Your own theme workshop - for beginners

[ehume]

Wordpad is even better for this kind of thing.

You can also right-click, select "Open with," check the Always open with this app box, then select your favorite text editor.

[haqeen]

I feel it didfficult。。。。。。

[ehume]

So is making themes.

[Caliginosity]

I think this is the right place to place this question...

I just downloaded a new theme: Crystal Clear for Firefox, and I think it's a great theme, except that the 'small' icons are still too big for my taste.

The current size of them is 22px


I'd prefer them to be 16px


I'm not very familiar with theme making though, but I have managed to get all of the icon png's down to the size I want. I just don't know how to actually get them to show up in the theme. I tried following the tips in this thread, but unfortunately I got lost after the whole chrome.manifest part (I couldn't find that anywhere in the theme, nor in any of the Firefox directories).

If anyone can help me out, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

[ehume]

chrome.manifest is the way you are supposed to build extensions and themes for the future of Firefox. For now, the older methods work, so you will see that method used in most themes. The reason the chrome.manifest system is used here is not only because it is the preferred method, but you can also use this system to make a them workshop where you don't have to install an extension to allow you to work with uncompressed theme directories.

As for using new sizes for theme buttons, look inside browser/browser.css.

[sbt]

it would be best if we could edit userChrome.css to resize elements. i think a dialog-based utility for this wouldn't be an extension, but would need to be kept up to date with ff changes. hmmm.. since userChrome.css is css, a utility/creator might be good if run online (on webpage)? no need for updates with downloads. otoh, the utility needs to know which ver/build of ff it's working on. gehhhhhh. pondering "aloud"

[canary]

What is a good (free) program to draw your own icons at a higher level?

[Cato62]

What is a good (free) program to draw your own icons at a higher level?

You might want to try The Gimp, open source program similar to PhotoShop.

http://www.gimp.org/

[ehume]

I use Inkscape to draw my icons in vector graphics so that I can produce them in any size. After that, you can finish the image using any bitmap graphic editor (GIMP, for example, but there are others). I find Paintshop Pro 7 the best for me: it has the features I need to be productive, while PSP 9 is just too cumbersome to use for icon work.

You might be able to get a copy of PSP 7 (or 6) or an earlier version of Photoshop from someone for free. Or look on CNET or freeware.com or some other place for free graphics editors - or even vector graphics editors.

[Tinkerbell222]

sorry 2 sound stupid but whats a directory is it like a folder thing?

[ehume]

Yes.

[benjaminauer]

has the way of creating a theme changed with FF2? i specially mean the handling with the files...

[ehume]

Has not changed. I intentionally set this workshop up so that it would be compatible with the new way of making themes, not the old.

[DJ_Theme]

Hi i new to creating themes, and i dont know where to start could you please help me out. I made something using extension wizard now i have a compressed folder.

[ehume]

I have edited the contents of the original workbench series to bring it up to date. That will tell you how to set yourself up for developing and testing themes. In the last post of the series there is a list of resources that will help you learn how to code for theming. I especially recommend Firefox Visual Index.