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14

Looks exciting - but, TBH, I wouldn’t want to spend hours editing with this theme - would probably make me too aggressive. Plus, it’s not really ergonomic (contrasts, hard-to-read rack/plugin labels.

Increasingly, I tend to use very simple, relaxed interfaces that help me concentrate on content/workflow and not on shiny reflections on buttons etc. And when playing live, that principle holds even more: I need layouts / colors that let me focus at one glance on what is important.

Live interfaces tend to be more colorful for me than Studio stuff: I spend more time staring at the screen in the studio, so I need the screen to be more subdued to not wear my eyeys out - couldn’t work with this theme at all. When playing live, colors are more important, since they help “anchor” the eye quickly when simply glancing at a screen in passing, so I use bright colors and strong contrast to set important items off from the un-important - doesn’t look very sophisticated like some of the fancy tone-in-tone DAW interfaces but helps navigate quickly on stage. But too much color would be like screams from every direction of the room: you don’t know where to focus.

So whilst this theme does really look cool when showing off Cantabile, I don’t think it really helps USING Cantabile.

I think that @brad has done a great job combining looks and ergonomics in his two themes.

Just my 0.02 EUR - no offense…

Cheers,

Torsten

2 Likes
15

Thanks Torsten,
Yes I agree, a theme has to be very simple and basic.
For sure Brad has done a very well job on it.

For me, I need it to have the most important things very clear and bright, the other things you can almost ignore.

That’s what I tried with this theme:

  • upcoming songs are dimmed and the current song is forward.
  • the colors are for showcase now, as you can see, I added some very bright, so I can mark, almost in fluo some lines (fushia, yellow, cyan)
  • the level markers are bright green, not grey (I can understand grey was used, as this was the normal state of the level and orange the unormal)
  • I made the top icons more subtile. What is not active should not be very bright, dark in my opinion.
  • the sliders have a bar so it’s more clear what level it has
  • Add clear marking in the Title header that a song is modified.

But also for me, a theme needs to give me a good feeling. For me it’s very important, as it is the virtual house I live in. For some that house is very basic, for some cozy.

You could be right dough that the text of the plugins is not clear enough. Still thinking about that.

The original theme has to much lines and items in front that distract from the important things. The White theme is even worst, looks like an accountancy software to me :slight_smile:
That’s why they make plugins sexy, isn’t it? :slight_smile:
I think the Dark theme is a big improvement, not only for the eye on stage and practical reasons of dimming the screen.

Probably also just a matter of taste indeed :slight_smile:

16

I corrected it, much better IMO.

{
// Toolbar   
    "ToolbarTopColor": "#a60000",
    "ToolbarBottomColor": "#000000",
    "StatusPanelTextColor": "#447b8d",
	
// Sliderticker	
    "SliderPopupTopColor": "#a60000",
    "SliderPopupBottomColor": "#000000",
	
    "SliderTickColor": "#707070",
	
    "BorderColor": "#09090a",
    "LightBorderColor": "#2a2a2a",
    "TabBarTopColor": "#000000",
    "TabBarBottomColor": "#222326",

    "SidePanelColor": "#400010",
    "SidePanelHighlightedColor": "#d90000",
	
// General Text
    "DarkTextColor": "#ffffff",
    "LightTextColor": "#1a2734",
    "UltraLightTextColor": "#a60000",
	
    "FocusedTextColor": "#FFFFFF",
	"FocusedText": "#a60000",
	
	"ActiveListItemColor": "#d6b543",
	// new in 3222	
	"SelectedListViewRowTop":"#ff0000",   
	"SelectedListViewRowBottom":"#66001a",
	"UnfocusedSelectedListViewRowTop":"#FFFFFF",
	"UnfocusedSelectedListViewRowBottom":"#D3D3D3",
	
//Objects and slots
    "SlotBackgroundColor": "#000000",
    "SlotPanelBackgroundColor": "#121212",
    "SlotTextColor": "#ffffff",
    "RackSlotBorderColor": "#354960",
	
//Level meter	
	"LevelMeterColorCold":"#1aff1a",
    "LevelMeterColorHot":"#ff2c00",
	"FirstBeatColor":"#00FF00",

    "ColumnHeadersTopColor": "#222326",
    "ColumnHeadersBottomColor":"#222326",
    "ColumnHeadersTextColor":"#52555c",

    "RoundButtonTextColor": "#d6d6d6",
    "SelectedTabTextColor": "#dfe1e5",
    "TabTextColor": "#616266",

// Quick controller
    "PopupMenuBackgroundColor": "#bfbfff",
    "PopupMenuTextColor": "#100040",
    "PopupMenuTitleBackgroundColor": "#222326",
    "PopupMenuTitleTextColor": "#949599",

// Buttons
    "ButtonCaption":"#a6a8ac",
    "ButtonCaptionPressed":"#dfe1e5",

// Tooltips
    "TooltipColorTop":"#e8f04f",
    "TooltipColorBottom":"#84822d",
    "TooltipColorText":"#000000",

// Rack colors
    "BasicColor_Red":"#8c0000",
    "BasicColor_Maroon":"#500f0f",
    "BasicColor_Green":"#0B3B0B",
    "BasicColor_Lime":"#0B6B0B",
    "BasicColor_Blue":"#0B0B6B",
    "BasicColor_Navy":"#0B0B3B",
    "BasicColor_Yellow":"#ffff00",
    "BasicColor_Olive":"#3B3B0B",
    "BasicColor_Fuscia":"#a8006d",
    "BasicColor_Purple":"#3B0B3B",
    "BasicColor_Cyan":"#00b8c8",
    "BasicColor_Teal":"#0B3B3B",
    "BasicColor_Orange":"#b85700",
    "BasicColor_Brown":"#3B230B",

	
// Saved state message
	"ModifiedSetListSuffix":" < \u26AB SETLIST  E D I T E D \u26AB",
	"ModifiedSongSuffix":" < \u26AB SONG  E D I T E D \u26AB",
	"ModifiedRackSuffix":" < \u26AB RACK  E D I T E D \u26AB",	
}
17

Yeah the red is a bit much for my taste, but each to his own. If that’s what you like, go for it - that’s why the theme support is there.

LOL :slight_smile: you don’t seem the aggressive type @Torsten

I agree! In fact the light theme has been fairly neglected since I put the dark theme together.

The point about the lines has been raised a couple of times too - that’s something I should fix.

1 Like
18

Red matches my Nord, I’m a fashion guy :sunglasses:
Thx for the input.

Theming is indeed important.
Many software has it and many users complain when the theme is dull of some app. For example Synth 1. A returning complaint.

19

@So_Godly
Matches my red Akai MPK249 also! :heart_eyes:

@Neil_Durant
Say, Neil, how about sharing that dark theme of yours from several months ago? I see that file is no longer available.

Terry

1 Like
20

Ok, here’s an updated version of my theme. The only difference between this and what you get with the latest Cantabile build is that the horizontal separator lines between rows is a lighter grey; I was finding the more prominent lines in the default dark theme a bit distracting. Here’s the file - unzip it and drop it in along side your other themes:

Neil.zip (1.1 MB)

Here’s a comparison with the factory dark theme, so you can see the difference:

Factory dark theme:

Capture2.PNG1057×717 56 KB

My dark theme:

Capture.PNG1051×719 55.9 KB

Neil

21

On the subject of themes, @brad, is there an entry in theme.json to change the colour of the text for the selected song or song state in the ticker bar? I haven’t been able to find one.

Neil

22

For some reason, that archive refuses to extract. Could it be something wrong with the file?

Terry

23

Strange…if you double-click it in Windows Explorer (on Win 10), it opens fine, but I see that I can’t open it in WinRAR for example.

24

The zip opens for me, but I cannot extract its contents. It gives me an error that for an unknown reason it cannot copy the file.

Terry

25

The error reads, “An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file.
Error 0x800004005: Unspecified Error.”

Terry

26

Does this one work any better? Neil.zip (1.1 MB)

27

Yes, that one works. :slight_smile:

Thanks!

Terry

1 Like
28

Now this is a really tough call between Godly Dark Shade Theme and the Neil theme! :slight_smile:

I like both - will be switching between these rather often, I think. Will be using the Red Shade and Blue Shade ones So_Godly made as well!

I am living the luxurious life, alright!

Terry

1 Like
29

Haha Terry what a luxury problem!

1 Like
30

I’ve created this card and added this as a comment. Please feel free to add anything else that’s missing and I’ll address them all in one hit.

@So_Godly : you mentioned backgrounds of some of the panels - could you add a comment either here or to the Trello card describing exactly what you need and I’ll take a look at it. eg: was it just color settings, gradients etc… or do you want to put images in there?

One quick note: I don’t want to get too carried away with theme stuff at this point because some if this will be changing when I retro fit the new GuiKit into Cantabile. eg: no point adding new abilities to the existing rendering framework if I’m going to move to OpenGL (likely) as part of the Mac port.

Brad

1 Like
31

Thx, yes background image files. But i guess you shouldn’t put more effort to gui stuff if it will change in the near future.

1 Like
32

Hi!

Here is my slightly changed dark theme:

Dark_Chern.theme.zip (1.9 MB)

изображение.png1069×665 51.3 KB

:slight_smile:

udated 12.02.17

Kind regards

4 Likes
34

Godly Red Shade Theme for 3264 version:
GodlyRedShade3264.theme.zip (4.0 MB)
(remove the .zip extension and put in your program files folder)

image
image1600×900 210 KB

1 Like