AROS Window Themes

[miker1264]

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.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Great work miker, I am curious to test your Theme, and put it on the new AROS One v2.2

[miker1264]

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.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

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 !

[miker1264]

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.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Have you checked in the "Container" folder ?

[miker1264]

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 ?

[miker1264]

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.

[NinjaCowboy]

Is there a way to use antialiased truetype fonts in the titlebar? It's subtle, but would make it look more modern.

[miker1264]

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.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

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 !





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

[miker1264]

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. 

[AMIGASYSTEM]

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.

[miker1264]

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.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Ok thank you !