KDE Crystal theme possibility

lynchknot · Post by **lynchknot** » November 9th, 2002, 12:36 pm

Hello everyone. With proper permissions, we could see Everaldo's Conectiva Crystal 0.6 KDE as a theme. Would you men/ladies like this theme? I have a few buttons to make. This would be offered with 24X24 buttons only.

asa · Post by **asa** » November 9th, 2002, 1:21 pm

lynchknot wrote:Hello everyone. With proper permissions, we could see Everaldo's Conectiva Crystal 0.6 KDE as a theme. Would you men/ladies like this theme? I have a few buttons to make. This would be offered with 24X24 buttons only.

That's very slick. I'd be sorely tempted to move to that one. I'm using rhapsodized now and it's very nice. I like the simple clean buttons but I miss the color so this Crystal theme might win be over.

Keep up the great work. Before you came along it never occurred to me that other themers would be willing to give permission for reuse of their artwork.

It seems that the hardest part about making a nice theme is all of the artwork that has to be created. I believed that with Phoenix we made that a lot easier because the number of icons is substantially lower than with the full Mozilla suite of applications.

Any chance you'd be willing to put together a few paragraphs of instructions on how you're so quickliy building these themes? I'd make it a sticky post so others would be able to see it. As you know we're pretty weak on documentation so any notes from you and the other active Phoenix themers would be a great help.

--Asa

lynchknot · Post by **lynchknot** » November 9th, 2002, 2:58 pm

I updated my post.
If you knew how many hrs. I have spent on these themes, you might not say that!
My "secret" to quick themes is the fact that I use existing themes as a template. I then swap out the PNG's, edit all text - rename, and repackage. LOL! I cheat!! (at least i'm honest huh?) - I knew nothing about computers 9 months ago!

What do you think of the icon selections. There are more than 20 or so to choose from.
Notice the stop button is greyed out.

I know the drop markers need to be changed.

AtomB · Post by **AtomB** » November 9th, 2002, 3:38 pm

lynchknot i had no idea your this new to computers. damn dude that's just crazy.

and Asa yeah you'd be suprised at how easy it can be some times to redistibute others work. most the time artist just would like to be asked if there work could be used. Everaldo for one has given permission to so many people to use his icons. they just want to be recognized.

asa · Post by **asa** » November 9th, 2002, 3:41 pm

lynchknot wrote:I updated my post.
If you knew how many hrs. I have spent on these themes, you might not say that!

I didn't mean to suggest that you weren't putting in a lot of effort. Sorry if it sounded like that. Just that you're making great progress in a short amount of time.

lynchknot wrote:My "secret" to quick themes is the fact that I use existing themes as a template. I then swap out the PNG's, edit all text - rename, and repackage.

Any chance you could post some notes what theme you start out with as a template, what the directory structure looks like, what text you have to edit/rename, etc.?

lynchknot wrote:LOL! I cheat!! (at least i'm honest huh?) - I knew nothing about computers 9 months ago!

I don't think that's cheating at all. You're chasing down the artist to ask permission, you're doing the work to get the images into the theme and working, getting feedback in the forums and making great themes. Keep up the good work.

lynchknot wrote:What do you think of the icon selections. There are more than 20 or so to choose from.
Notice the stop button is greyed out.

I know the drop markers need to be changed.

I like the images. One thing that would help me is if you included text in your screenshot so I could tell which buttons where which. Sometimes it's not immediately obvious especially if your toolbar arrangement is different than mine or the default. Thanks again.

--Asa

lynchknot · Post by **lynchknot** » November 9th, 2002, 3:47 pm

LOL AtomB, I've got the addiction in a bad way! The fist thing I do in the morning (aside from going to the bathroom) is turn on the PC. The last thing is turn it off at 1:00+am.

asa · Post by **asa** » November 9th, 2002, 3:50 pm

AtomB wrote:lynchknot i had no idea your this new to computers. damn dude that's just crazy.

and Asa yeah you'd be suprised at how easy it can be some times to redistibute others work. most the time artist just would like to be asked if there work could be used. Everaldo for one has given permission to so many people to use his icons. they just want to be recognized.

Not too surprised, I guess. Well, sort of. I've been working on an open source project for a few years now so freely reusable and redistributable code seems quite natural to me but I've been focused on the code side of things and hadn't really thought about artwork.

--Asa

Stefan · Post by **Stefan** » November 9th, 2002, 4:02 pm

lynchknot wrote:LOL! I cheat!!

No you don't, your are smart.
Only stupid people insist on reinventing the wheel

The rest of us just buys a car with the wheels attached and drives to where we want to be

lynchknot · Post by **lynchknot** » November 9th, 2002, 4:20 pm

I know what you meant asa. I did not take it the wrong way.
I'm not good at compiling technical notes - or speaking for that matter.

What I am saying is: I open up all files and edit everything that refers to the theme and the author, i'm using and replace it with my own theme name and author name. The only part I don't have "down" is packaging everything together. I almost had it last time, but Atomb came to the rescue. I have used orbit as it seems to be the easiest to work with. When I finish, I just re-use the theme again.

In essence, all I do is replace the PNG's using existing theme as a template (for correct icon positioning)
Replace the preview png.
Edit text in "contents rdf" that refers to the theme i'm borrowing
Package it

Oh yea, I added text to the screenshot (above)

lynchknot · Post by **lynchknot** » November 9th, 2002, 4:39 pm

I think i'm finished with KDE Crystal. I just need to contact the artist.
What do you think of the icon selection?
The fwd-back buttons might need to be smaller, because to the drop markers - what do you think? If you don't care, i'll leave it that way.
This time I set it up: cold to hot.

My typical set-up

lynchknot · Post by **lynchknot** » November 12th, 2002, 12:38 pm

Permission granted!!! soon to be released. Crystal and Crystal 2. Two versions - one theme. It's finished just packing it now.

D. Horatio Smith · November 12th, 2002, 12:49 pm

Lynchknot: You're doing a great job with these themes. I think when you try your hand at an original theme it's going to be quite good. Keep up the good work!

lynchknot · Post by **lynchknot** » November 12th, 2002, 1:07 pm

LOL! Thanks D. Horatio Smith. I'm no artist! I have no artistic ability. What I mean is; I wish my hands had a better connection to the creative, artistic center of my brain. As it is, I have trouble even tracing a picture. The best I can do, is a little better than stick people figures. LOL!

jparsons · Post by **jparsons** » November 12th, 2002, 1:47 pm

I use this theme with Opera, and it's great. Since I'm using Opera less and less, partly because of Phoenix, this would be a great theme to have.

lynchknot · Post by **lynchknot** » November 13th, 2002, 10:42 pm

Crystal is now available at http://texturizer.net/phoenix/themes.html

Enjoy!!

Preview of Crystal "Mini19" - http://lynchk.netfirms.com/screenshots/mini19final.jpg - soon!

KDE Crystal theme possibility

KDE Crystal theme possibility

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