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[Will N. Dowd]

I use Modern Cards: White Edition for MC 26 but don't like the little yellow stars for the song ratings so replaced them in the file with a black star I coped and pasted from skin Noire.

It worked and they show instead of the little yellow ones that are the default.

Strangely, I just got a new laptop and after moving that same skin over to my new laptop the black stars don't show up even though they are in the same file.

Modern Cards: White Edition just shows the little yellow stars on my new laptop.

Has anyone played around enough with these to help me out.
How do I take a screen shot of MC 26?

[zybex]

On Windows 10, Shift+Win+S triggers the Snipping tool to capture a part of the screen.

[EnglishTiger]

I use Modern Cards: White Edition for MC 26 but don't like the little yellow stars for the song ratings so replaced them in the file with a black star I coped and pasted from skin Noire.

It worked and they show instead of the little yellow ones that are the default.

Strangely, I just got a new laptop and after moving that same skin over to my new laptop the black stars don't show up even though they are in the same file.

Modern Cards: White Edition just shows the little yellow stars on my new laptop.

Has anyone played around enough with these to help me out.
How do I take a screen shot of MC 26?

Every release of MC28 includes the Modern Cards Skins - therefore to avoid any Update of MC from overwriting your Version with the Black Stars you need to Rename it

[Will N. Dowd]

I'm revisiting my old post. I've reset my laptop and am still using my favourite modern cards white edition skin on MC26.
I love the clean bright look but hate the tiny yellow stars and dots where no stars are.

On my old laptop I replaced the yellow stars with big black ones but as I mentioned in my OP it doesn't work on my newer laptop with a screen resolution of 2560 x 1600. I also scale text to 175% in windows 11.

If anyone can tell me step by step how to replace the small yellow stars with big black ones and no dots please do so, thanks!

[HPBEME]

It is far easier/faster for me to just make a new skin version for you that has black stars (and no dots) versus trying to explain it step-by-step.

Copy the folder inside the attached zip file to where MC stores all the skins. Assuming you have a 64-bit operating system, that will be located here: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 30\Skins\Standard View

Since all modern cards skins are included by default with every download (new installs and updates alike) the modified version requires a new/separate folder. Otherwise, any changes made to images (and the XML file) in the original folder will be overwritten each time. The folder name can be anything (e.g. "wacky new skin"), but the name shown in the View/Skin menu list is controlled by the 1st line in the XML file. Typically the folder name and the XML file's input for the skin name (in the first line) are the same, but they do not have to be. 

For the included file, I made the folder name and skin name in the XML file the same, so this modified version will be listed in the View/Skin menu as ModernCards White Black Stars.

Your Welcome.

[Will N. Dowd]

You sir, are spectacular.
Your reply and new skin file are most appreciated!
I downloaded it and copied folder to standard view skins and it works!

Here's the question.
How do I make the stars bigger?
I prefer the bigger black stars.

The folder has 3 files with the stars:
list_rating with small stars
list_rating-1,5x with small stars
list_rating-2x with big black stars

How do I make the stars bigger?
Do I copy the file with the big stars to the other ones and rename then so they have different names but large stars?
Do I erase the 2 files with small ratings and keep one with large stars?
Please advise
Thanks again!

[Will N. Dowd]

The first file shows the new skin you generously created for me but the stars are too small for my taste
The file with the large stars is what I'm looking for.

I created it by deleting the 2 small stars files and renaming the large stars file list_rating-1,5x.
Problem is then a white rectangle area appears around the stars against the alternating grey lines.
How do I have the large stars without the white rectangle around them against the alternating grey lines?
I hope the photos and explanation are easy to understand.

[zybex]

Tip of the day: press Win+Shift+S then draw a rectangle to take a screenshot (assuming you're on Windows)

[Will N. Dowd]

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know that, but now I do thanks to you!
This is nitpicking of course, but I hope they can show me a way to get rid of the white rectangle surrounding the black stars.

[zybex]

Well you can color the picture with the screenshot tool 

... I'm just filling in for HPBEME while he's asleep.

[retiredteacherguy]

This is nitpicking of course, but I hope they can show me a way to get rid of the white rectangle surrounding the black stars.

The image fill needs to be saved as .png that includes an “alpha” channel.

You can use https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/convert/jpg-to-png/transparent-png

[JimH]

Any new skin should have a different name and be located in the Custom Resources folder or it will be overwritten when you update.

[Will N. Dowd]

The image fill needs to be saved as .png that includes an “alpha” channel.

You can use https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/convert/jpg-to-png/transparent-png

Thanks for the tip and link, but when I tried using it the message says the image has to be greater than 50 and it is only 90 x 24.

[Will N. Dowd]

I used this but the quality after removing white background was awful:

https://www.media.io/png-maker-online.html

[Will N. Dowd]

The image fill needs to be saved as .png that includes an “alpha” channel.

You can use https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/convert/jpg-to-png/transparent-png

Success using this:

https://onlinepngtools.com/create-transparent-png

I wouldn't have been able to without your reply to big thumbs up to you for your help and knowledge.

I now have the big black stars I like with a transparent background!

[HPBEME]

... I'm just filling in for HPBEME while he's asleep.

Ha ha.  Thanks Zybex

Any new skin should have a different name and be located in the Custom Resources folder or it will be overwritten when you update.

In my post above, I explained how I set up the file so it will not get overwritten - it is not necessary to put it in the custom resources folder so long as you take the steps that I have done.  I have a dozen+ skins of my own (a bunch of variations on my 2 primary versions) as well as a number of MC default skins I've tweaked/renamed, and they never get overwritten.

I created it by deleting the 2 small stars files and renaming the large stars file list_rating-1,5x.

The different size image files is not how you're interpreting it. It is for automatically adapting to different monitor resolutions and window OS scaling settings.  The fact that you are able to delete 2 of them and MC defaulted to the remaining rating image without any issues confirms that for this particular MC display element, it is not needed to create specialized monitor resolutions/scaling images.  I don't do it with my skins, and the rating images display just fine regardless of monitor resolution/scaling.

None of that probably means anything to you, which is fine. That little bit above is really intended for other skin authors.

I created it by deleting the 2 small stars files and renaming the large stars file list_rating-1,5x.
Problem is then a white rectangle area appears around the stars against the alternating grey lines.
How do I have the large stars without the white rectangle around them against the alternating grey lines?
I hope the photos and explanation are easy to understand.

That rectangle around the stars should not be there, and is indicative that the transparent portion of the image is not 100% transparent. I don't see a rectangle around the stars on my monitor - probably because I have my brightness set fairly high so the background rectangle "washes out".  I selected the whole transparent area and deleted it just to be sure no trace of color remains.  The result is the attached file. Copy/paste it into the folder I provided you earlier, and see if that fixes it.

I also included a 2nd version of the large stars/no dots with compact spacing. To me, the stars are way too far apart and take up too much space. If you feel the same way, rename the 2nd file list_rating-2x.png and paste/overwrite the existing file, otherwise MC will not recognize the image name and thus not use it.

Best of luck and please report back how things turn out.