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Textures

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The "Textures" tab allows you to add a texture effect to the skins frame, taskbar and start menu. "None" is selected by default, meaning no texture has been applied to the selected visual style. You may need to scroll through the existing texture samples horizontally to see all of them. Either left click & drag the coloured boxes to the left or right or click on the gray scroll bar and drag left or right.

Textures tab.

As you click on an existing texture thumbnail, the preview area will display how it will look on the skin. After making changes, you can apply it to your desktop by clicking the "Apply changes" button in the upper, left corner (top menu). A change on this tab will be reflected by showing a circled Texture tab checkmark checkmark on the "Textures" tab.

There are a few options (lower, left corner) that may be available to you if the skin supports them.

 Action

 Description
Use Texture Colour (Checked, default) Replaces the skin colour for the affected areas with the colour from the texture.

(Unchecked) The skin colour will be used instead of the texture colour.
Apply to Coloured Pixels (Note: "Apply to grey pixels" must be checked, for this option to be checked.)
(Checked, default) Applies the texture only to coloured parts of the skin.

(Unchecked) Applies the texture only to grey parts of the skin.
Apply to Grey Pixels (Checked) Applies the texture to grey parts of the skin.

(Unchecked, default) Applies the texture only to coloured parts of the skin.

Creating & Editing Effects

Additional options may include:

  • Create Effect - allows you to create a new effect by using an existing graphic file or using your own (i.e. photos). Formats supported are: PNG, JPG, BMP and TGA.
  • Edit Effect - edit existing effects, or ones you created. This also allows you to remove a texture from the window frame, taskbar and/or start menu by selecting "- No Texture -".
  • Delete Effect - remove the selected effect, including any included with WindowBlinds when installed.

Location of buttons for Create, Edit and Delete effects.

You can add a texture to any of the following areas:

 Area

 Description
Window Frame

The Window Frame is the top, sides and bottom around an application window.
Taskbar

The Taskbar by default, runs along the bottom of your screen, from the Start Menu button to the Notification Area (System Tray) with the clock. That background color can be replaced with a texture.
Start Menu

The Start Menu is what you see after clicking the Start Menu button (orb). The background color on the right side menu and frame on the top, left side and bottom can all be textured.

Create Effect

To create a new effect, click "Create effect" in the lower, right corner. The "Create Texture Effect" dialog box opens with options to change any of the three areas with existing graphic images or new images.

Create Texture Effect dialog.

To create a new texture effect with existing images, click the down arrow next to each respective area you wish to change. Then select the graphic image from the pull-down menu.

List of existing textures

To add a new effect using your own graphic image, click the Create new button next to the area you want to change. Use the Explorer window to browse to & select the desired image file (i.e. .PNG, .JPG, .BMP, and .TGA).

Creating a new texture effect - selecing an image file.

After locating the desired image, click Open. (Click Cancel or X to abort.) The "Create Texture" dialog will open displaying the image you selected.

Create Texture dialog viewing image tiled,

The image by default is titled, meaning copies of the image are rotated & repeated around a center point. For some images this may work better, however you can turn the feature off, by unchecking the "create tiling texture" box. Then copies of the image will be repeated around the center point, without changing the perspective.

If you click on the image, it will hide the copies so you can see the extent of just the one image (not repeated).

Create Texture dialog - clicking on image displays one copy.

You can alter the "Texture Scale" by dragging the slider Slider to the left (makes image smaller) or right (larger).


Zoomed all the way in (far left).Zoomed in (far left),
Zoomed all the way out (far right).Zoomed out (far right).

Another option allows you to crop (cut out) just the area of the image you want included and throw away the rest. You do this by creating a box of any size around the desired area. Left click & hold in what will become the upper, left corner of your box, on the image and drag down & to the right to size the box. You will see a dark box appear, as you drag the cursor.

Create Texture dialog showing crop box selection.

Release the mouse button when you are happy with the box (crop). You will then see just what was in that box, repeated on the screen. You can uncheck/check the box for Create tiling texture to see how that affects the pattern.


With tiling.Image tiled.
No tiling.Not tiled.

If you are not satisfied with the results and want to start over, you can click Select all of original image button (or click anywhere on the image) and the full image will be restored.

If you decide you want to try loading in a different image, click "File" (upper, left corner) and select "Load Image..." and the "Select Image..." dialog box will open and allow you to load in a different image. After browsing to and selecting the new image, click Open. (Click Cancel or X to abort.) The new image will be displayed in the "Create Texture" dialog.

To save the completed texture, click "file", then "Save texture". Give it a filename and WindowBlinds will save it in the correct folder for textures.

Save Image dialog.

At this point, you will be returned to the "Create Texture Effect" dialog box, where you can change the other areas if you want. When completed, click Close to save changes to the new effect. (Click X to abort.) The new effect will be added to the right of existing textures in the thumbnails. You may need to scroll to the right to see it. Then click on the new texture to select it and click "Apply changes" to apply it to your desktop.

New texture appearing as a thumbnail.

Edit Effect

To change a texture effect, first click on the thumbnail of the texture, then click "Edit effect". Like "Create effect", you can either change an area to using an existing image by clicking on the respective pull-down menu or click Create new for a new image. Alternately, you can remove a texture from an area by selecting "- No Texture -" at the top of the pull-down menu. After completing any edits, click Close to save changes to the effect. (Click X to abort.) Then click on the updated texture to select it and click "Apply changes" to apply it to your desktop.

Delete Effect

To delete an effect, first select it from the thumbnails, then click "Delete effect". You will be prompted to confirm the deletion of the texture. This will delete the .TEXTURE file (used to control what image(s) comprise the texture and how it is displayed. It will not delete the .TGA image file(s) from your hard-drive.

Delete selected texture effect? dialog box.

To remove the texture effect, click Yes. (Click No to abort.) The texture will be removed from the thumbnails.

Clicking X (far right, under preview) will close the "Textures" tab and return to the "Visual Styles" tab.

 

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