Author Topic: Opera 9.5 — New Skin (Read 14946 times)

nontroppo · « **on:** June 06, 2008, 04:24 AM »

Hi guys,

Just curious on what you Opera and/or polybrowser users think of Opera's new look for 9.5?

http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/

For me, it is clearly better than the old baby-blue-everywhere skin, and I prefer the reduced color palette (less distracting). Page (tab) bar is a bit to Vista-like and heavy IMO, with too much padding. But this is less of an issue on OS X, where the native skin is default.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #1 on:** June 06, 2008, 04:39 AM »

Oh, i tried it yesterday (had to move the skins folder, as i was upgrading from a previous instalation and the installer didn't overwrite the skins folder).
I think it does look good, or at least way better than the previous skin.
I'm not very fond of the fact that they removed the "open pannel" button on the left edge, i liked it more like that.
Also, it's too bad that when you reduce the size of the skin, the tab bar doesn't get smaller. I think this is the biggest problem, right now i have a small toolbar with a tab bar that is almost 2 times larger

allen · « **Reply #2 on:** June 06, 2008, 08:25 AM »

I like it a lot better than the old default--I especially like the panel bar, it's sleek. I don't use the main toolbar or the tab bar but enabled them briefly to take a look. I think my biggest complaints would be 1) As mentioned, the tab bar doesn't scale 2) The tab bar is the coolest looking aspect of it . . . and I don't use it. D'oh!

I'm not sure if this will ultimately replace Breeze Simplified Micro for me though--at least as long as Breeze is available. (Do plan to keep updating it, nontroppo?)

Lashiec · « **Reply #3 on:** June 06, 2008, 09:04 AM »

Well, my first impression is good, which is quite something considering how picky I am about skins, and being very accustomed to the classic one. So far, the big WTF? is the red cross button to close the tabs, is very small, and not well positioned, I would opt for something more akin to what it's now. Anyway, it's a WIP so it will change for the better in new revisions. Also, the sidebar activating method will be missed.

I like that the Opera guys continue to maintain (for now) the normal skin, as well as improving the native ones

. But I wonder why they decided to include it so soon, as it was theoretically slated to be included with Opera 10...

armatostr · « **Reply #4 on:** June 06, 2008, 10:30 AM »

I'm not very fond of the fact that they removed the "open pannel" button on the left edge, i liked it more like that.
-jgpaiva (June 06, 2008, 04:39 AM)

You can reenable the sidebar button in the appearance>Panels options, now is just turned off by default.

About the new skin and layout I really like it, though I'm not sure if it's really less distracting. One thing that I really thought I wouldn't like was the small close tab button, because I'm really good at closing tabs by accident and now I'm not that good anymore

Darwin · « **Reply #5 on:** June 06, 2008, 10:53 AM »

I like the new skin, but I actually find it more, not less, distracting than the one it replaced as default

jgpaiva · « **Reply #6 on:** June 06, 2008, 11:33 AM »

Thanks armatostr! Now I've got my button back

allen · « **Reply #7 on:** June 06, 2008, 03:39 PM »

. . . and it has already been Updated

jgpaiva · « **Reply #8 on:** June 06, 2008, 03:42 PM »

Yep, and unfortunatelly they haven't fixed the scale issue on the tab bar

But it is looking better, the higher contrast on the elements contributes to a better Opera Experience™.

DjiXas · « **Reply #9 on:** June 06, 2008, 04:26 PM »

Don't want to spam here, but here's a review of it

http://www.favbrowse...-95-new-skin-review/

Lashiec · « **Reply #10 on:** June 06, 2008, 06:05 PM »

Ooooh, fantastic, they also added the new malware protection feature that Firefox 3 has, although they use a different provider, now SpyBot can only protects us in IE

. At this rate they'll run out of features for Opera 10, but what about better integration with web services, like mail?

Nice analysis there, DjiXas, its author make some good points. Is that your blog, by the way?

DjiXas · « **Reply #11 on:** June 07, 2008, 05:47 AM »

Yes, it's mine Lashiec. Thanks for your compliments :-)

urlwolf · « **Reply #12 on:** June 07, 2008, 05:58 AM »

It screwed icons for mail in the skin I use normally...

Darwin · « **Reply #13 on:** June 07, 2008, 11:56 AM »

Thanks for the link to you blog and review, DjiXas! Welcome to DonationCoder

nontroppo · « **Reply #14 on:** June 10, 2008, 10:27 AM »

Allen: yes breeze simplified micro will get some TLC when Kestrel goes gold. I'll also make a version of the standard skin that is much more screen-space efficient. Lots of small changes have been made to Opera's skinning engine for the better in kestrel too...

jgpaiva: what do you mean by scale issues on the tab bar?

jgpaiva · « **Reply #15 on:** June 10, 2008, 10:55 AM »

jgpaiva: what do you mean by scale issues on the tab bar?
-nontroppo (June 10, 2008, 10:27 AM)

When you scale the skin to 90%, the toolbars get smaller, but the tab bar keeps its size (which i think is WAY too big). It'd be nicer if it'd get smaller, specially given the fact that there's space over and below the text..

allen · « **Reply #16 on:** June 10, 2008, 12:25 PM »

Allen: yes breeze simplified micro will get some TLC when Kestrel goes gold. I'll also make a version of the standard skin that is much more screen-space efficient. Lots of small changes have been made to Opera's skinning engine for the better in kestrel too...
-nontroppo (June 10, 2008, 10:27 AM)

Excellent news!

tomos · « **Reply #17 on:** July 08, 2008, 02:50 AM »

I'm only after installing 9.5 yesterday,
first thing I did was get rid of the skin - it might look good on vista but [I think] it looks terrible with XP or classic themes

I see they have a reduced size one on offer as well

I opted for the minimalist_native-2_2 skin - not very exciting but ...

Opera 9.5 — New Skin

Breeze,
the minimalist ones, look really good

edit/ added screenshot

Ampa · « **Reply #18 on:** July 08, 2008, 06:36 AM »

Hate the new skin... went straight back to the old one.

tomos · « **Reply #19 on:** July 11, 2008, 03:57 AM »

Allen: yes breeze simplified micro will get some TLC when Kestrel goes gold.
-nontroppo (June 10, 2008, 10:27 AM)

it is currently available (maybe everyone else already knew

but I didnt/realise it would work)

Menu/Tools/Appearance/Skins/ - select "find more skins"
scroll down to bottom of page, it's still dated 2006 but it seems to work well here

Opera 9.5 — New Skin

[edit/ added image]