How to gammagroup TTF and bitmap fonts

[rpeterclark]

Hello skinners, it seems I have come across a way to color theme fonts, both bitmap and TTF. It's not easy though, and Winamp might have this fixed in the next public build, so it's up to you to decide if you want to go through the hassle.

The key element here is the "General" gammagroup. ThePlague pointed out this group to me. This gammagroup will color EVERYTHING, including all fonts, with the values you specify.

To start, create the gammagroup "General" with the value you want for the fonts:

code:


<gammagroup id="General" value="2304, -2176, 3584" gray="0" boost="0" />

Then to get everything else back to it's normal color, you have to cancel out the values in "General" with opposite values:

code:


gammagroup id="player.metal" value="-2304, 2176, -3584" gray="0" boost="0"/>

You have to do this for every gammagroup, including system ones (search for "gammagroup" in *.xml files in the WACS folder to find all of the system gammagroups). You then use the cancelled values as your starting point to get the color you actually want.

Following the example above, let's say you actually wanted the gammagroup "player.metal" to have a value of "1000, -500, 2000", it would come out like this:

code:


gammagroup id="player.metal" value="-1304, 1676, -1584" gray="0" boost="0"/>

The only side effect I've found so far is that this method colors EVERY font throughout the skin. You cannot specify a specific font color for a specific font.

Hope this helps some of you out!

[iPlayTheSpoons]

heres a pretty good list of the system's gammagroups i just threw together, so i might have missed some:

Titlebar Font
Button Fonts
Display Fonts
Backgrounds
Display Backgrounds
Tree Color
Scrollbar Backgrounds
Scrollbar Buttons
Buttons
Checkboxes and Radio Buttons
Menus
Titlebars
Sliders Backgrounds
Text

[eh?one]

wow! i never even knew such a bug existed i'll keep this tip in mind

[mc^^^^]

maybe this should have been posted in the tips & tricks thread?

[rpeterclark]

That would have been the smart thing to do, huh?

I'll go put it there...

[rpeterclark]

I found 1 additional side effect. The method above will of course color theme elements defined without a gammagroup. If you have maps you use for regioning and they don't have a gammagroup defined, it WILL color it and mess up your MAKI.

It's easy to fix though, just put your map type images in a gammagroup and cancel out the "General" values to get them back to the original colors.

[Plague]

hehe, cool side effect...

this method is a pain in the ass but atleast it's working and the already created themes (using this method) will still work when Nullsoft finally fixes this most annoying bug.
So no old themes will have to be re-created but new themes can then easilly be created the "normal" way..

It's sorta a win-win situation

-Plague

[rpeterclark]

Automate bitmap and TTF gammagroup calculations

For those interested in the technique I described above to color themes fonts, I've whipped together a tool to help automate the necessary calculations. You can use it here:

http://www.rpeterclark.com/Projects/...eGenerator.asp

[Plague]

cool!
That's a great tool you have there!
Now it shouldn't be any problem to make those themes.

-Plague

[eh?one]

wow, that is uber useful. you should add that to your projects section when its finished

[Plague]

it's in his Tools section incase you missed it..

-Plague

[eh?one]

oh, sorry, my bad

[frisbeemonkey]

Hey cool! This is a crazy workaround, but if it works, I can't knock it. Good find indeed. And thanks for the list iPlay and for the generator rpc.
And careful there eh?one, one more mistake like that and we have to add you to our "tools" section...
~FrisbeeMonkey

[eh?one]

lmao

[Plague]

can't someone make this a sticky..?
Until Nullsoft fix this very very very annoying bug, this is uber useful.

-Plague