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[Mr ChriZ]

There doesn't appear to be a way of changing the text colour for non active tabs (Main display).
The current text seems to be set via the List Current text, but the others remain black.
I'm trying to implement dark tabs, so the text disappears.

Peculiarly the active tab colour depends on what tab you're on!
For example as I've got my skin set at the moment:
If you go to the Start page the tab text goes black,
but when on Audio it's Blue!




I've tried modifying every XML colour to FFFFFF, and still they show up black
on certain tabs...

[<°)))))><]

Vice versa, when using skins with dark list backgrounds and light list text
(e.g. Thunderstorm, Blue Steel), the text disappears when the tab is activated:



This happens for tabs that show view schemes from audio, images or video.
When showing "Playing Now", "Playlists", "Drives & Devices" or other lower entries
from the tree, the text appears in black.



Another issue is that MC uses some filter to display the active tab:



Inactive tabs just use the defined image and are brightened up on mouse over (OK..),
but the defined image for active tabs and the border row from underneath the tabs
are always brightened up. This seems to be unnecessary, or not?

If the "SplitViewTab_Button.png" from "Default Skin Items" where modified to show
an brightened up active tab, the filter could be removed and all skins that use this
default image would work like before. But along with separate color settings for tab text
colors there would be the chance to *really* skin the tabs...



Another issue caused by the color calculation from list text colors is the appearance of
the top bars in in split views when using skins with dark list backgrounds and light list text:



The color of an active top bar in split views (columns/rows mode) is the same as the one
that is defined as the background color for lists. The color of an inactive top bar is the
same but overlayed with the color that is defined as list text color.

This works fine as long as the background is light and the text is dark, so e.g. an
active top bar is white (=white list background) and an inactive top bar is in darker
grey (=white list background + overlayed black from list text).

But for skins with dark list backgrounds and light list text, this means that the inactive
top bar is light and the active top bar is dark. This contradicts the way it is handled in
other parts of the program (e.g. tabs and mouse over) with the same skin and can be
very irritating. Separate color settings or an automatically reverse calculated overlay
for the top bar (and it's text) would be much better...

[Matt]

We'll standardize this next build.

The tab art will use a standard 4-state image.

The text colors will come from the view header section of the skin.

[Mr ChriZ]

Cheers Matt 

[Matt]

Please let us know if there's anything we missed after trying build 451 or later.

And thanks for the detailed reports.

[<°)))))><]

Thanks for the changes, Matt :-)

Some comments/questions after testing build 451:

- The "brighten up filter" was removed, the SPLITVIEWTAB > Button makes use
  of the first three images for tabs that are inactive, active and inactive with
  mouse over. Is there or will there be any use for the fourth image?

- As the image for SPLITVIEWTAB > BorderRow always stays the same, is there
  or will there be any use for a second image defined in the main.xml?

- The "SplitViewTab_Button.png" in "Default Skin Items\Standard View" should be
  updated to better handle old skins without the SPLITVIEWTAB entries in main.xml.

- As the text colors for tabs are tied to the entries from LIST > Colors, skins with
  dark list background must have dark tabs and skins with light list backgrounds
  must have light tabs. This makes sense somehow and looks good in general for dark
  and light skins. But it's of course a little restriction... I guess, for example the tabs
  Mr ChriZ is creating will not work, because the text will still not be readable...

- After switching split views between Rows/Columns and Tabs, sometimes the drawing
  of the SPLITVIEWTAB > BorderRow is wrong/stays visible or rather the height of the
  items is wrong. In Tab mode, the BorderRow under the active Tab is drawn only as a
  thin line sometimes...



...while in Rows/Columns mode, there's some space left under the bar:

[Matt]

- The "brighten up filter" was removed, the SPLITVIEWTAB > Button makes use
  of the first three images for tabs that are inactive, active and inactive with
  mouse over. Is there or will there be any use for the fourth image?

Image four is the disabled image, image five is the hit region.

Neither image four or five are used currently for tabs.

- As the image for SPLITVIEWTAB > BorderRow always stays the same, is there
  or will there be any use for a second image defined in the main.xml?

Only one image is needed now.  Previously there was art for putting the tabs at the top of the view and also the bottom.  Since the bottom mode was never used, we removed the art.

- The "SplitViewTab_Button.png" in "Default Skin Items\Standard View" should be
  updated to better handle old skins without the SPLITVIEWTAB entries in main.xml.

You're right.  Although it never looks very good.  We never came up with generic art we liked.  Suggestions welcome.

- As the text colors for tabs are tied to the entries from LIST > Colors, skins with
  dark list background must have dark tabs and skins with light list backgrounds
  must have light tabs. This makes sense somehow and looks good in general for dark
  and light skins. But it's of course a little restriction... I guess, for example the tabs
  Mr ChriZ is creating will not work, because the text will still not be readable...

Actually the colors come from the view header section of the skin.

ViewHeader::TextColor
ViewHeader::HotTextColor
ViewHeader::BackgroundColor
ViewHeader::HeaderBackgroundColor

If these colors are not provided, it falls back to using list colors.

- After switching split views between Rows/Columns and Tabs, sometimes the drawing
  of the SPLITVIEWTAB > BorderRow is wrong/stays visible or rather the height of the
  items is wrong. In Tab mode, the BorderRow under the active Tab is drawn only as a
  thin line sometimes...

When switching on the fly, some things won't update perfectly until you switch views.  It's a known issue.

[<°)))))><]

Matt, thanks for the detailed answer!

- The "SplitViewTab_Button.png" in "Default Skin Items\Standard View" should be
  updated to better handle old skins without the SPLITVIEWTAB entries in main.xml.

You're right.  Although it never looks very good.  We never came up with generic art we liked.  Suggestions welcome.

Mmh, I think the previously used image looks quite good with all skins... because it uses
more or less grayscale colors it's quite neutrally... that can not be done much better :-)

I was just thinking about putting the modified image (from the Noire skin)


into the installer as a replacement of the current (old) default image


because the old image will show a funny upside down flipping on mouse over
with the changes done in 451...

Actually the colors come from the view header section of the skin.
ViewHeader::TextColor
ViewHeader::HotTextColor
ViewHeader::BackgroundColor
ViewHeader::HeaderBackgroundColor
If these colors are not provided, it falls back to using list colors.

OK, I searched for a skin with "ViewHeader" section or "HotTextColor" entry,
but was not able to find one... is there a (newer?) skin that already uses
these settings (to see what else is in the section...)?

[Matt]

OK, I searched for a skin with "ViewHeader" section or "HotTextColor" entry,
but was not able to find one... is there a (newer?) skin that already uses
these settings (to see what else is in the section...)?

There may not be an example.

I think you can add something like this to any skin:

<ViewHeader>
    <Colors HotText="FFFFFF" ...add other colors here... />
</ViewHeader>

[<°)))))><]

Yes, there is no example (checked in all available skins ...).

But no problem... I added

Code: [Select]

<VIEWHEADER>
     <Colors TextColor="FF00FF" HotTextColor="FF0000" BackgroundColor="00FF00" HeaderBackgroundColor="F0FF00" />
</VIEWHEADER>
to the main.xml (shrill colors, but god for testing...).

Unfortunately, this shows no effect at all, not on tabs or header bars.
So I guess this was also removed at some time...

[Matt]

Yes, there is no example (checked in all available skins ...).

But no problem... I added

Code: [Select]

<VIEWHEADER>
     <Colors TextColor="FF00FF" HotTextColor="FF0000" BackgroundColor="00FF00" HeaderBackgroundColor="F0FF00" />
</VIEWHEADER>
to the main.xml (shrill colors, but god for testing...).

Unfortunately, this shows no effect at all, not on tabs or header bars.
So I guess this was also removed at some time...

Use this:

Code: [Select]

<VIEWHEADER>
     <Colors Text="FF00FF" HotText="FF0000" Background="00FF00" HeaderBackground="F0FF00" />
</VIEWHEADER>

You don't need to say "Color" again inside a colors block.

[<°)))))><]

Use this:

Code: [Select]

<VIEWHEADER>
     <Colors Text="FF00FF" HotText="FF0000" Background="00FF00" HeaderBackground="F0FF00" />
</VIEWHEADER>

You don't need to say "Color" again inside a colors block.

Cool, that works, very nice! Thanks!

From sheer curiosity... is there also a way to set the mouse over color of
the little browser icons (back/forward/reload) in the header? Currently, this
seems to be always black... Maybe the "HotText" color could be used here, too?

[Beatnik62]

While trying to adapt my standard skin "No. 4" to the new option of the skinning engine  I recognized some additional changes. The seperator of the menu and the little arrow at the column header has now a differnet color. How can I get the control about this colors ? Even the shape of the arrow and the check mark in the menu are a little bit different.

MC 12.0.428



MC 12.0.451



Beatnik

[Beatnik62]

I'm not sure if it is a bug or only a glitch, but you can also recognize the color and shape differences of the small arrow and menu separator in other skins like Thunderstorm, Bluesteel and Noire. Will it be fixed ?
It seems to be a relationship between the header text collor and the color of the small arrow, because only if choose black or white you will get the same for the text and arrow.

How do I get this solved ?

MC 12.0.428
Thunderstorm :

Blue Steel :

Noire :


MC 12.0.451
Thunderstorm :

Blue Steel :

Noire :

[Matt]

In 453 and later:
Fixed: Line drawing could use incorrect colors (red and blue channels flipped).

[robydago]

Code: [Select]

<VIEWHEADER>
     <Colors Text="FF00FF" HotText="FF0000" Background="00FF00" HeaderBackground="F0FF00" />
</VIEWHEADER>


How do I set different text colors for the active tab and for the inactive tabs?
I'm trying to use white text in the active tab only and black text in all inactive tabs.

Ciao.

[marko]

Is it possible to specify an image to be used for the view header?

[Mr ChriZ]

Which bits the view header?

[marko]

yes, something like...

<VIEWHEADER>
     <Colors text="000000" HotText="0913e0" HeaderBackground="d8d5d1" />
     <entry name="background" bitmap="vh.png" />
</VIEWHEADER>

do-able?

[Mr ChriZ]

Sorry that was really dumb question in context of the thread that I started. 
I doubt that's possible at the moment, never seen it done.
Over to JR.