RT is ugly in windows

[Beep6581]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 690

From the screenshots I've seen, RT is ugly in Windows. Sure the themes (light, dark,
focus, etc) can make it look much nicer, but it still uses the same square widgets.

For Gnome users, probably changing their Gnome appearance automatically changes RT's
appearance if its set to use the system theme.

For KDE users, we need to download gtk-theme-switch ( http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gtk-theme-switch.html
), and some themes. I like QtCurve ( http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=40492
) although I want to make it slimmer.

What do Windows users need to do to get new widget styles? I found these two websites,
a Windows user would need to check them out and see if you can make RT use nice round
widgets (e.g. QtCurve) in Windows:
http://charupload.wordpress.com/2007/12/02/gtk-theme-engines-for-win32/
http://kemovitra.blogspot.com/2010/06/compiling-gtk-theme-engines.html

Some screenshots:
GTK default: http://i.imgur.com/8RWus.png
Light: http://i.imgur.com/mnZTt.png
QtCurve: http://i.imgur.com/dTMSv.png

Reported by entertheyoni on 2011-05-18 12:43:53

[Beep6581]

Hi.
I forgot this issue. There is an annoying error on each start of RT complaining the
absence of clearlooks.
I've found: for windows XP user put libclearlooks.dll into
<RTdir>\lib\gtk-2.0\2.10.0\engines
Themes are much better then!!!
I think I'll include this dll in future build. What do you think?

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-18 21:49:45

---

• Attachment: libclearlooks.dll

[Beep6581]

If it does what you say then definitely! RT can't look like shit on the most popular
OS :P

Reported by entertheyoni on 2011-05-18 22:34:28

[Beep6581]

tested on winxpx32, works great - thanks, Fabio!

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-20 17:14:27

[Beep6581]

Good to hear! Win32 is fixed then.
but, I'm not able to find a valid solution for win64.
IS there anywhere that dll for win7 64bit? I didn't find it.

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-20 18:20:10

[Beep6581]

is clearlooks open source? can we recompile it for 64 bit?

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-20 20:22:47

[Beep6581]

I'm not expert here (I had hard time in finding only that dll ), but I think so.
I found this http://sourceforge.net/projects/clearlooks/ : seems rather old.

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-20 21:05:56

[Beep6581]

I downloaded clearlooks-0.6.2

in Win7x64 after running these commands:
./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-animation
make
make install

I have 2 files: lib\gtk-2.0\2.10.0\engines
libclearlooks.a
libclearlooks.la

but no dll

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-21 18:32:36

[Beep6581]

Try adding -no-undefined to the libtool options.

Also, try the Murrine GTK+ engine:
http://www.cimitan.com/murrine/

ps. will this go into 3.0? If so, please label this issue.

Reported by entertheyoni on 2011-05-21 20:10:19

[Beep6581]

Update.
On XP, with that clearlooks.dll I uploaded, some themes are not loaded correctly and
display the "old" way:
dark ( error radius )
Gray textured (error animation )
Unity Gray ( error colorize_scrollbar )
Unity Gray slim ( error colorize_scrollbar )
Maybe that dll is not up to date and doesn't support some properties. (Anyway, correcting
the theme, then it loads and displays correctly)
Michael if you succeed in re-compiling, please check all themes.

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-21 21:35:40

[Beep6581]

still cannot get the the dll...

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-21 22:00:05

[Beep6581]

found this one as well: http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/GNOME/sources/gtk-theme-engine-clearlooks/2.91/
Date here is December 2010

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-22 11:46:07

[Beep6581]

@Fabio

libclearlooks.dll was bundled in old versions, but it's a version that was bundled
with gtkmm2.16. Now if you use gtkmm2.22, i don't think it will work flawlessly. I
used this dll for testing purpose and RT became quite unstable.

The ideal would be to build libclearlooks with your own toolchain and include it in
the build, but i didn't managed to find the source code anywhere, so i'm very suprised
that you found it Miachael :) Could you share the link to it ?

I also find out that clearlooks was a separate dll for old version of Gtk, but was
built-in Gtk 2.xx (don't remember). I tried to find support on GTK IRC, but there was
only linux users, so as of now, i'm stuck!

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-22 13:49:28

[Beep6581]

Hombre, here is the link:

http://iweb.dl.sourceforge.net/project/clearlooks/clearlooks/clearlooks%200.6.2/clearlooks-0.6.2.tar.bz2

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-22 14:27:16

[Beep6581]

I'm unable to obtain a dll too.
Hombre you are right, that dll probably was compiled with gtk 2.16 when it was distributed
within. If that dll makes rt unstable, it's better not to include it in the distribution.
We can address this issue later.

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-22 18:09:52

[Beep6581]

Does RT look as ugly as in my "GTK default" screenshot for all windows users?

Reported by entertheyoni on 2011-05-22 20:08:21

• Labels added: 3.1

[Beep6581]

YEAAAAHHHHH BABY !!!!!!

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-22 20:25:05

[Beep6581]

:(

After some hours of research and self-control exercise, i finally managed to build
libclearlooks.dll and the other engines, but when clicking on a slider to move it,
RT instantly crash... SH*T !

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-22 20:36:29

[Beep6581]

For those interested, here is a Win32 / Gtk2.20 / build with Gtkmm2.22 archive of the
precompiled engine libs :

http://natureh.free.fr/RawTherapee/engines.7z

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-22 20:53:52

[Beep6581]

shouldn't rt be recompiled to use this new version of dll reliably?

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-22 21:12:30

[Beep6581]

Nope, since no headers was bundled and used, the dll must be compatible and usable as
is.

Rt works, curves works, combo box too, but trying to operate on any slider crash the
application.

You seem to be a better Googler than me Michael, so can you point me on a source archive
of the Loader (now that the Engines are compiled) ;), they are necessary too and not
bundled with Gtkmm.

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-22 21:21:21

[Beep6581]

I found it, but it doesn't compile... Enough for today !

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-22 21:48:19

[Beep6581]

It works ! ...and it's nice ! :D

In fact, the Dark theme was the culprit of the crash. I replaced it by the bundled
gtkrc file and it works flawlessly now :)

I'll look at our themes and will publish a patch here on monday or tuesday.

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-22 23:07:10

• Status changed: Started
• Labels added: Priority-High, 3.0
• Labels removed: Priority-Low, 3.1

[Beep6581]

Great! thanks, Hombre!

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-22 23:29:16

[Beep6581]

Hombre: screenshots! Before and after! I'm dying to see! :D

Reported by entertheyoni on 2011-05-22 23:36:26

[Beep6581]

So, only for your eyes :

http://natureh.free.fr/RawTherapee/WithoutClearlooks.png
http://natureh.free.fr/RawTherapee/WithClearlooks.png

As you can see, the default Clearlooks theme use more space in the Editor pannel...

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-22 23:59:33

[Beep6581]

Please give me your opinion about this 2 first revisited themes. I took the bundled
gtkrc from Clearlooks and modifyed them the less i can, but still matching the intended
colors.

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-24 00:43:56

[Beep6581]

Hi Hombre. I like both very much.
Only a little nuisance in light theme: in list controls the current selected item shows
first red, then in blue when clicked (as it should). Also directory tree is affected
by this strange behaviour. It seems that default color for some state is left red.

How did you manage to compile clearlooks lib?
Have you a 64 bit version tooo?

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-25 18:22:44

[Beep6581]

I saw this red background for list entries. I'm working on it.

No, i didn't compiled a 64 bit version of the libs, but i made an how-to do it... unfortunatly,
i have it on my home PC, and i'll be back home next wednesday only.

Does those 32 bit libs works when used inside a 64 bit build ?

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-25 19:05:31

[Beep6581]

I'm sorry you can't teach us how to compile it... I'll wait.
About 64bit: no you cannot use a 32bit dll for a 64 bit executable.

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-25 21:19:51

[Beep6581]

For those who have libclearlooks (all OS), here is a reworked version of the themes.

Default will be updated when i'll get back home, Focus... i don't know if it's interesting
to keep it, really.

Unity-slim have slim sliders, but also slightly smaller buttons and smaller tabs. I
also removed the extra space inside the buttons, they are now smaller for all the theme
of this archive.

Please test them as soon as possible, as i'd like to commit in the next few days.

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-28 01:12:54

[Beep6581]

Issue 625 has been merged into this issue.

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-28 01:15:31

[Beep6581]

Btw DrSlony, feel free to redo the screenshots, pleeeaaaaase ;) If i may make a comment
about them : the window size seems to be too low (1000x700) to look good. I think 1280x1024
is a minimum. Anyway, thanks for providing them :)

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-28 01:24:50

• Status changed: PatchSubmitted

[Beep6581]

I forgot to mention, i've removed the left colored part of the sliders, since it's quite
disturbing (it should start from the default - null - value, not necessarily from the
left). I hope that you'll not be that disapointed. ;)

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-28 01:27:56

[Beep6581]

Great, I will test them on Sunday Hombre, I'm at work tomorrow :]

Regarding Focus, that was my favorite theme. Actually Focus-Slim - it had a few improvements
over the first Focus theme. The only gripe was that Focus-Slim had sliders that were
indeed too slim. I manually made them fatter, I set GtkScale ::slider-width to 9.

As for the screenshots, we do theoretically still support 1024x600, right? I spoke
with Dualon and we agreed that 1000x700 seemed like a good compromise. I have nothing
against making a few screenshots at 1000x700 or even one at 1024x600, and then the
rest at a resolution more typical of avid RT users - 1280x1024 sounds fine. I personally
use 1920x1080.

Reported by entertheyoni on 2011-05-28 02:09:50

[Beep6581]

Hi Hombre, this is wonderful overall improvement. I tested 32 bit version.
Few remarks:
Unity Gray slim - would be great to have variation where highlight is gray vs light
blue (see current version)
Overall slim is not so slim anymore - spacing is much larger between the sliders.
Great that you managed to further slim the buttons! - I could not figure out how to
do this:)

Dark - very sleek. would be great to have variations with another highlight color -

blue: #223759
gray: #555555
and slim!:)

I tend to use current Default slim as it is easy on the eyes.
Any chance of adapting it as well?

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-28 03:39:10

[Beep6581]

one more suggestion: dividers between the panels should get a better highlight on mouseover.

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-28 03:46:05

[Beep6581]

Themes are very good , thank you very much Hombre.
Agree with michael: Dark could have other variations, but most important a slim version
too.
Anyway for releasing it's important to have all actual themes translated and WORKING
 with clearlooks engine. We could add more later :-)
About screenshots. I think only one sample at 1024x600 with a slim theme and a little
font to show how it could look in low-res screens would be enough; all other samples
could be at 1280x1024.

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-28 09:01:34

[Beep6581]

Stop hombre. With the new clearlooks.dll RT crashes selecting the color picker in Preferences
... "cut overlay brush" :-(

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-28 09:49:54

[Beep6581]

Crash confirmed here too, i'll look at it.

I agree with your comment about screenshots, one low res is sufficient, using 1280x1024
or higher for the other will be more sexy ;)

I'll make a slim version of each theme (like Unity), but based on the Focus theme modified
by DrSlony, if you're okay to send it to me by email. BUT... i think that even the
slim version should be pleasant to look, so maybe 1 pixel here and there may be necessary.
The Unity-Slim theme is already very compact!

DrSlony, do you use Focus because of the color or because it's compact ?

Here is the "Unity Slim" theme, modified to be as slim as before, excepted that the
slider's width is now 8px. It's now as compact as Focus.

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-28 12:49:21

[Beep6581]

great, spacing looks very good!
arguably, one could use GtkRange::slider-width = 6 but its not much difference and
with 8 readability is better.

I guess it would be neat to have Dark, not too dark and same as unity gray.
all with slim/not slim
all with different highlight color (color1, color2, gray)
this, however makes 6 options per theme...

Olli made the Focus theme and it is currently crashing with new dll.

I love this modern look!

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-28 14:59:17

[Beep6581]

Very fine last slim. I don't think one can ask for more narrow!

Then you could look for that crash ... and tell us how do you compile the engines :-)
(or provide also a 64 bit)

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-28 16:53:50

[Beep6581]

Michael, i think it is quite possible to have 2 color requester + 1 checkbox in the
preference to let the user control the appearance of the selected theme, but that's
too late for 3.0, but you can open a new issue for that if you want, tagged to 3.1.

For the moment, i'll create slim version for each theme, but not with multiple colors.
You'll have to edit the file yourself for that.

Fabio, i'd love to be able to build 64 bit app, but cross compiling is too complicated
for me, i don't want to spend time to set up such a toolchain.

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-28 17:07:44

[Beep6581]

Hombre, I'll do it if you explain how you did with 32 version.

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-05-28 18:33:14

[Beep6581]

I'll do Fabio, next wednesday. I'm affraid that we'll have to wait untill this date
for the color picker bug too. It may be a missing dependency or a compile option of
the engines. I didn't found anything wrong right now.

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-28 19:25:12

[Beep6581]

And here is the revisited Focus theme, with normal widgets (slim version will follow).
This one is one of my favorite now :)

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-28 22:33:01

[Beep6581]

great, a few remarks:

purple is a bit intense (it may be safer to be closer to the primary colors to satisfy
variety of tastes);

disabled menu options are very hard to see. in the old theme they were brighter than
the enabled menu; I guess would make sense to make them *a little bit* brighter than
they are now, so they are readable.

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-28 23:14:05

[Beep6581]

It's not purple, but magenta a litle bit darkened and desaturated. Here is an updated
version of the themes (slim version will be made when normal themes will be stabilised)
with paned PRELIGHT and INSENSITIVE widgets now more visible.

There's the updated Focus version with red color, and Focus-mangenta for those who'd
like to have look. But i would vote for the magenta version ;)

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-05-29 13:20:20

[Beep6581]

Focus looks really nice. 
Disabled items show very well

1 *possible* issue: Progress bar with the "Ready" message is colored with red, magenta,
etc whatever the highlight color is. Should it be gray? as it may be a bit confusing
especially when it is red.

I like the tool tips a lot!

Reported by michaelezra000 on 2011-05-29 14:17:31

[Beep6581]

Here is the promised how to (24mn before the deadline :D ;) ). I guess that you know
which files has to be copied to RT base directory or "foundable" in the path ?

I Personnally removed (renamed) the \lib\gtk-2.0\2.10.0\loaders directory as they should
now be included in the pixbuf library (but i'm not sure)

Btw, i didn't managed to find the color picker crash :( Still working on it...

@Michael

I personnaly wouldn't like a grey progress bar ; it's one of the element that make
RT a little bit colorful, and i guess that the user will understand that it's red color
relates to the theme. At least he will change the theme and then understand it.

Reported by natureh.510 on 2011-06-01 21:37:26

[Beep6581]

wow! hombre is a lot of work to do (= several things can go wrong)! 
Thank you.
I'll try in this w.e. to have a 64 bit version.

Reported by ffsup2@yahoo.it on 2011-06-02 11:20:31