ONGOING DEFAULT THEME CONTEST!!!

[ghen]

A suggestion for the Cabbie v2 WPS: I'd like to see a disc activity led, could the Rockbox logo be used for this? (turns yellow during activity)  This way we don't waste extra space on targets that don't have this functionality.

[pixelma]

Added my Iriver RWPS version to the same flyspray task (FS#9276), please try out and comment. I had the chance to see it on a real remote and as I thought spacing is no problem (I mean if e.g. the "now playing" progress bar seems to stick at the border in the sim remote display it doesn't look like this on the real thing).

A suggestion for the Cabbie v2 WPS: I'd like to see a disc activity led, could the Rockbox logo be used for this? (turns yellow during activity)  This way we don't waste extra space on targets that don't have this functionality.

I'd like to see the info too sometimes.  This suggestion would work on colour,  greyscale (turning the logo darker), maybe the m:robe100 where you could fill the logo which is hollow otherwise - but the small monochrome screens don't even show a logo.... Another suggestion would be to integrate this into the "Now playing" bar, similar to how the Ultimate theme does. (I'd already have an idea for the above mentioned RWPS in case.)

[petur]

I just committed the right variant, I liked it more too....

[ZincAlloy]

I finally made the plug icons for the color targets : http://www.naturalbornyoers.com/forumpics/cabbieupdates.zip

also included in the zip: new .wps files for color targets using helvr10 up till now. it seems like the default theme should be able to display greek, cyrillic and hebrew glyphs - which helvr10 doesn't have. I don't like how nimbus looks with this theme, so I modified the .wps files to use helvr12.  These should work just fine, but somebody should better check on the actual targets, just to be sure.

I've also tweaked the ipod 5g wps to make better use of viewports.

[ghen]

Could you add a clock to the WPS also? (for targets that support it)

In fact, a clock is the only reason why I'd use another theme than Cabbie.

[dannyboi]

Is there a theme for the 5.5G Ipod that has font that is large as the original firmware, but manages to fit everything altogether on the screen?

I tried font 18 for the default Cabbie theme, but that meant some album names and next songs were missing from the WPS screen.

[karashata]

I realize that this "contest" has pretty much been over since CabbieV2 was committed and made the new default, however, I'd like to submit a theme I've been working on recently, if not for a new default, at least for possible inclusion.

I've only got it made for one target screen size currently (160x128x16, the iriver H10 20GB and iAudio X5 screens) but I plan to make this theme for the other targets if people think it's worth possibly commiting to SVN.

Also, I don't currently have a name for this theme (any suggestions..?), and I'm looking for a little criticism/suggestions for improvement, particularly for the status icons for the shuffle, repeat, and crossfade modes. Any and all ideas would be appreciated.

[LambdaCalculus]

Wow, very nice and pleasant to look at. Maybe for a future major release, we can use a default theme like this one.

I think we should still have the Tango icons display on the menu, to keep consistency with Cabbiev2. This will also make it appear a little more pleasing to users.

Maybe you can call this "Cabbie Modern"?

[karashata]

I never much liked showing the icons so I always keep them disabled. I suppose I can tweak the theme to use the Tango icons (right now it just defaults them to the original, it doesn't disable showing them).

I'm not entirely sure I'd want to associate it with the previous versions of the Cabbie themes (it wasn't intended to resemble them too much, the colour scheme is based off the logo's main colour and the layout is one I've found works rather nicely for me...), however I'll keep it in mind unless better suggestions come along.

Any suggestions on how to improve the status icons along the bottom..? (I'm not too happy with them, really, since I'm not sure I could make them fit too well on smaller screened targets...)

EDIT: Just to update the menu image to show the icons...

[MarcGuay]

I think it looks better without the icons - the colours take away from it's simplicity.  For names, the lurking logo summons words like Stealth, Smog, Cloud, etc.

As for the WPS images/icons, I think part of the problem is that you have a light colour on a colour.  Maybe darken up the foreground yellow?  But then again, it kind of suits the smoky aura.  (Check my art-class lingo).

[karashata]

I'm kind of liking the sound of "Stealth", but I'll leave myself open for now.

As for the WPS images/icons, I think part of the problem is that you have a light colour on a colour.  Maybe darken up the foreground yellow?  But then again, it kind of suits the smoky aura.  (Check my art-class lingo).

I don't think the status icons are difficult to see, if that's what you mean, at least not when the various modes are enabled (the disabled modes are intended to blend into the background a bit...) I'm more worried that the larger icons might not fit so well on smaller screens (most notably the H10 5/6GB, since they're the same height as this, but narrower...), and I'd prefer to have the various modes as part of the image rather than a text label beside it.  I might have to build a sim for the H10 5/6GB and see what I can come up with.

I definitely prefer it without the icons as well, they do detract a little from the look I was going for. Maybe we can put that up to a vote: Icons, or no icons?

Always up for suggestions, since there seems to be some interest in making this work.

[Chronon]

I agree that text plus graphical indicators just wastes real estate (regarding the playback mode indicators).  You can get the information across purely graphically.

I also like the main menu without icons for this theme. 

I am curious, though, about how well this will transfer over to gray scale and monochrome screens.  I guess it won't look so smoky or stealthy on those screens.

[karashata]

You're definitely right about that, unfortunately that part of the theme's look won't be able to be transferred. The layout of the theme, however, should still look nice even on those targets.

Yet another vote for no icons, I see...

I got a quick port done to the H10 5/6GB, though I haven't changed the status icons yet (it's near impossible to do graphic work with a laptop touchpad, I need my mouse...) Let me know what you think.

Any suggestions on status icons, possibly..?

[audio-i]

I really like it! Very good layout, nice graphics. As for what you ask about

...I'm looking for a little criticism/suggestions for improvement, particularly for the status icons for the shuffle, repeat, and crossfade modes. Any and all ideas would be appreciated.

maybe the repeat, shuffle etc icons would look better if they were narrower, they seem to be a little oversized compared to the text font. Also like MarcGuay said, I'd try a little more fore/background contrast (the new port seems better??)

And finally, since I'm a "next-song-info" fan, do you think you could fit it there? It might become cluttered i know, but what if you would make the progress bar shorter and place the current and total track times on the sides... it would liberate one row... just a thought...

[karashata]

I'm not sure that next track info is crucial for a potential default theme, honestly, and it would look a little too cluttered if I moved the track times to either side of the progress bar to make space for another line (the progress bar is only 8 pixels high, the font is 12.)

I'll get to work on making better icons when I get home and have my mouse available to me, since the touchpad's too finicky to work with. The icons will probably be a little smaller/narrower so there will be some extra space available. Any suggestions what to do with that space, or should I just leave it..?

Also, are there any layout changes that I should make or is this acceptable..? (Excluding making another line to stuff in next track info, since I think that would be too cluttered...)