Maximum sizes
Monday, December 12, 2005 by Spagnacious | Discussion: WindowBlinds
In an effort to be succinct and clear this question is "fill in the blank".
The maximum size (h x w) for an image to skin the below items is;
Task Bar=
Task Bar Button Bg=
Title Bar=
Title Bar Button Bg=
the 4 panels of the Start Menu=
Any others you might know=
Thanks much for the noob hep out!
The maximum size (h x w) for an image to skin the below items is;
Task Bar=
Task Bar Button Bg=
Title Bar=
Title Bar Button Bg=
the 4 panels of the Start Menu=
Any others you might know=
Thanks much for the noob hep out!
?
!!!!
MikeB314
Reply #3 Monday, December 12, 2005 1:57 PM
Reply #3 Monday, December 12, 2005 1:57 PM
Really, there are no maximum sizes for any of them. You can see what average sizes are by looking at other people's skins, but you have the freedom to make them however large or small you want. You should be reasonable about it, of course. A titlebar that fills half the screen probably wouldn't appeal to many people, but in theory you should be able to make it 600 pixels tall if you wanted to. I'm not sure that anyone has tried it, so you could be the first to discover a size limitation there. 
Spagnacious
Reply #5 Monday, December 12, 2005 11:08 PM
Reply #5 Monday, December 12, 2005 11:08 PM
Mike, thanks for the information. I must be doing something wrong because when I change the size on some of those images, the areas refuse to change size when applied. I will keep trying. Thanks again at least I know I am not fighting a constraint!
Sir Bichur, thanks for.....
Sir Bichur, thanks for.....
Daiwa
Reply #6 Wednesday, December 14, 2005 1:52 PM
Reply #6 Wednesday, December 14, 2005 1:52 PM
Clyde -
Which images are you having problems with? Certain ones need to be specific sizes - the titlebar, for instance, should be the same height in pixels as the Caption Height setting for the titlebar, but need be only as wide as necessary to get the two ends looking the way you want them with several pixels of graphic in between (an even number is best) which will then be either tiled or stretched to fill in the "gap" between the two ends (the sizing margins determine what is fixed on either end and the stuff between the sizing margins is what gets tiled or stretched).
Cheers,
Daiwa
Which images are you having problems with? Certain ones need to be specific sizes - the titlebar, for instance, should be the same height in pixels as the Caption Height setting for the titlebar, but need be only as wide as necessary to get the two ends looking the way you want them with several pixels of graphic in between (an even number is best) which will then be either tiled or stretched to fill in the "gap" between the two ends (the sizing margins determine what is fixed on either end and the stuff between the sizing margins is what gets tiled or stretched).
Cheers,
Daiwa
Daiwa
Reply #7 Wednesday, December 14, 2005 2:42 PM
Reply #7 Wednesday, December 14, 2005 2:42 PM
I should probably correct that to say that certain images look/work best at specific sizes. But you get the idea.
Cheers,
Daiwa
Cheers,
Daiwa
Spagnacious
Reply #8 Wednesday, December 14, 2005 4:25 PM
Reply #8 Wednesday, December 14, 2005 4:25 PM
Thanks again and again. I am starting to see some light on this. I still find things that seem to change for "no reason" and things that simply refuse to budge. I was thrown off completely because I used to make a change, apply the skin and then look at my current app to see what happened. Well my current app is usually SKS which doesn't conform to ANY sizing changes to speak of. It shoves itself up under the Taskbar (or the top of the screen if you move the bar), keeps edging out the right side of the screen each time you re-apply a skin, won't move, doesn't allow restore or size change once you get going in the changing of skins params. I think this is because they wrote the apps in Delphi which I have heard others say, has issues with skinning (go figure).
I have really wanted to get the Tab bar to increase in height so that I could make tabs taller. Can't get that to work either. 'Sub Zero' skin seems to have it figured out but I haven't had time to dig through it.
Right now you are my best hope for sanity checks.
I have really wanted to get the Tab bar to increase in height so that I could make tabs taller. Can't get that to work either. 'Sub Zero' skin seems to have it figured out but I haven't had time to dig through it.
Right now you are my best hope for sanity checks.
Daiwa
Reply #9 Wednesday, December 21, 2005 11:22 PM
Reply #9 Wednesday, December 21, 2005 11:22 PM
Clyde -
Been away for a few days & unable to follow-up until now.
As good as SKS is, it is often difficult to see some of the real effects of changes within SKS itself. While the Preview window is helpful, it is not always reflective of how the changes will display in other, non-Delphi apps (I'm sure there were good reasons to use Delphi for developing SKS, I just don't know what they are/were).
For tabs, I usually open up Display Properties & keep it open while working on a skin, then check it to see how changes affect it after each skin reload (the tabs in SKS itself seem to conform to changes when run on XP but they don't skin at all on Win2K). You can keep other windows open to check other elements - Control Panel to see ShellStyle changes, for instance.
Once I think a skin is "done," I load it up and use it for at least a week or two, sometimes longer - inevitably I'll come across a rarely used window, dialog or app and discover something I missed or forgot to fix. I'm also sure to run it in all 4 configurations of the TaskBar to be sure they all display properly, as well.
There are so many nooks & crannies in skins now that many "shakedown/revise" cycles are needed (at least for me), and finishing a skin takes a long time as a result. I'm about to (finally) upload a group of 7 skins, 4 in a compound skin and 3 standalone skins, that I've been tweaking for well over a year.
I took a look at SubZero, BTW - it looks like he used large top & bottom sizing margins for the tabs - maybe that's the ticket.
Cheers,
Daiwa
Been away for a few days & unable to follow-up until now.
As good as SKS is, it is often difficult to see some of the real effects of changes within SKS itself. While the Preview window is helpful, it is not always reflective of how the changes will display in other, non-Delphi apps (I'm sure there were good reasons to use Delphi for developing SKS, I just don't know what they are/were).
For tabs, I usually open up Display Properties & keep it open while working on a skin, then check it to see how changes affect it after each skin reload (the tabs in SKS itself seem to conform to changes when run on XP but they don't skin at all on Win2K). You can keep other windows open to check other elements - Control Panel to see ShellStyle changes, for instance.
Once I think a skin is "done," I load it up and use it for at least a week or two, sometimes longer - inevitably I'll come across a rarely used window, dialog or app and discover something I missed or forgot to fix. I'm also sure to run it in all 4 configurations of the TaskBar to be sure they all display properly, as well.
There are so many nooks & crannies in skins now that many "shakedown/revise" cycles are needed (at least for me), and finishing a skin takes a long time as a result. I'm about to (finally) upload a group of 7 skins, 4 in a compound skin and 3 standalone skins, that I've been tweaking for well over a year.
I took a look at SubZero, BTW - it looks like he used large top & bottom sizing margins for the tabs - maybe that's the ticket.
Cheers,
Daiwa
scorpio-logic
Reply #10 Thursday, December 22, 2005 10:28 AM
Reply #10 Thursday, December 22, 2005 10:28 AM
The taskbar and taskbar buttons will size according to "content margins", not sizing margins. Say for example your taskbar button is 31 pixels tall and your taskbar is 31 pixels tall. If your "content margins" are set at "0", the buttons will take all 31 pixels. Experiment with this and you'll see what I mean.
Your titlebar has a setting called "Caption Height", be sure to have this number equal to the actual image height.
When evaluating the changes, try opening windows explorer and internet explorer to see how Windows is handling what you've changed. After you have built most of your skin, check it on other proggies that have more functions, like menubars and file dialogs and such. I usually compare with Outlook and my newsreader proggie, which doesn't skin all that well.
As far as the 4 panels in start menu, I only have luck when going the default sizes, as it is very hard to match them all up if you don't. Those sizes are visible just under the image in the far right pane of SKS. 380 p wide for top, 190 x 306 left, 190 x 336 right, 190 x 30 for "All Programs" back, 380 wide for bottom. The height for top and bottom will depend on if you want user picture and how large or where you want the logoff location.
Hope this helps. Happy skinning!
Your titlebar has a setting called "Caption Height", be sure to have this number equal to the actual image height.
When evaluating the changes, try opening windows explorer and internet explorer to see how Windows is handling what you've changed. After you have built most of your skin, check it on other proggies that have more functions, like menubars and file dialogs and such. I usually compare with Outlook and my newsreader proggie, which doesn't skin all that well.
As far as the 4 panels in start menu, I only have luck when going the default sizes, as it is very hard to match them all up if you don't. Those sizes are visible just under the image in the far right pane of SKS. 380 p wide for top, 190 x 306 left, 190 x 336 right, 190 x 30 for "All Programs" back, 380 wide for bottom. The height for top and bottom will depend on if you want user picture and how large or where you want the logoff location.
Hope this helps. Happy skinning!
scorpio-logic
Reply #11 Thursday, December 22, 2005 10:31 AM
Reply #11 Thursday, December 22, 2005 10:31 AM
Just for grins, I tried a bottomwindowframe that equalled the height of the topwindowframe. This caused some unusual sizing, such as when "grabbing" the bottom frame the pointer-cursor would "grab" the middle (height) of the bottom frame. When Maximizing, the bottom frame tended to have a mind of it's own and would sometimes hide under taskbar, either partially or fully. And when using WindowFX, the shadows would be off considerably. Just some observations for a fellow noob-skinner. 
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Reply #1 Monday, December 12, 2005 1:10 PM