Help testing my new theme (XP)

Sorry i never got back to u before.. I'll check it out.

Thanks very much, looking forward to hear from you.

got it... but I gotta run into town...

Thanks Bichur, nice Avatar . Talk later then.

Looks ok this time first time tried it the taskbar and start menu was not skinned

Thanks RickJP. that looks much better I know, it was a total mess... kind of corrupted. Looks like the problem solved but i'll wait for more feedback (of course after such disaster)... Could you please test the second substyle-  "DarkerLava" ?

OK, bro, not bad at all for a newer skinner, personally it's not something I would use but to each their own, it's put together pretty well, I dont see any obvious errors other than the black menu stuff that u know about. as far as design goes, i might tone down the glass layer in the toolbar some, its much brighter than the top frame.. also.. i think the boxes behind the title buttons might look good darker... perhaps shiny black, dont seem to match to me as they are now., lastly i think the frames would look much better slightly rounded instead of rectangular.

Anyway.. just suggestions.. looking good for the type of theme it is.. good luck

By the way, i see you're using Firefox. Looks ok but ... if you like this theme, please have a look at my theme for Firefox3 - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11861/  . 

Thanks for the feedback, cheers.

that works was not a substyle first time. Already got your FF theme thanks

Thanks Master vStyler. First for testing, happy that it looks healthy (it was a nasty bug).

Second, thanks for the visual feedback, i agree with rounding the corners, i'll try for next update. Also the other suggestions, i'll look into it and try to come with improvements. I appreciate your opinion very much as i admire your skills and attitude!  Only one thing i didn't get...which are the boxes behind the title buttons?, not sure i get what You mean.

Thanks RickJP. That looks nice Happy u also got my FF Theme. Looks like i'll re-upload it soon. Happy the nasty bug is gone ...Wondering about misterious ghost inside the machine, all i did to fix it was "save as" under a different name ...

Thanks Bichur.

If you'll like to use only WB with the default firefox theme , then choose the darker substyle and the tab text will be white and perfectly visible.

You could also use the lighter substyle with my firefox theme without conflicts.

Only not the default firefox and the light substyle as you show (because the black text not designed to go with it).

The best is to use both, the firefox theme and the WB, then you got some kind of suite.

Hope it helps.

I figured that - it's just using both tend to make changing skins to something else more drawn out...

Don't get me wrong.. I like this skin

Thanks for the feedback, i agree, changing two themes can be a bit slow. Just wanted to make clear that the dark style is better with LavaFox and the light one as standalone with default FF theme. It's a good point that you mentioned and i forgot about. Happy you like the skin anyway. Thanks for helping .

using the darker version.. the text in the reply boxex at the DA forums turns a real light grey - hard to read at first

Yes, i know, on some sites there will be conflicts between the system colors and the site's programming. There is a way to solve it on Firefox. Options/Content/Colors and then cancell the "allow pages to choose their own colors" (you can also choose "use system colors" if you like it dark).

That'll solve the problem for that page. . Another comfortable way is to use userstyles (userstyles.org) with stylish so you can style your web the way you like it (dark for example). I use userstyles for gmail, hotmail and a custom about:blank page i made (as a stylish userstyle). You could also make all your web dark with grayish white text etc.

I must say, it is a limit of any dark theme for WB that will be some apps and webpages that won't display properly because they assume a white backgrownd.

Aware of that, i made the maximum tweaks and tested usability with all my apps and many webpages.

Together with the mentioned workarounds, i use all my apps and webpages with the dark substyle.

Hope it helps anyway.

Thanks for the feedback.

It kinda reversed paint.net too... noticed when I was fixing the shot I put together.. than in the menu that should have had dark text had greyed out text as tho it wasn't active to use

i liked the lightning balls too..

Yes, that's what i mean ... It's really up to the programming of the certain app how it behaves with skinning. A small price we have to pay (if we choose a dark theme). That's also why i include the light version (you could use it for work certain mission). But still, i find it's possible to use it with all my daily missions (GIMP looks great! , That's also why the text is grey and not white so it's visible somehow ... After all, it's a neccessary compromise unless Stardock will find a way to override such parameters with any app and website (i don't think it can be done). That's the nature of thigs from the programming view .. There are two attitudes when making apps, one will controll all the colors and look always same (blue or whatever) and other approach will try to fit with the theme and borrow some colors. The problem is when they make mistakes and take one color from the theme against hardcoded one so we get White on Light gray or black on dark gray. Nothing we can do about it .. Anyway, if there is a need, the light version will do the job in any case

The grey ovals behind your min\max buttons.

One more thing, I understand its dark by design, but to expect people to go changing system colors or run around tweaking their stuff to use a skin might be a bit of wishful thinking, I believe most folks don't want to be bothered with that, one click and go makes the ideal theme.

just a thought for future skins

Thanks for clearing that. I also need to explain my info. I never meant that people will change system colors. It's only a setup inside Firefox that overrides the colors of websites. (A pref)

The other option (Stylish) is a popular add-on (for Firefox) that works as a "click and forget" solution to style the web.

Very cool thing that remembers your settings for certain sytes so you can choose that hotmail will be always dark with matching texts etc.

There are also general styles that'll fix all this issues in few clicks(install and forget)

The styles are shared as we share our skins on userstyles.org

Firefox is great because it can be customized and millions are doing so happily.

Of course i don't expect people to change system colors , that's also why i include a "normal" sub-style that uses white background and black text and will have no visibility issues with any program or site!

We both know that within the limits of WB , any dark theme must compromise a little with visibility issues.

I did my best to minimize the issues, using it everyday(also to write this comment

I still think we shouldn't give up the whole idea of dark themes.

Hope this helps to clear the subject and hope my tips help to make the theme smoother for people that like it dark.

Thanks for the feedback.

Taking the time to make substyles and FF theme says a lot about u. Good luck mate.

Thanks vStyler. I appreciate very much your opinion. I've updated the screenshot that shows the two sub-styles. The second one has white (normal explorer background.

Happy to have so much feedback, specially from you!

Cheers.