- Black_Beauty's_Chrome_Flourescent_Light_Effect
Probably best to get a drink, lunch, whatever! You hit on a subject I love! First started with this OS I assembled is very finicky as far as themes are concerned. 3 errors and forget it will not load! I am talking about small errors even such as border dimensions. Normally, px is the associated description of measurement. With many lines of programming it is very simple to miss putting it in with the corresponding number. So therefore a line of code could look as such: 1 0 1 1px . Without those px's after the 1 it is an actual error! Previous OS's I have had ran past those errors with no problem! This one does not!
Now presently, the very best I can do for a theme which is my personal favorite and use everyday is called Black Beauty II. As stated is up on Gnome Looks for everyone to download under same username I use here. I will also use some examples from it to show you what I did to make it happen. First though I need to give more background on this whole creation. Am doing this for the benefit of those that want to travel down this same path because for some of us is very enjoyable!
At first I did something I was not proud of. I simply took someone else's theme and changed the coloring scheme. Of course this helped me get used to the way of using colors and the lines of code. Next I took the best running theme called "Ambiance" which is Ubuntu's default theme on Gnome. Once again, I just changed the coloring scheme. What came out of it was some ugly looks! Coloring was nice, but things that should not show such as unwanted borders were there. I knew I had to come up with something better. I also did not want to be known as a mere "Copy Cat". So I then went into a bit of a lull for awhile going through many lines from several themes.
What came out of it was a parts of Ambiance, Nissl-Adwaita Dark 4 and added lines of code, to produce better effects. At that point I could not write a theme entirely myself, so I needed a foundation to start with. I knew that widget.borders.css was a file I could toss! Made things look terrible! Gtk in Ambiance needed more time than I was willing to give it, so yes dumped it and used the gtk from Nissl. At this point my themes no longer contained any white or black text except for icons on desktop. For those that start with colors, it takes time to get the right ones. Very very time consuming. Now most themes also have several areas where colors are listed. I found out is not the best idea. I do not have absolute proof, so do not quote me. I felt the numbers/color descriptions needed to be contained between gtkrc, gtk.main.css and index file. All other sheets were to follow those 3 sheets, including the metacity xml files.
Lines I added were for changes on the scrollbar. Originally, Ambiance made no allowance for hover and active. So what this allowed the theme to do was start out with the scrollbar being red, on hover would become amber and when clicking would become green. Hence part of the stoplight effect that I also have for the metacity I use. Metacity is based on OSX, Mac, but made for Linux. Pictures below will depict this. Next I added these lines to create what I call a "Flourescent Light Effect" also depicted below. Here are the lines that make that change:
GtkWindow {
color: @fg_color;
background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom,
shade(@selected_fg_color, 0.80) 1px,
shade(@selected_fg_color, 0.70) 8px,
shade(@bg_color, 4.0));
}
GtkDialog,
GtkAboutDialog {
background-image: none;
box-shadow: none;
}
This effect also carries to Chrome, Brasero, Synaptic, updates to add the extra looks. I have a firm belief a theme should be pleasing to the eyes. This is the first theme I have ever made that I feel so strongly about and actually pleases the most finicky part of myself! Pictured below you will see the effect on Gnome Tweak and Nautilus. Nautilus was a bit ugly before it, but has now picked up deceent looks!
Then there were other problems that were corrected. Programming is very difficult and I am on the low end still, definitely no where near pro! Still, through hours of reading what was there in the theme, I found some things that did not work properly. Also had great help from terminal. Best way there is to check a theme at present is to open up a terminal under sudo and open up themes and gnome tweak. Then you switch to the suspected theme. If there are problems, you will see the long list in your terminal! Been there, but also some problems escape that! Ones I found did! Lines were written 100% correct, unfortunately was 2 different ways in two separate places!
One of the problems that was caused is if Gnome tweak and Nautilus were open at the same time whichever window would be in backdrop the selection bar was no longer visible! Simple, was written 2 places 2 different ways. I simply deleted one entry saved the other and is good to go! Same held true for settings in Chrome browser as other places. Generally, since a theme that is default as such is written not just by one person but a few. Sometimes one does not know what the other has written. I have no proof but can only theorize as to why those problems were present.
Next, present in gtk3.0 was a file called gnome-applications.css. Now if it was applicable and in use reference to it would be in gtk.main.css. That did not hold true! Me, of curious nature activated it! You should have seen the list of errors in it! Was absolutely mind-boggling! Not all of it was not usable. I took what I was able to use, incorporated it into the theme and then deleted the rest. To fix the entire file would have been too much work, plus the added effect of having to correct other lines in the theme to coincide was not worth the effort! All I can figure is since Ambiance is not a brand new theme, some of those lines held a great presence shortly into the appearance of Gnome 3.0, but with progression some of those fell to the wayside! Was simpler to just leave commented out as had been done. Leave it for the pieces that were good and be done with it! I was very happy to have those pieces as they added a bit more support to Nautilus which is very important!
As have said, am no pro at programming just have 2 semesters of java. Still this does help me understand lines not written correctly, so is a plus. I am not so great at creating all of my own, so I do look up tons of information to do so! I found on my current OS the amount of work I had done had brought load time from boot up to about 10 seconds vs 30 seconds, so I do feel I did something right! Now this timing is against the Original Ambiance theme, which loads fairly easy. So I was happy to see I had actually beaten the load time. I sincerely believe it is due to the fact of everything simplified, defined correctly and organized. That was the reasoning behind all numbers restricted to only 3 files!
After the first correction I did with 1st version of Black Beauty, I felt bad again! I had used Ambiance for a great deal of the theme, so I felt I should also revamp the original theme. I did hit some negativity for this! Of course, I was to blame as I called it "Ambiance-Reborn". I guess it was pride, since I had felt so good about correcting some aspects and adding some touches to it! In reality, now if I ever have to reload, I will make that my default desktop! Not going to put pics up of it, but is nice. See the original author/authors made a little text error for the bottom taskbar. I simply corrected that aspect, then with the added scrollbar and other colors, it wound up like going from black and white to color! It looks sharp and to be honest I do not see too many people futzing with changes for Ambiance so much anymore! The original, I can't even tolerate for 5 minutes, this one I can handle it all day long! I also did the same for Nissl-Adwaita-Dark4. Using the gtkrc had saved me an hour's time, plus I always loved that theme! So I simply made a few adjustments, used 90% of the coloring scheme and put it up also. Only thing I ever disliked about Nissl was the text coloring!
Have been on computers since 2002 and I just had my fill of black and white text! I even stated that fact on a shell theme I did I put "White and black text (R.I.P). I feel text is another aspect of a theme! What is the challenge if it goes from semi-white to bright white? Many times, mine will go along the same coloring changes of green, amber and red. Other times different colors. My firm belief once again, a separate color should be used to notify a user of a different action! Why not? Since computers these days are immersed immensely in larger processors and chips for graphics, we can do this without a problem! So why would we want to stick with something that requires not even 1/20th of what our graphics can do??? Seems like a waste to me! Course not anymore and as I say everyday I enjoy every aspect of this theme. Am also so happy to see it has been downloaded quite a few times now! Love to make things nice for others!
See I also had wanted to create a way for users to create their own themes. Of course am just not good enough yet to do that! My solution was to restrict the coloring to those 3 files, so then the user can just change the colors needed to be changed and presto, they have their own! I also created a theme trainer, but was in hopes the more experienced would follow and add some to it. Course nothing close has happened on Gnome Looks, but least we have TheeMahn here that is working on the Ultimate solution and that would be to repair the theme! This is the hottest aspect can think of at present!!! I am looking forward to that big time! This will help us all learn and from someone who is a real programmer. Not only that he is the Picasso/Rembrandt of it!!!
Hope this all helps and if not, just let me know and will do my best always to help!