> > > > Unfortunately I have to admit that I don't have a slightest idea of how > > to code a theme but I do know to code in C so I can learn it over time. > > Is there a theme we will base New Wave or we will have to make a new > > theme engine like clearlooks, murrine and aurora? I think the theme we > > are trying to make is very close to clearlooks so we can make a fork > and > > implement our own theme style (the buttons shape & color, the other > > widgets). > > > > I would like to ask the ppl from the list if they could help with the > > decision on the engine problem (esp. Troy, and Who). > > > > Well, I would say a few things first: > The energy that is required to generate a new theme engine is pretty > high. Before you start I would be sure that the style you are aiming > for is not available from one of the newer engines (esp. Murrine - > which is very configurable and also supports transparency as that > theme requires). > Before doing ANY work on a new style like that, get some more design > done - the single image isn't really enough to know how the theme is > going to hold together, what is going to make it *work* as a theme. > This sort of area is where Troy's advice is great, and there are > certainly many others on the list more able to comment on design > theory than me! > > Techincally, it looks like you could get a lot of what you want with > Murrine and a custom metacity. If you know a lot of C and have some > time to get to grips with a theme engine, tweaking it as you like > should be possible: but like I say - be sure you know where you're > going... Get a .gtkrc that gets a theme engine as close as possible > to your desired look before you start hacking. Then do some review of > the design before you go too far: is it usable? Does it feel nice to > use? Etc. Then you can move forward into making the engine do a bit > more. > > On the other hand, braver people than I would use the pixbuff engine: > It allows you to define all the elements of a theme with images. > Performance isn't crazy-good, but it isn't crazy-bad either. To my > knowledge, pixbuf isn't doing alpha yet (on the other hand - you could > well find during your usability testing that alpha isn't the way you > really want to take things.). With pixbuff the key is to look at an > existing theme, and build your one from there. > > As far as usability testing goes, pixbuf can be a good way to beta > test styles: A single GTKRC can use multiple engines (this isn't > advisable in a final theme, as you take a memory hit...) so if, for > example, clearlooks did everything except the scrollbars the way you > wanted you could test JUST the scrollbars using images and the pixbuff > engine, using clearlooks for all else. Then, if you really like it, > patch clearlooks to get what you want. If your code is good and your > change is optional, you might be able to get your code upstream to be > able to avoid having to maintain a branch... > > That's a bit of a theming braindump - hope it makes sense. > > You can use gtkperf to benchmark themes (in a fairly basic way) > > Happy design. > Who > > Hi!
Maybe that's a good theme to start from: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/ComicGel It is not that far from that: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/NewWave It has no glow, it uses transparency... I think there are not so many things to change to get it done: first of all the taskbars, their buttons, icons and menus (that will be the most difficult part I guess), then make the windows less rounded, changes theirs buttons and colors (find a way of removing the border on unselected ones). Its icons are really not bad, we should try them, and also try making them gray/black like on the last screenshot ( https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/NewWave?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=ubuntu_intrepidDARK.png ). Cheers, François
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