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Making Themes
Contents
Introduction
In Short
Tools
Button States
General Styles
Alone
Bubble
Tile
Stylized
Integrated
Simple
Complex
Main Controls
Secondary Controls
Playlist Controls
Toolbar
Icon List
Releasing
Credits
Licenses

Chapter 5. General Styles

This section does not regard eMotion in particular, but buttons in general. There are a lot of styles of buttons, and I thought I would mentiond a few as food for thought.

Alone

The default eMotion theme, The Blues, is this type of icon them. An example of it is above this as an example. This is a style for which I can't really think of a proper name. The button is seperate from the rest of the interface. Only the symbol for the button is used for the button, rather than putting it on a surface to make it appear as a button which can be pressed. The button is only a symbol.

Bubble

Bubbly is an example of an icon set using bubbled buttons. Each button is on the face of a bubble or a disc of some sort, and it can look pressed down when in the pressed state. Although Bubbly is not the best example of such a theme, bubble themes can look very good. The buttons have a consistent, good look which is also fairly easy to make. Also, circles are easy on the eyes, which is worth considering when designing elements of an interface.

Tile

Tiles are square buttons which back icons. An icon theme could easily be designed on the idea of tiles, just as it could be designed to use bubbles, although I have not done so.

Integrated

Integrated icons aren't particularly possibly in eMotion because you cannot edit the color of the background. However, one could be done using the transparency element of PNGs. The example for this is from the Firebird Theme, Pinball. By integrated theme, I refer to the way the buttons merge into their background, making them appear to be integrated into the desktop. Winamp, as it makes the entire window by itself, always has integrated buttons for its theme. Integrated Icons can also be partly another button type.

Stylized

By stylized, I am refering to how different the various icons are. There are some standard symbols for various commands (such as a forward arrow for play, and a double forward arrow for fastforward), but they need not be used in the standard manner. As long as there is something to denote what a button does, most people can easily learn to associate a slightly different symbol with an action.

Simple

By simple, as opposed to complex, I refer to how intricate the icons are. For the example, I have the them 'Black'. Black is about as simple as a theme can get. That is its purpose. Simple themes are very useful because the icons can be much smaller and still remain recognizeable, and that can be very important on some displays. Also, simple themes often don't suffer from being scaled up really far, allowing people who need very large icons to not have a hideous interface.

Complex

Complex themes are the reverse of simple themes. Complex themes often won't work at varied sizes, but can look excellent when at their proper size. Complex themes are very much a taste issue. They make for busier, more intricate interfaces, which some people prefer.


 
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