On Nov 7, 2007 12:14 AM, Troy James Sobotka <<a href="mailto:troy.sobotka@gmail.com">troy.sobotka@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen wrote: Another problem with dark themes is a purely technical one. I've done a handful dark themes myself, but they always end up with small glitches here and there because not all apps are designed to respect the theme 100% This makes for a bit of an amateurish feel in the long run. That is not acceptable for Hardy. I always seem to find myself in agreement with Mikkel's observations and conclusions. </blockquote> </div> One thing we may want to consider is quickly getting a dark theme in place in Hardy so that by Alpha 1, which is released November 29th, we can start getting bug reports on these problems. This could be as simple as including the ubuntu-studio theme, or it could be more advanced. I think the key is to get something in soon. Core devs are *already* running hardy, and in large part, they (not us) will need to help identify and communicate these problems to upstream. I can personally attest that a dark theme can be usable and very attractive. It is challenging to achieve a balance and to get your applications working and looking good. The beauty of a dark theme is it draws your eyes to your work, which will have a lighter color, and in a way relegates the controls and chrome to a less prominent positions without actually putting them in an unusual or unexpected place. An additional challenge with this type of functional art is to not be too clever. It still needs to be functional. Hmm... that might be a cool name for the new theme: functional-art. IMHO, I like these: <a href="http://guentherbeyer.de/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/ubuntu_804_theme_test_02b.png">http://guentherbeyer.de/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/ubuntu_804_theme_test_02b.png</a> <a href="http://pinheiro-kde.blogspot.com/2007/11/decisionsdecisionsdecisions-so-many.html"> http://pinheiro-kde.blogspot.com/2007/11/decisionsdecisionsdecisions-so-many.html</a> I especially like the way the buttons on this theme look similar to the keyboard buttons on the new macbook. -- Matthew Nuzum newz2000 on freenode