[ubuntu-art] New Wave Theme

[François Degrave]

>
>
> >  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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