = 67. Since the TitleBar graphic is only 268 x 29 pixels the transition starts at offset 201 & it extends at least 21 pixels.
In the config we see BarJoinBG which is the tileable area just before the right side gadgets. It just happens to be BarJoinBG = 200 40. Remember it's offset & length. So at offset 200 copy 40 pixels to underlay the transition area just before the end gadgets. That's perfect. Lastly, whether the transition curves one way or another it doesn't matter. We only care about the horizontal length of the transition area. So now we are ready to design an AROS Full Tiffany Theme.
But there's more to learn about the config & window themes.
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I am sending you what you see in the screenshot in 2 sizes 46x28 and 35x20
Thanks amigasystem :)
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For the AROS Tiffany Theme I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the look of the compound curves ( S-curves ) in the Titlebar graphics. They seem blocky instead of smooth.
What do you think about the curves ?
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Nice, actually the curves are not perfect, although my vision after laser surgery on one eye is not what it used to be, I see the straight lines slightly wavy.
If you attach Tiffany Theme I can try to see if it improves something on AROS One, maybe I try to play with some values !
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Nice, actually the curves are not perfect, although my vision after laser surgery on one eye is not what it used to be, I see the straight lines slightly wavy.
If you attach Tiffany Theme I can try to see if it improves something on AROS One, maybe I try to play with some values !
I'm still working on the AROS Tiffany Theme.
But it will be ready soon. It's more difficult than others. :o
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Many thanks Miker :)
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AROS Tiffany is more difficult than other themes.
The titlebar graphics have to be drawn correctly so that the graceful S-curves look good. There's also the problem with the close gadget. It seems that AROS can't composite 32bit images with transparency. So I have to draw the close gadget graphics. And with Tiffany there are two transition areas, one on the left and one on the right before gadgets.
I have redone all the Titlebar graphics. Now I have to work on Titlebar gadget images to make sure it all matches.
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Ok thanks
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I had to remake all the Titlebar images then I made some composite images to get the close gadget images to look nice and centered. Now I'm ready to test AROS Tiffany. 8)
I'm sorry about the jpeg image quality. All the Titlebar images are exactly the same dimensions but because of jpeg compression they seem to be different. Nice S-curves though.
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This is my concept for the Watercolor Blue theme from Windows Whistler. I have made a new style for AROS.
I designed the arrow gadgets, size gadget and slider knobs and containers to match the TitleBar graphics. I used XP style arrows and I've noticed the diagonal lines for a size gadget having been a popular Windows style.
BTW in Windows jargon I believe they are horizontal and vertical scrollbars, arrow buttons and a resize gripper. The grips for the slider knobs I made them small dimples to maintain the clean look of the theme. It's better than expected. 8)
PS - I'm still working on AROS Tiffany. It's a bit complicated.
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This is my concept for the Watercolor Blue theme from Windows Whistler. I have made a new style for AROS.
I designed the arrow gadgets, size gadget and slider knobs and containers to match the TitleBar graphics. I used XP style arrows and I've noticed the diagonal lines for a size gadget having been a popular Windows style.
BTW in Windows jargon I believe they are horizontal and vertical scrollbars, arrow buttons and a resize gripper. The grips for the slider knobs I made them small dimples to maintain the clean look of the theme. It's better than expected. 8)
PS - I'm still working on AROS Tiffany. It's a bit complicated.
Nice and clean! Congrats!
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This is my concept for the Watercolor Blue theme from Windows Whistler. I have made a new style for AROS.
Bravo, I like it, this will also be included on AROS One !!!
If you would like to take some cues for creating new themes, I am attaching some themes from AfA One, one of them one I created, I was just starting out, so nothing qualitative.
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They all look good including your custom theme that you made. Are they only available in blue? Or are there others?
There are so many choices for new theme styles and for variations on existing themes. We haven't even started the glass series yet. Black glass, red glass, blue glass, green glass, purple glass, etc. ;D
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No the ones with glass effect have only one color, but I think they move color, I tried to give these colors !
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Wow! Those look great.
I could make some AROS x86 themes from the first theme style, the blue one with square transition areas on left & right. The alternate glass color bars can be used for more color variations. It's easy to HSL shift the hues for glass colors.
The second one from top (original screenshot) with the curved transitions doesn't look as promising as a template.
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Yes indeed the second "Looking-Glass" in addition to the curves also the color is not perfect, I attach one, also I attach other colors for the theme "Hip", to one I came up with a striped version, it does not look good though !
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Hip-Red tested on the fly on AROS One 68k :)
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5337;image)
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Now that's a winner!
Your Titlebar gadgets should be a darker color. But the Titlebar itself and background image both look great. ;)
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Yes I had only replaced the bar, today I will try to complete the Blue version on AROS One x86!
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Completed Hip-Blue Theme for AROS One x86/68k with glass effect also on side and bottom sliding bar and complete with background and Pointer ;)
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Completed Hip-Blue Theme for AROS One x86/68k with glass effect also on side and bottom sliding bar and complete with background and Pointer ;)
That looks really nice!
Would you please post the blue theme so I can try it?
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I attach the Hip-Blue Theme, Background and Pointer you can find it on AROS One x86 v2.1
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Here is the OS4 Classic Style "Coffee Bean" Theme.
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Here is the "Watercolor Medium Blue" Theme.
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Here is the "Watercolor Medium Blue" Theme.
Tested Watercolor-Blue, great theme, at the first start AROS One did not start, you forgot the extension .PNG to the file included in "Zoom"
Through an emergency ISO I eliminated the PNG extension, I also replaced the top bar, added the logo to adapt it to AROS One, I also increased the value of the "TitleOffset", to leave space for the clock!
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Here is the "Watercolor Medium Blue" Theme.
Tested Watercolor-Blue, great theme, at the first start AROS One did not start, you forgot the extension .PNG to the file included in "Zoom"
Through an emergency ISO I eliminated the PNG extension, I also replaced the top bar, added the logo to adapt it to AROS One, I also increased the value of the "TitleOffset", to leave space for the clock!
Thanks for testing it.
I will fix the .PNG extension error. ;)
I suppose in the future when posting a new theme I'll zip the current theme being tested on AROS rather than the theme sources in Windows 10. That way you get the real deal. 8)
In the config it looks nicer if you set BarJoinBG = 145 50 instead of 145 40. It gives it an extra 10 pixels between the transition and the beginning of the right side gadgets. That's the point where the TitleBar transitions from light to dark with the cubic design.
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I tried BarJoinBG = 145 50, but I found no difference !
The screensho 860x646 penzalizes the graphics a lot, the quality of "Watercolor Medium Blue" on AROS One is very high.
Tomorrow I try to change the color of the title, let's see if it improves!
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White is the best choice for texts on Blue Themes, JPG screenshots do not show quality, I took a screenshot in PNG, now the quality of the text is "almost" like that seen on Wanderer with AROS One x86 .
Also, if a supported Video Sheda is installed on AROS, the quality of the graphics and colors will be more beautiful to look at.
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5352;image)
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In my experience some people like bright colors for themes and some prefer darker, pastel colors that are more subdued.
So with that in mind I designed a bright series starting with "cool blue" that I finished yesterday and "blueberry" that I'm working on now. The watercolor_blueberry theme is pastel blue. The watercolor_cool blue theme is bright blue. There will be several color variations for both the bright and pastel series.
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Here is watercolor_blueberry theme.
I also included watercolor_cool blue from yesterday.
I fixed a few things and made a new zip file.
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This is the original watercolor window themes from Windows Whistler. It has bright blue, pastel blue, pastel green, and grey.
I have re-designed the first three for AROS Watercolors Themes. The grey theme isn't needed because AROS uses activated and deactivated colors. Grey is for deactivated.
For the AROS color schemes from the top to bottom are Cool Blue, Blueberry, Green Apple, and Deactivated Grey. The Watercolor Themes have strange names but it helps to keep the colors in mind and it's fun too! :)
There will be a few more color variations including red, brown, purple, and olive.
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Here are the original watercolor color schemes in blue-green.
I've added red-brown and purple-olive color schemes.
The actual themes colors may vary from these concepts.
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Here is the OS4 Classic Style "Coffee Bean" Theme.
Also nice "OS4-Coffee-Bean" this will also be included on AROS One in full version of Wallpaper, Pointer and Zune prefs
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5376;image)
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Hip-Ble is also complete, in addition to the background, Zune preferences, also a transparent glass Pointer :D
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5382;image)
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Hip-Ble is also complete, in addition to the background, Zune preferences, also a transparent glass Pointer :D
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5382;image)
Really nice! I like the Hip Glass Series. It's so hip man!! 8)
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For those who like bright colors here is the "Watercolor Mint Green" Theme.
For those who like more subdued colors I also included "Watercolor Green Apple" Theme. ;)
Maybe tomorrow we will have Watercolor Plum Purple & Watercolor Laffy Taffy (Lilac). Yes, the colors are edible.
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For the OS4 Classic & OS4 Modern Series these are the color schemes. There are 12 themes per OS4 series. Each series will be uploaded to Aminet & AROS Archives. I'm only halfway finished with these. Each theme takes 2 hours. :o
I may reduce it to just 10 colors each but I'm not sure yet.
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I'm currently working on a new Diagonal Theme.
I'm trying to get it looking good. But graphics design is a challenge sometimes. :)
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We have a new theme called AROS Diagonal Blue.
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Here is the theme.
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Here is the theme.
Nice, there are some small imperfections on the "disabled bar", see screenshot, also a lighter color on gadgets could give better visibility
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Here is the theme.
Nice, there are some small imperfections on the "disabled bar", see screenshot, also a lighter color on gadgets could give better visibility
Thanks. Good eyes. ;)
I will fix those little things. I copied the wrong files. :(
Next one will be bright blue.
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Here is the corrected archive. The bar height in config should be 28. If not it causes distortions. My fault. ;D
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Here is the corrected archive. The bar height in config should be 28. If not it causes distortions. My fault. ;D
Perfect very nice, to adapt it to AROS One, like your other themes I replaced STitlebar (SBarHeight 20), SDepth, added SBarLogo, and changed Config (TitleOffset to 120 to leave space for DigiClock)
These All Themes Available on AROS One x86/68k
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5402;image)
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great job Miker
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Completed also the "full" Watercolor-Blue Theme ! this also can be started through the script !
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AMIGASYSTEM
Your AROS One themes are looking good.
I especially like the way the workbench icons, the background image, window background and window theme all complement each other for the Diagonal Blue theme.
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I like to make the right matches, always trying to find something that matches best !
Of course there are still Amiga/AROS users "fetishists" who love the oldness, bound only by fond memories to the old icons and the old prehistoric windows, good thing that the majority appreciate the beautiful things and the great work we do to modernize AROS to the maximum :)
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5406;image)
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Today was mass production day with the paint program.
I completed 14 themes! The 10 Watercolor Themes are complete. As well as 5 Diagonal themes & 5 Simplified themes. That's a total of 20 themes in the last few days.
After some final testing I will upload the 20 new themes to Aminet & AROS Archives.
Here is a sample. This is AROS Diagonal Green.
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This theme is called Rounded Silver Blue. 8)
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Nice, also this if you like, will be installed on AROS One x86/68k
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Nice, also this if you like, will be installed on AROS One x86/68k
No problem. :)
It will be part of the AROS Silver series including AROS Geometric, AROS Silver (this one) & AROS Tiffany.
So there will be five themes each for a total of 15 themes.
After I post the Watercolor Series (25 themes) that I just finished I'll finish the Silver Series.
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On AROS One of your themes I am adding only one theme per type (complete with Background, Pointer and Zune Prefs), users who prefer different colors will be able to download your archives from Aros-Archive.
AROS users thanks to our Themes will be able to modernize and have a wide choice !
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Watercolor Gradient Blue. ;)
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For Red lovers, made a small tweak to the AROS One Red Theme, new background, new pointer and usual Zune preference.
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AMIGASYSTEM
I'm working on some new colors for you. ;)
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They look nice on the screen though the composite images are a little hard to see. ;D
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Nice, the AROS One user will be spoiled for choice :)
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Some new themes for AROS One are being worked on. There will be a total of 8 new colored themes.
Here is a sample. I will upload the archive when finished. :)
If anyone is interested I uploaded the Watercolor Cubic Themes to AROS Archives. There are 10 new themes.
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Thank you, this could be the compleo theme of ArosOne-Cool Blue
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What do you think about this new theme series?
It should be called "Rounded Silver".
It seems very elegant and It's my best design yet.
I hand painted the curves to give them a 3d effect.
I chose the colors carefully to make them very vibrant.
If you like bright vibrant colors then you'll like these themes.
BTW I'll try to finish up all the current themes ( 100+ ) in the next two weeks so I can get back to programming. Making themes is interesting but it takes a lot of time to do each series at an average of two hours work per theme. :o
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Yes, this is also very nice, and will be part of the AROS One Themes, i will choose the colour, probably Blue.
Of course users who like other colours, download them from aros-archive will be able to integrate them manually into AROS One and manage them from Appearance or ThemePrefs, and maybe complement them with one of the many Backgrounds and Pointers available on AROS One!
Question, but what is the Zune folder you included on the Themes for?
Regarding your return to programming, it would be nice if you completed the tool to change the Type of Icons which is not available on AROS One, only those who install Dopus5 Magellan can do it.
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If the Zune folder is empty you may delete it. It usually contains 24-bit PNG images of arrow gadgets, knobs and containers that are sometimes used by Zune apps. It was included in some of the earlier themes. Most recently I just remove the Zune folder. I also only make LUT images for the complete themes such as OS4 Classic.
When I start compiling and testing again I'll be working on my icon tools including the tool to change icon types. The type of icon can only be changed for Classic Amiga Icons that start with 0xE310. For PNG icons the type is not stored in the icOn chunk but rather inferred from the other icon attributes stored in the icon chunk such as drawer data.
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On Zune Prefs, any image (see AmiFox buttons) or any background can be configured for the Apps, but I have never seen any Zune App that automatically takes images from the Theme in use.
For Icon Types what is important for Dual-PNG Icons is to be able to change the icon type, this is necessary when the system associates a wrong icon. On AROS One this hardly happens because thanks to the datatypes descriptors almost all file types are recognised automatically, and each one associated with the right tool.
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Here are the next three colors for Rounded Silver Theme Style. They look nice and vibrant for those who like bright colors. ;D
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While experimenting with new theme designs I came up with a series of themes that only odd people would like. :-*
These are called "Novelty" themes and they are mostly for fun. They feature strange colors not usually seem together.
This one is called "Novelty Blue-Aqua" theme. The first color in the name represents the outer band of the TitleBar. The second color (aqua) represents the lighter inner color.
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For those who are really eccentric here is an odd theme. 8)
This one is called "Novelty Tetris". It kinda resembles Tetris.
I wanted to try a faceted 3d theme and this is the result.
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While experimenting with new theme designs I came up with a series of themes that only odd people would like. :-*
These are called "Novelty" themes and they are mostly for fun. They feature strange colors not usually seem together.
This one is called "Novelty Blue-Aqua" theme. The first color in the name represents the outer band of the TitleBar. The second color (aqua) represents the lighter inner color.
This on AROS One will be called Blue-Aqua Strange, i will also have to look for a Background and Pointer Strange :-*
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While experimenting with new theme designs I came up with a series of themes that only odd people would like. :-*
These are called "Novelty" themes and they are mostly for fun. They feature strange colors not usually seem together.
This one is called "Novelty Blue-Aqua" theme. The first color in the name represents the outer band of the TitleBar. The second color (aqua) represents the lighter inner color.
This on AROS One will be called Blue-Aqua Strange, i will also have to look for a Background and Pointer Strange :-*
There will several different color combinations.
This is just a sample. I'll upload the complete series to AROS Archives when completed.
I'm thinking about carrying the light-dark color motif to the window frame as well. The frame (where the arrow gadgets are located) will be light colored while the slider knobs will be the darker color to complement the colored TitleBar.
When I think of "strange" or "novelty" backgrounds and pointers watercolor paintings come to mind with orange and yellow and blue and purple all blurred together like different flavors of cotton candy. Psychedelic colors. Or maybe "novelty" backgrounds with clowns and circuses.
BTW the word "novelty" doesn't mean "new". It represents "strange" things such as you would find in a novelty shop.
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In Italy novelty, it can be use in a variety of circumstances things such as, for example, "new news," "new creations" which can be of any kind, in short something new coming.
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In Italy novelty, it can be use in a variety of circumstances things such as, for example, "new news," "new creations" which can be of any kind, in short something new coming.
Another word similar to "strange" or "unusual" is "exotic". But I just make the themes. Users can decide the names.
Maybe "Exotic Blue-Aqua" or "Psychedelic".
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Yes on AROS everything is possible to do, users canodvert as they see fit !
Italian is a very complex language, English seems to simplify everything, an example the Determinative and Indeterminative Articles !!!
English:
The dog, the tiger, the cats
a dog, a tiger, a squirrel
Italian:
Il cane, la tigre, i gatti
un cane, una tigre, uno scoiattolo
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BTW the word "novelty" doesn't mean "new". It represents "strange" things such as you would find in a novelty shop.
I didn't knew it also had that meaning, I never seen it used in other cases such as the examples below.
Novelty Word Usage Examples
Default (GPT-3.5)
The novelty of the new smartphone wore off quickly as its features proved to be more frustrating than useful.
Exploring the bustling street markets was a treat, with each stall offering a unique novelty item.
The novelty of working from home soon gave way to the realization that maintaining a productive routine was a challenge.
The circus brought a sense of nostalgia, as its old-fashioned charm was a novelty in the modern entertainment landscape.
The novelty of trying exotic foods during her travels excited her taste buds and expanded her culinary horizons.
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BTW the word "novelty" doesn't mean "new". It represents "strange" things such as you would find in a novelty shop.
I didn't knew it also had that meaning, I never seen it used in other cases such as the examples below.
Novelty Word Usage Examples
Default (GPT-3.5)
The novelty of the new smartphone wore off quickly as its features proved to be more frustrating than useful.
Exploring the bustling street markets was a treat, with each stall offering a unique novelty item.
The novelty of working from home soon gave way to the realization that maintaining a productive routine was a challenge.
The circus brought a sense of nostalgia, as its old-fashioned charm was a novelty in the modern entertainment landscape.
The novelty of trying exotic foods during her travels excited her taste buds and expanded her culinary horizons.
The word novelty does carry with it the sense of "newness" more than anything else. Maybe it isn't the best choice to mean unusual or strange.
Maybe a better name would be exotic or eccentric. The word eccentric literally means off-center but it also means strange or unusual.
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Yes eccentric sounds like the right word to me, or some of its synonyms such as: strange, quirky, original, nonconformist, snobbish, off-center, off-centered, unusual, singular, bizarre, whimsical, flashy
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Yes eccentric sounds like the right word to me, or some of its synonyms such as: strange, quirky, original, nonconformist, snobbish, off-center, off-centered, unusual, singular, bizarre, whimsical, flashy
How about an Italian sounding word "Strangiato". ? ;D
From a song by the musical group "Rush". "La Villa Strangiato".
I used to listen to Rush in my younger years. Those guys were a bit eccentric.
It's a made up word that is a combination of Spanish and Italian meaning "strange".
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=la+vlla+strangiato&docid=603486121083354722&mid=EEDF8CB6DDAF8DD295DEEEDF8CB6DDAF8DD295DE&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
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[
How about an Italian sounding word "Strangiato". ? ;D
From a song by the musical group "Rush". "La Villa Strangiato".
I used to listen to Rush in my younger years. Those guys were a bit eccentric.
It's a made up word that is a combination of Spanish and Italian meaning "strange".
Strangiato is not invented, and a word that belongs to the "Florentine vernacular" (language of the medieval period of Italy of Florence), the meaning should be "Distributed Divided"
https://www.gdli.it/contesti/strangiato/1375380
La Villa, in Italian is a "spacious and elegant house surrounded by a garden."
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The AROS One Colored Themes are complete.
I'm in the process of uploading them to AROS Archives.
There are 8 themes in this archive. Simply unzip the archive and copy all the themes to Prefs/Presets/Themes.
Enjoy. :)
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Thanks miker "AROS One Cool blue" is installed on AROS One complete with Pointer and Background and Zune preferences.
As you mentioned, those who want to install all the "AROS One Colored Themes" will simply have to copy them into Prefs/Presets/Themes
For full compatibility with AROS One, you will have to replace Titlebar and logo, also you have to change a value in the Config file so that DigiClock will be placed on the left side of the top bar, as shown in the screenshots.
Making this change is a very simple operation, those who do not have experience to do it can ask here on the forum.
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5461;image)
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This could a "Theme Archives Aros", I can't create it because I haven't figured out how to configure this kind of images :o
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This could a "Theme Archives Aros", I can't create it because I haven't figured out how to configure this kind of images :o
Are you saying this is a theme concept ?
I could make that theme style. What color scheme ?
It has a light-dark transition so we must choose colors that look good in those two ranges.
If we use the same "light" colors as the AROS One Colored Themes I just completed then we just need to make the "dark" variant of each primary color. Then we have to draw the curves. I usually make a blue template.
After you draw the first curve to act as a transition piece from light to dark you can produce the other two curves. You can make the other two using 32bit image compositing with various degrees of semi-transparent grey pixels.
So I'll make a template (prototype) that later can be produced in many different colors. That saves effort.
I reproduced the curve in shades of purple because it was easier to see them I shifted the purple to green and I added the artwork to the left of the transition. The bar on top is what I did. I don't like how dark the original was. I'll work with it to come up with something nice to start with.
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Hi Mike
May i propose something different that your skill surely can approach.
Rater than drafting the different colour schemes for each theme I think would be better to have a sort of base theme structure with a base color and a tool (may be integrated into the theme preferences) that allow the user to change the base color trough all the theme gadgets and graphics items in order to generate any color variants of the theme.
This is just an idea that has to be further developed.
Thanks
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Great idea ilBarbax, this would avoid having so many similar themes and better management in choosing !
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Great idea ilBarbax, this would avoid having so many similar themes and better management in choosing !
That's a great idea. Extra colored themes can be kept in Storage/Themes.
In Theme Manager add another checkbox for Colors. If unchecked it only shows the first color. If checked it shows all colors available for each theme style. Great idea.
Here is "AROS Curved Blue". I haven't added the secondary grey-scale accent curves. Just the main transition curves.
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Here is AROS Curved Green.
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Also nice is AROS Curved, I would say that AROS users will never get tired of seeing the same things over and over again :)
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Is it better with them or without the accent curves ?
I seem to prefer the single curve. It's cleaner and nicer.
I think we should go with a single transition curve.
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Here are the color selections for AROS Curved Theme.
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Is it better with them or without the accent curves ?
I seem to prefer the single curve. It's cleaner and nicer.
I think we should go with a single transition curve.
If you could get a gradient on the rest of the window
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Is it better with them or without the accent curves ?
I seem to prefer the single curve. It's cleaner and nicer.
I think we should go with a single transition curve.
If you could get a gradient on the rest of the window
What type of gradient ? Horizontal or vertical?
The rest of the window as in the window frame or the TitleBar?
I'm not sure what you're asking about. Which type ?
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AROS Puzzled Green Theme. It's geometric... ;D
Window themes are only limited by one's imagination.
Anything you can conceive, you can achieve.
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Is it better with them or without the accent curves ?
I seem to prefer the single curve. It's cleaner and nicer.
I think we should go with a single transition curve.
This one with shades is more elegant !
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Is it better with them or without the accent curves ?
I seem to prefer the single curve. It's cleaner and nicer.
I think we should go with a single transition curve.
If you could get a gradient on the rest of the window
What type of gradient ? Horizontal or vertical?
The rest of the window as in the window frame or the TitleBar?
I'm not sure what you're asking about. Which type ?
The title bar has a different color on the left that of right, so if you get a horizontal gradient that starts from the left to the right corner you will have a perfect blend between the title and the rest of the window. As is, below the title on left there's a big discrepancy between the title and belo
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pixie
If we use a horizontal gradient from left to right (light to dark) then it flattens the TitleBar & we lose the 3d effect and it would defeat the purpose of having a transition curve to divide the light and dark colors.
Currently there is a vertical gradient from top to bottom for both the light and dark areas. The gradient at top is lighter indicating a shine area on a 3d rounded top. The lower area as in under the title text is darker as it represents a flat area.
I do intent to fix & cleanup the vertical gradients though to make it look nicer.
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I've decided to go with two different theme styles.
The "curved blue" theme is on top and the "fancy blue" theme is on bottom.
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There's one more theme style based on "fancy" style.
I've decided to call it "geometric" as that's a better name.
The older geometric style based on Tiffany colors will be discarded. It's also very similar to the "novelty" theme style.
This one is "geometric green". There will be more colors. ;)
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The new AROS Curved Blue theme in action!
This time I'll just produce the blue templates (prototypes). The other color variations will be added later and uploaded.
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This is another custom theme I'm working on.
It's simply called "Mahogany" and it's a wood theme.
I'm still designing the buttons and size gadget. 8)
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Nice and more complex than others ! Even with a real wood veneer would not be bad, as buttons nails or screws would also be fine :)
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Nice and more complex than others ! Even with a real wood veneer would not be bad, as buttons nails or screws would also be fine :)
It's a complex theme. I wanted to do something with oval shapes in the Titlebar with round buttons and darker colors.
It took a long time to make the buttons to match the hues of the TitleBar. The slider knobs also required color matching and took much trial and error.
It reminds me of milk chocolate and brown mm's candies. (Everything reminds me of food). ;D
If successful I may make another wood theme in the future.
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miker I noticed that your gadgets are static, basically when you click the mouse there is no animation.
To create the animation just edit the second image, possibly look at some of my themes.
I attach small video showing animation of gadgets just clicked, some gadgets as already reported at the moment are not active on Wanderer.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tr1mun1EFjd7X2B4ySygm5jgipZiILeF/view?usp=sharing
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It's an avi video. I can't view the video.
I just make the themes. Nothing fancy. ;)
The themes can be edited in the future.
I'm just trying to mass produce as many as possible to get them out to people to use or modify as needed.
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Strange that you don't see the video, it is a DivX, you can see the video on AROS with MPlayer or on Windows Media Player !
Created a small gif animation showing animated gadgets
(https://i.ibb.co/mb1QSb5/Gadget.gif)
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Thanks for the demonstration.
The button design is done for the Mahogany Theme.
Now I just need to make the theme and the config file. ;D
I also started a new thread on AROS World.
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Created small animations on all the gadgets you created, I started with Geometric-Blue ;)
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5498;image)
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Created small animations on all the gadgets you created, I started with Geometric-Blue ;)
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5498;image)
That looks very cool. 8)
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Animato gadget anche su OS4-Coffee-Bean !
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5500;image)
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Created small animations on all the gadgets you created, I started with Geometric-Blue ;)
(https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1153.0;attach=5498;image)
That looks very cool. 8)
Nice! 😃