Luna theme feedback

Chris Cook · Post by **Chris Cook** » December 28th, 2002, 3:25 pm

Hi all,

Due to the fact that the Luna theme really only looks like Luna if used on WinXP, I am updating it look like Luna on all OS's. This includes WinXP widgets (buttons, scrollbars, etc. for those that don't know) as well as colors.

You can see some screenshots of my progress here:
<a href="http://pages.infinit.net/cdcook/phoenix/luna_0.4a.png">http://pages.infinit.net/cdcook/phoenix/luna_0.4a.png</a>
<a href="http://pages.infinit.net/cdcook/phoenix/luna_0.4a-prefs1.png">http://pages.infinit.net/cdcook/phoenix/luna_0.4a-prefs1.png</a>

My main concern with continuing and finishing this work is that many people will not want to be stuck with static colors instead of native (inherited from the OS settings) colors.

For those users on Linux or Windows pre XP this is probably not a big issue though it may be an undesireable feature for those using WinXP with a non-standard color scheme (everyone but me?

)

In the worst case, I may consider making 2 seperate releases available: one with native colors and/or widgets and one with static colors.

Please let me know your opinions if you think the default Luna Blue colors should be used OR if you think OS system colors should be honored.

Post by **RAF** » December 28th, 2002, 3:32 pm

I'm on win 2000 and I hate the system colors 'taking over' the theme colors...
I'm not happy with Qute for that reason (Not that I don't like Qute; don't get me wrong)

Post by **djst** » December 28th, 2002, 4:26 pm

I think you should concentrate on making all the paddings right and implement the small icons...

That's more important than theming the other stuff. Those who will want this theme are probably WinXP users anyway. I'd recommend not theming anything else than the menu (like Qute) and the buttons themselves.

scratch · Post by **scratch** » December 28th, 2002, 5:52 pm

you should use alpha blended toolbar icons like real WinXP. then it will look fine with all colorschemes.

TD · Post by TD » December 28th, 2002, 6:03 pm

I agree with djst

Chris Cook · Post by **Chris Cook** » December 28th, 2002, 7:04 pm

scratch wrote:you should use alpha blended toolbar icons like real WinXP. then it will look fine with all colorschemes.

This is a priority of mine as soon as I can figure out how to do it. If anyone has experience with this and can give me some pointers it would be appreciated.

Post by **alanjstr** » December 28th, 2002, 7:50 pm

do you mean -moz-Dialog and -moz-DialogText for the background and text color?

priior · Post by **priior** » December 28th, 2002, 7:52 pm

basically, use antialiasing, make ur background invisible, and save as PNG.

this way it'll blend smoothly with any colour background the user might have.

(at least, that's how i understand it.)

Chris Cook · Post by **Chris Cook** » December 28th, 2002, 8:08 pm

alanjstr wrote:do you mean -moz-Dialog and -moz-DialogText for the background and text color?

Yes.

Chris Cook · Post by **Chris Cook** » December 28th, 2002, 8:14 pm

priior wrote:basically, use antialiasing, make ur background invisible, and save as PNG.

this way it'll blend smoothly with any colour background the user might have.

(at least, that's how i understand it.)

Don't misunderstand. I understand how to create a graphic with alpha transparency. Since I'm not exactly working with original art though (ahem) it is a little more difficult. What I have not been able to do satisfactorily is separate the background color from the edge of the icons. I have experimented much and searched in vain for a photoshop howto but haven't figured it out yet. <sigh>

priior · Post by **priior** » December 28th, 2002, 8:23 pm

Chris Cook wrote:
priior wrote:basically, use antialiasing, make ur background invisible, and save as PNG.

this way it'll blend smoothly with any colour background the user might have.

(at least, that's how i understand it.)

Don't misunderstand. I understand how to create a graphic with alpha transparency. Since I'm not exactly working with original art though (ahem) it is a little more difficult. What I have not been able to do satisfactorily is separate the background color from the edge of the icons. I have experimented much and searched in vain for a photoshop howto but haven't figured it out yet. <sigh>

i apologize for the slight arrogance. It's hard to quantify the pre-existing knowledge of people we don't really know on a forum

having said that, i'll even indulge you with using the wand with antialiasing on and deleting the background. Also, you can try feathering (select - feather) ur selection by a few pixels to accentuate the antialiasing even more.

If you've already done those.. then i'll shut up now

Post by **alanjstr** » December 28th, 2002, 8:26 pm

Chris Cook wrote:
alanjstr wrote:do you mean -moz-Dialog and -moz-DialogText for the background and text color?

Yes.

I hate it when themes hardcode one, but not the other. It was a problem with Px Classic and Qute before I got them to fix Qute that comes with Phoenix. I think the default theme should match the OS. Any other theme can do whatever they please. If they want to make blue toolbars with white text, that's just fine. It depends on whether you want it to "blend in" or not.

Chris Cook · Post by **Chris Cook** » December 28th, 2002, 9:00 pm

priior wrote:having said that, i'll even indulge you with using the wand with antialiasing on and deleting the background. Also, you can try feathering (select - feather) ur selection by a few pixels to accentuate the antialiasing even more.

The want doesn't give the desired result in this case. The original icon obviously has alpha transparency. I merely seek a method of "subtracting" the background color from the icon to achieve the original alpha values. However, this is either much more difficult than it should be or I am misunderstanding something. Perhaps I am simply unable to accept a mediocre solution

Chris Cook · Post by **Chris Cook** » December 28th, 2002, 9:11 pm

alanjstr wrote:I hate it when themes hardcode one, but not the other. It was a problem with Px Classic and Qute before I got them to fix Qute that comes with Phoenix. I think the default theme should match the OS. Any other theme can do whatever they please. If they want to make blue toolbars with white text, that's just fine. It depends on whether you want it to "blend in" or not.

I understand and am well aware of that problem.

I have 2 reasons for attempting to make the Luna theme complete with widgets. Firstly, while it is my default theme at home, it is really interolable to use on Win2k at work. I am not convinced that fixing the graphics will make it acceptable enough for me either. The lack of Luna widgets makes for a strange theme experience IMHO. Secondly, I have received requests in the past to override the colors (because the theme looks strange with other color schemes. However, this reason is less compelling if the majority of users prefer the theme to inherit the system colors.

Post by **alanjstr** » December 28th, 2002, 9:17 pm

Do you have -moz-appearance for things like tabs and the scrollbar? That should pick up the OS widgets.

http://www.eightlines.com/neil/mozskin/csscommands.html

I don't see any reason to not make it look like the OS widgets in terms of borders, etc.