Haiku Theme

1

Spent few nights doing a bit of redesign on Haiku’s theme.
Just thought I’d contribute it, maybe to spark brainstorming discussion, inspiration, or simply gag reflex.

The GUI theme itself is designed to be more comfortable on the eyes when you work long hours staring at the screen.
The wallpaper may come out really strong, but you most likely cover the wallpaper with application window(s) when you’re working, so that shouldn’t be much of an issue.

The GUI colour is not too bright, not too much of a contrast. Just calm, wooden brown. No rounded corners, no thick borders. Drop shadows can be implemented once the developers are ready, no rush.
It’s nothing fancy, really. Just very neat and workable.
I didn’t use yellow because although Haiku is inspired by BeOS, it is not confined to be just a clone of BeOS. I see nothing wrong if we use other colour(s) in this respect.

If there’s enough interest/request, I can continue designing other parts of the GUI.

PS: Does anyone know where I can download Haiku’s logo in .EPS and its current icons in .PNG?

2

Hi wirwill,

a background and coloured tab is one thing, doing all the menus, buttons, etc. in a attractive, timeless and consistent way is extremely hard. If you want to try, just do it. :slight_smile:

You’ll find all icons and logos in the SVN: http://dev.haiku-os.org/browser/haiku/trunk/data/artwork
The icons are in Icon-O-Matic format, maybe you’d have to export those to PNG. Many were already done for the user guide, have a look here:
http://dev.haiku-os.org/browser/haiku/trunk/docs/userguide/images

Have fun!
Humdinger

3

I like the background (though I’m not sure if that is your work.) It seems to look like paper, with some simple sketches on it, which for me sort of evokes the idea of Haiku.

But I’m not a fan of the tab or scrollbar. Seems like it is an odd combination of the old Mac OS look and Ubuntu’s use of brown. I actually love brown as a color (have tons of brown shirts), but I’m just not feeling this.

But the size of the image (1024x600, the standard netbook resolution these days) has given me an idea: if you want to experiment with creative design for Haiku you could try your hand at designing a more netbook-friendly interface. Nothing too crazy, just maybe have the Deskbar at the top (which is doable now) and maybe some nice status icons for battery and what not. Also maybe some sort of large app launcher that can run on the desktop as a replicant. I’ve had ideas in this direction but haven’t really tried anything yet. Of course Haiku’s current interface is probably quite useful on a netbook, but I’m sure it could be better.

4

It like to me the syle of gui but the colors are too dark maybe something more neutral in colors, wall paper seems too rasta jej maybe some more OS, but pretty good Work congratulations.

5

Can you provide a bit of guidance as to how (or ‘where’) one changes the close / resize ‘button’ icon or colors in the tab bar?

Vision-challenged in my old-age, so am having to use rather odd Easter-egg tab colors to make those buttons even half-way visually-detectable.

Your use of the grey color with greater contrast shows it can be done.

Thanks,

Bill

6

Here’s some praise for you Wirwill. I actually like the colours. They’re soft and easy on the eyes. But as Humdinger pointed out, you need to add menus/buttons/toolbars etc so that we get a better idea of how well it integrates as a package.

7

Hi Bill. The Appearance preference provides a few settings, like the window tab and text colours. You can’t change the close button from there.
For more involved changes you’d have to code yourself a theme. If you are a programmer, you could look at mmu-man’s article on the Theme Manager: http://www.haiku-os.org/blog/mmu_man/2008-01-25/the_bowels_of_the_theme_manager_or_how_to_make_haiku_as_ugly_as_zeta

Regards,
Humdinger

8

[quote=Bill Hacker]Can you provide a bit of guidance as to how (or ‘where’) one changes the close / resize ‘button’ icon or colors in the tab bar?

Vision-challenged in my old-age, so am having to use rather odd Easter-egg tab colors to make those buttons even half-way visually-detectable.[/quote]

There are keyboard shortcuts for these window operations which you could use instead.

For your reference, here is a comprehensive list of shortcuts and key combinations in Haiku:

http://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/keyboard-shortcuts.html

9

Answering in reverse order … keyboards, ACK. preferred 'em for years vs pointing device, but now it is the reverse. I am either in an ssh shell to a *BSD box, ELSE clicking messages open in an MUA or selecting links in a browser. KBD may not even be in reach.

Coding - haven’t needed to do much original code for about 30-40 years.
But I can and do modify just about anything but APL.

Followed mmu_man’s work, found what I need to alter in ‘Button.cpp’, so that should solve the immediate Mark One eyeball challenge.

Justifying anything more complex (per-panel or per-app or per-desktop persistence of styling, size, and placement-as-at-last use, a la OS/2 Workplace shell) depends on what direction Haiku takes w/r a reasonably robust security model (covered elsewhere).

Thanks for the guidance!

Bill Hacker