Change title bar in WindowBlinds Theme

Hello,

To do that you will need to replace the graphic for caption area on per pixel frame with your own which has shorter graphics in Skinstudios. Refer screenshot below.

Thank you.
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Thanks Basj!

I tried that over the weekend by scaling vertically that file you show up there, "diamond\frame-top-glass.tga", and also its twin "diamond\frame-top.tga".

I didn't know what to do with that grey part below the blue part though. So I just scaled the whole thing with the scaling function by 12 pixels and then cropped off the rest.

And it worked, too. Title bar is now less high.

But the rounded corners are distorted, in that they have white, edgy corners behind them. Also, the color itself is wrong, the blue is all too bright now.

Something is still missing here. Can you help me, please?

Mubuk

I believe that might be cause the way you edited that graphics file. It need to be in transparent pna or tga format and the scaling setting need to be correct. I think it best if you goes through this tutorial to help you with those setting:  https://forums.wincustomize.com/447931/SkinStudio-Tutorial-by-Vampothika

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Thankyou Basj,

I looked into that tutorial, but it doesn't help with my particular problem at all, since it doesn't go into the intricacies of formatting an image for use in transparent and glass modes in Caption bars.

See, I don't know anything about skinning, and I don't intend to. I just want the Caption bars in normal and maximized windows of that theme a lot flatter. Wouldn't it be much easier if you'd tell me exactly what I have to do to get there?

(Unfortunately, your upload routine can't handle TGAs, so I'll have to use the PNGs of that folder instead. They look similar at least.) Example given, what do I do with the upper and lower parts of these bitmaps respectively?

They represent the double height of the caption frame. Where exactly do I cut? And which images belong to the stack as well, I mean, which ones would I have to change similarly?

Will you help me, please?

Mubuk

I think it best if you can send me your modded WBA file and let me check it on my system. I PMed you my email address.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

I've look at it and from the look I saw you changed the top frame area but you did not the Glass area. I am no expert on implementing glass in WB but my best guess is, you also have to change that part too.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Hello basj,

thanks for the tip, but that's not working either. The setting "64" in your screenshot is a bit mysterious though, because in my settings, it is correctly stated as "52". Since that is a global setting for the entire PerPixel section, I didn't have to set  it either.

Indeed this  seems to be a true specialist question, not to be solved by guessing. Since the "Diamond" theme is a per-installation standard by Stardock themselves, they also should know how to fix it, no? Couldn't you get in touch with the original authors and ask them what goes where and how it's done?

Thanks,
Mubuk

Actually, no, the free themes that come with Windowblinds are as is, but if you want to change it to suit your requirement, than it is up to you to do it.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Dear basj,

I get it. The themes are for free

But still, there should be some thorough documentation to take the guesswork out of using Skin Studio, shouldn't there? I mean, this whole process has been so unbelievably complicated till now, not to mention the memory leaks in the software itself that have me reload the Skin Studio program every time I want to see the changes. It's like playing Riven, but without the fun.

So, if you sell software, I suggest you support this paying user in using it.

Mubuk

You shouldn't/don't need to do that.  If you're editing the image using the "Edit Image" button ("1." in image below), then you should be able to click on the "Force image reimport" text (2.) and then the "Apply skin" text (3.) and load the skin as edited.  "Force image reimport" should usually update the previews.  Skin Studio reimports images when you open a skin, I think that's what's making you believe you need to exit it to see the changes.

Those numbers should merely be showing the image dimensions, Width x Height.  On an older version of Diamond I have on hand the titlebar height was 52, on the current version of WindowBlinds I have installed it's 64.

Which brings up a point - if you're going to edit a shipped skin, it is best to make a copy of it first through SkinStudio with a different name and edit the copied skin, as those skins do get updated occasionally and your edited version may become entangled.

Thank you all, I didn't know about the purpose of forced re-import, which is kind of my point: No documentation on a program that's pretty much as complex as an IDE. Or a 747. Gift horse or no.

On the same note, it turns out the main culprit was my pixel editor. See, most of these are 32bit images, not 24, because of an additional alpha channel on top of the usual RGB. As soon as I got myself a copy of paint.net, my troubles were over. But was I really supposed to ... what, divine that somehow?

Also, there stays a lot to be desired on terms of user guidance. E.g., I can just select another image out of that gigantic drop list and then wonder why my title bars got black all of a sudden. And that user-drawn drop list is surely nice but almost unsearchable. This program is more of an inhouse tool.

Mubuk