Author Topic: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR (Read 52453 times)

rbeeger · « **on:** April 01, 2007, 09:44 AM »

Hi,

I created a new skin for FARR. It's meant to be minimalistic or well ... slender

[attach=#1][/attach]

It's also meant to be used with transparency switched on.
Since it's tuned for FARR's popup window, there are some usability issues in the configuration windows of FARR:

The close icon is very small and hard to aim at. That's because the title bar of the window is very small and I didn't want to see a dominating close button on the popup window. The close icon also only appears when the mouse is over it. It is in the top right corner.
Text input fields don't have any borders. That's because I wanted the text input field in the popup to be borderless.

@mouser: Would it be possible to have an option to define a skin for the popup and another for the other windows. I would provide a version of this skin without the usability problems for use on those other windows.

The screenshot shows FARR with disabled status bar, disabled tool bar and hidden column headers. The column headers are also skinned. So if you like to have them visible, that should be no problem.

To install the skin copy the skn file contained in the attached zip file to FARR's skin folder and then select it in FARR configuration on the "Display"-page. To get around the mentioned usability problems, you can temporarily change to another skin, make your changes to the configuration and return to slenderFARR before closing the configuration.

Enjoy,
Robert

2008-01-12 : Added border less variant.

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** April 01, 2007, 10:02 AM »

coooooool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May I add this to the set of skins installed by default with FARR ?

Regarding the usability issues.. Perhaps i can make a special exception to turn of this skin while configuring the options.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #2 on:** April 01, 2007, 10:24 AM »

Beautiful!!!
It'll be my default skin from now on

rbeeger · « **Reply #3 on:** April 01, 2007, 10:25 AM »

coooooool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May I add this to the set of skins installed by default with FARR ?
-mouser (April 01, 2007, 10:02 AM)

Sure,I'd be honored to have my skin added to the default set of skins

Regarding the usability issues.. Perhaps i can make a special exception to turn of this skin while configuring the options.
-mouser (April 01, 2007, 10:02 AM)

Yeah, that's probably a solution. Typically the configuration windows aren't used that often. So they can stay unskinned.

cnewtonne · « **Reply #4 on:** April 01, 2007, 01:30 PM »

nice work. It is my default skin now.

lanux128 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 01, 2007, 08:52 PM »

works nicely for me.. good job, rbeeger.

btw, the options dialog can be closed via Alt-Spacebar-C..

tomos · « **Reply #6 on:** April 05, 2007, 06:21 PM »

looks lovely!

how do you disable tool bar -
is that simply the help & options icons in top right?

anyways, couldnt find how to remove them too..

thanks,
tom

mouser · « **Reply #7 on:** April 05, 2007, 06:27 PM »

you dont have to technically remove the toolbar, just click and hold to the left of it and drag it to far right which will hide it.

vinodkk1 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 09, 2007, 11:01 AM »

Can I have the download link for the latest FARR alpha/beta release

mouser · « **Reply #9 on:** April 09, 2007, 12:02 PM »

i've sent you the latest private alpha version (anyone who wants it please just send me an email to [email protected]).

lanux128 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 09, 2007, 08:37 PM »

mouser, maybe you should put a sticky "how to get the download link for the latest FARR alpha release"..

esteth · « **Reply #11 on:** April 10, 2007, 06:19 AM »

mouser, maybe you should put a sticky "how to get the download link for the latest FARR alpha release"..
-lanux128 (April 09, 2007, 08:37 PM)

not to sound stupid, but the top sticky allready says how to get the download link in huge red letters

mouser · « **Reply #12 on:** April 10, 2007, 06:26 AM »

hehehe.. never doubt the lanux creature!!!

i only added the huge red letters after lanux made his post

lanux128 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 10, 2007, 08:24 PM »

i only added the huge red letters after lanux made his post
-mouser (April 10, 2007, 06:26 AM)

hmm.. i must be second-guessing mouser..

cnewtonne · « **Reply #14 on:** April 11, 2007, 11:03 AM »

rebeeger,
with this skin, can you move FARR window? If not, how do you propose this can be done?

Also, is there a way to control the font size, color, background color in FARR's window?

rbeeger · « **Reply #15 on:** April 11, 2007, 11:57 AM »

rebeeger,
with this skin, can you move FARR window? If not, how do you propose this can be done?

Also, is there a way to control the font size, color, background color in FARR's window?
-cnewtonne (April 11, 2007, 11:03 AM)

There is a small caption bar at the top of the window. You can click on it and move the window around. To aim at that region with your mouse cursor can be quite challenging. Move the cursor to the top of the window until the resize cursor appears. Move the cursor a very little bit down until it changes back to a normal cursor then press the left mouse button and move the window.
There is a simpler method for changing the location of the window. Resize it on all four sides until it takes up the place you want.
I know that this would be horrible for a skin used in other applications, but since I normally don't move FARR's window, I don't think it's a big pain.

Cheers,
Robert

cnewtonne · « **Reply #16 on:** April 11, 2007, 02:48 PM »

what about the 2ns part of my inquiry?

mouser · « **Reply #17 on:** April 11, 2007, 02:51 PM »

ps.
the newest farr does not use skins on the option dialogs so the problem regarding the skin in the options is not relevant for now.

Nod5 · « **Reply #18 on:** January 11, 2008, 03:19 PM »

This skin is really slick.

One idea to make it even more minimal: add an option to make the "help" and "options" icons normally invisible but visible when the mouse pointer is held over them.

edit:
It could be even more minimal if there is some way to make the horizontal dividing lines between the input box and the match list and between the match list and status bar invisible. And remove the black border for the FARR window.

It would be really cool if it was possible to through the above and through transparency minimize the GUI so that it on launch only displays a blinking caret somewhere on the screen, waiting for input!

BTW, is there some way to make the caret itself more bold? I have set "Arial bold 14" for the input box and the caret looks a bit to thin in comparison to the typed characters.

rbeeger · « **Reply #19 on:** January 12, 2008, 09:38 AM »

I created a variant that doesn't have a border around the window. I still prefer the original variant, but it wasn't a big problem to modify the skin. So here it is. You'll find it in the first post of this thread.

Unfortunately it isn't possible for a skin to make any of the other adjustments proposed by you.

Cheers,
Robert

This skin is really slick.

One idea to make it even more minimal: add an option to make the "help" and "options" icons normally invisible but visible when the mouse pointer is held over them.

edit:
It could be even more minimal if there is some way to make the horizontal dividing lines between the input box and the match list and between the match list and status bar invisible. And remove the black border for the FARR window.

It would be really cool if it was possible to through the above and through transparency minimize the GUI so that it on launch only displays a blinking caret somewhere on the screen, waiting for input! BTW, is there some way to make the caret itself more bold? I have set "Arial bold 14" for the input box and the caret looks a bit to thin in comparison to the typed characters.

-Nod5 (January 11, 2008, 03:19 PM)

Nod5 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 12, 2008, 10:07 AM »

Robert, great!

I guess the other obstacles on the "road to minimality" are things only mouser can do something about.

Lashiec · « **Reply #21 on:** February 29, 2008, 09:18 AM »

Would it be possible to have only the main FARR window skinned? I love the skin, but seeing the rest of the FARR windows skinned (especially when you call Windows "Open" dialog) turns me off.

rbeeger · « **Reply #22 on:** March 01, 2008, 08:57 AM »

Would it be possible to have only the main FARR window skinned? I love the skin, but seeing the rest of the FARR windows skinned (especially when you call Windows "Open" dialog) turns me off.
-Lashiec (February 29, 2008, 09:18 AM)

Glad you like the skin.
There is no way for the skin author to determine what parts of FARR are skinned or not.

@Mouser: Could you add an option to only skin the main window and the menu on the main window with the currently selected skin? Although the options window itself isn't skinned, the Open dialog (used in "Options > Display > Play sound on display") and other windows like "Options > Updates ... > Set Plugin Memo Font" are skinned.

mouser · « **Reply #23 on:** March 01, 2008, 11:27 AM »

yes i think i can; i'll put it on my todo list which i am going to take a whack at this month,

Nod5 · « **Reply #24 on:** March 26, 2009, 02:31 PM »

this is still my main skin in FARR - minimal is best. But a drawback is that the vert/horiz scrollbar doesn't match the minimal style of the FARR inputbox.

Is there presently some easy way for me to change that?
I followed the initial advice in this thread https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=14454.0 to downloaded Skin Builder from http://www.link-rank.com/download.htm , opened the slenderFARR skin, imported scrollbars from another skin and saved. But just like Andish in that thread I get the "This skin is for older versions" error in FARR when I try to load the modified skin. Has some way around that problem cropped up by now?