[ubuntu-art] New titlebar (Metacity theme) for Hardy

Webmaster, Jhnet.co.uk mail at jhnet.co.uk
Sat Jan 12 19:35:26 GMT 2008


The theme has some nice touches (I am a fan of all things glossy) though I
have 3 deal-breaker scale problems with this theme:
1) It uses a *lot* of space which is not utilized fully (the generous
borders and the like - remember "average" users are only just beginning to
get beyond 1024x786 and with two panels you can't afford to waste this!
2) The buttons is small compared to the general size of the theme - this
feels inefficient (brought up to meet the borders they could look very nice
- i certainly like them)
3) No other differentiation between focused and un-focused windows that
subtle changes (the oxygen guys have the exact same problem on KDE 4) this
is a real problem for bright themes (especially when end users are not using
compositing (I my self have a system beyond what is required for it but I
choose not to run it and I don't want to feel that I am making a trade off
in basic functionality) The lack of an application icon also seems fairly
pointless when exchanged for "exta" buttons which the "average" user might
not use)

Sorry to have so far been a "neigh sayer" but those are my problems with
this proposal. On a positive note I do like the use of light colours
throughout, something which many feel welcome given how dark some theme
proposals have been. I am also in agreement with you about the metacity
theme. While the style does look nice when changed to another colour (in my
opinion anyway - its a good mix between style and non-distracting for me). I
also especially like the Human icons - they bring over some of the
professionalism that gives it an edge over the equivalent crystal (or
possibly oxygen but less so) icons but without falling into the "traditional
GNOME icon style" which seems to encompass tango and of course the GNOME
icon set who's icons seem a little skinny and windows-98 gray ish for my
liking.

On 12/01/2008, Nick Bauermeister <Forlong at gmx.de> wrote:
>
> Now that it's certain we will continue to have the Human GTK theme in
> Hardy (which I think is a good idea, I still like - and use - it anyway)
> we should talk about changing the Metacity theme.
> To be honest, it's the only thing I don't like about Ubuntu's look and I
> know others feel the same, because the most talked about issue with
> Ubtunu's artwork is "the brown".
> But if you look at it, the only brown thing about Human is the window's
> titlebars (and the wallpaper but that's the easiest part to change).
>
> I think a titlebar change would make a whole different (better)
> impression of the Human theme.
>
> In general, Hardy should aim for a brighter, orange look and ditch the
> brown completely.
>
> Here's a screenshot of my current setup:
> http://blogage.de/files/1440/image?screen1.png
> Note that it's almost "standard Ubuntu".
>
> And with a look at the wallpaper
> http://blogage.de/files/1441/image?screen2.png
> It's (a patched version of one) from the "Orange pack" taken from
> http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Gutsy
>
> The titlebar is designed by myself using Emerald Theme manager but I
> think it would be easy creating something similar for Metacity:
> http://blogage.de/files/1442/image?ubuntuclean.png
> (the widgets on inactive windows get visible when hovering the mouse
> pointer over them)
>
>
> I don't propose that it has to be that particular theme but something
> along this way would be a nice visible change as well as easy to
> implement.
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-art mailing list
> ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
>
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