| The UIS2 Tutorial - Presets |
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There are four distinct areas to cover here, two relating to colors and two relating to fonts. As has been alluded to earlier in this tutorial, you can set defined colors and fonts which can be referred to elsewhere in the skin to avoid having to define each parameter every time. The other color section to cover is that WindowBlinds allows you to define the standard Windows colors as will in order to create consistency with your theme. This is the section we will deal with first. Windows Colors For those who have experimented with the standard Windows colors in the Windows Display Colors dialogue (and I expect that’s most of you!), you will know that there is a list of the elements whose color you can amend, together with the color. This color is (as previously) made up of Red, Green, and Blue components. The below code which makes up the [Colours] section should look very familiar, simply being a list of these components together with the RGB color that element should be. [Colours] Standard WindowBlinds Colors For those who have experimented with the standard Windows colors in the Windows how to define transparent areas, and the definition of multiple ‘states’ in a single graphic. [Colour0] [Colour1] [Colour2] Standard WindowBlinds Fonts For those who have experimented with the standard Windows colors in the Windows [Text] Traditional Windows text is flat, but WindowBlinds allows you to specify additional effects to your text; a shadow or an outline. This parameter allows you to specify your preference. 0 = ShadowTextR=0 These three parameters compliment the above Use3DText parameter. They specify the RGB color of the effect if there is one. In this case the ‘outline’ will be white. ShadowOffset=1 This is the distance by which the effect specified in the Use3DText parameter will be offset from the actual text. NoShadowInactiveText=0 This parameter allows you to specify whether the effect is visible in the inactive application windows. A value of 0 enables the effect, while a value of 1 disables the effect. The next section, [Fonts], allows you to specify the text style for the titlebar of applications. The first 2 parameters specify the font and font size. [Fonts] This parameter specifies how ‘bold’ the font is. Rather than just ‘Bold’, you have several options: 100 =
Thin As mentioned at the beginning of this section, you can make preset fonts that are referred to elsewhere in the skin using commands such as NormalFont=0 and MouseOverFont=2. You can have several predefined fonts, and these have a section each entitled [FontX] where X is a number. The NormalFont=0 command refers to the font described in the [Font0] section and the MouseOverFont=2 parameter would refer to the font described in the [Font2] section. [Font0] WindowBlinds allows you to rotate the text. This is the amount you wish to rotate the text. Increments are of 0.1° and therefore a 90° rotation would require a value of 900. AntiAlias=0 Specifying a value of 1 here would enable anti-aliasing which would smooth the edge of fonts, though this may not be necessary as Windows may do this for you using a feature such as ClearType. FontName=Comic Sans MS Here you specify the font you want to use for your skin. It is advisable that you either choose a font that is standard on Windows systems, or distribute information on where to get the font. FontHeight=14 This is the font size Italics=0 As with Windows you can choose to italicize the font used. Specifying a value of 1 here will set the font to an italic style. Underline=0 You can underline the font by specifying a value of 1 here. FontWeight=400 This parameter specifies how ‘bold’ the font is as described above. Values range from 100 to 900. DrawingStyle=0 This is similar to the Use3DText parameter specified above and allows you to apply a 3D effect to the text. The options available are below: 0 = ShadowR=128 As per the [Text] section, these parameters define the color of any 3D effect and the distance it is offset from the text. The rest of the fonts follow a similar structure. [Font1] [Font2] [Font3] [Font4] [Font5] [Font6] Font Layouts In addition to specifying font style you can specify how it is positioned. This is the aim of Layout sections, of which you can have many. [Layout0] The area for text can be relative to the whole item or a fixed number of pixels: 0.
Relative ShowIcon=1 This states whether an icon should be displayed if one exists. TextAlignment=0 This is how the text is to be aligned in the area. Your choices are as follows: 1.
Left Justified NormalBottomEdge=1 This is the amount that text should be offset from each edge or the area within which it is to be placed. NoIconBottomEdge=1 This performs the same function as the 4 lines above, but on occasions where there is no icon being displayed by the text. < Controls |
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