An experiment in theming

Crows · 2009-09-16 22:59:58

I've recently been playing around with theming various aspects of my Arch setup and it turns out that finding a set of elements from around the net that work well together (and look consistent..ish) isn't as easy as it sounds.

So, I've decided to challenge myself to create a substantial collection of overall 'themes' that are functional, consistent and look good for the Windows-ers (I'm moving to University in a fortnight. Nothing says 'ooohh' like a good desktop setup ). Anyway, how could I possibly do that without offering my spoils to the ever-awesome Arch community?

DISCLAIMER: These themes are a collection of icon sets etc made by other people that I've collected together in, hopefully, pleasant ways. The only aspect of these that was made 100% by me are the conky setups, unless I say otherwise.

Think of this like the (excellent) Ghost's Workshop threads - just with tricked out conkies. These all use Openbox and the CAW! Panel, btw.

Without further adieu, Theme 1: ThoughtfulCheetah.

Conky Features

Main:
Quick script to print a random, semi-amusing slogan on first run.
Color-coded cpu percentages - normal, high and 'She cannot take anymore, cap'n!'.
Similar color-coding for the top output (that's cpu, mem and io - bottom right)

MPD:
Mundane first - function to truncate title/album names and add '...' to names that are too long.
Semi-mundane - cover-art displayer (uses a database, but that lets me add other things)
Cairo-awesomeness 1 - repeat/random indicator boxes in the top right.
2 - vertically gradiented song progress bar.
3 - status-meter on the right side - gradient moves down when playing. Still when paused.
4 - 5-star rating system displayed by bottom boxes (see, told you the database was handy).

Details will follow once I've found all the relevant configs in the file sea known as ~/. Hope you enjoy, you're the best community for anything I've ever seen.

Netsu · 2009-09-16 23:21:54

Those Conkies work great with that wall, looks beautiful.

Crows · 2009-09-17 13:13:30

Relevant info:

Wallpaper: Fractal Cheetah by This guy i believe. With a slight bit of hue altering to make it less orange.

Mouse: Vanilla-DMZ - in community under 'xcursor-vanilla-dmz'

GTK: MurrinaCandido - not sure, but I think I got it from murrine-themes-collection, also in repos.

Icons: Eggshell, from here.

Fonts: DejaVu Sans Condensed (repos somewhere) - size 8. Used DejaVu Sans Bold for the Openbox headings.

Dmenu: Call this script with ' <script location> dmenu "#1a1a1a" "eaeaea" "000000" "cccdbc" '. You can also use mpd instead of dmenu for a music-based menu.

#!/bin/bash
if [ $1 == "dmenu" ]; then
$(dmenu_path | dmenu -i -y '400' -p 'Run:' -fn '-*-terminus-*-r-normal-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*' -nb $3 -nf $2 -sb $5 -sf $4)
else
mpc play `mpc playlist | dmenu -i -y '400' -p 'Play:' -fn '-*-terminus-*-r-normal-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*' -nb $3 -nf $5 -sb $3 -sf $4 | cut -d')' -f1`
fi

As for the rest of it - Openbox theme(custom), openbox config, both conky config files and both lua scripts for the conkies.

Oh and my mostly worthless slogan script:

#!/bin/bash

CheetahSay=("Less is more. And fuzzy." "Compiz? This is MINIM-AL!" "Meow. Nice kitty." "Just don't call him Puss." "Quick! Hide the boots!")


case $1 in

"ThoughtfulCheetah")
    NUMBER=$[ ( $RANDOM % 5 ) ]
    echo ${CheetahSay[$NUMBER]}
;;
esac

exit 0

robrene · 2009-09-17 14:14:38

That wallpaper doesn't seem to be hosted in his gallery anymore... Care to share your version perhaps? It's awesome!

Also, the whole theme is very nice. I think you archieved a very sleek and uniform look. I have been playing with the idea of openbox in my mind lately, if I end up making the switch I'll definately take another look at this post!

Crows · 2009-09-17 14:28:16

robrene wrote:

Care to share your version perhaps?

Sure thing. I'd certainly suggest giving OB a try if you ever feel like a lightweight WM. It may not have as many advocates as the tiling competition, but it's a great starting point if nothing else.

Theme number 2 is coming along nicely. It's going to be green and based on a piece of art by Bobby Chiu, if anyone's heard of him.

Ghost1227 · 2009-09-17 17:29:25

Nice work!

Runiq · 2009-09-17 18:14:44

Oooh, pretty. I'm always looking for consistent themes, so this thread is like a cone of ice cream with a cherry on top

Crows · 2009-09-17 19:44:24

Ghost1227 wrote:

Nice work!

Thanks! Means a lot coming from you, love your stuff.

Runiq wrote:

Oooh, pretty. I'm always looking for consistent themes, so this thread is like a cone of ice cream with a cherry on top

Glad you like my first effort. Shouldn't be too long before the next one's done. Only the conky left to do.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-16 22:59:58

An experiment in theming

#2 2009-09-16 23:21:54

Re: An experiment in theming

#3 2009-09-17 13:13:30

Re: An experiment in theming

#4 2009-09-17 14:14:38

Re: An experiment in theming

#5 2009-09-17 14:28:16

Re: An experiment in theming

#6 2009-09-17 17:29:25

Re: An experiment in theming

#7 2009-09-17 18:14:44

Re: An experiment in theming

#8 2009-09-17 19:44:24

Re: An experiment in theming

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