root/trunk/website/SKINS.HOWTO

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Licq Skins Howto

February 6 2000, v1.5

Graham Roff

Modified by Thomas Reitelbach
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Revision 1.5: (2003-03, by Thomas Reitelbach)
  - added scrollbar color support:
    - colors.scrollbar = #22436a
    - colors.btnTxt = #e6e6e6
    
    -> colors.scrollbar is the main color for the scrollbar. It also affects
       the userlist table head.
    -> colors.btnTxt is the text color of the userlist table head and the
       direction arrows of the scrollbar
    Both options support "default" as value, which means to use the systems 
    default color, or you can use named colors like "white" or "yellow" 
    instead of hex-values.

Revision 1.4:
  - when using a menu bar, all position height positions can be set
    assuming 0 is the bottom of the menu bar

Revision 1.3:
  - added frame.frameStyle option
  - added frame.transparent option

Revision 1.2:
  - added the colors.xxx section (at the bottom)

Revision 1.1:
  - added "label.bg = transparent" option to have transparent labels
  - fixed problems setting colors for the combo box
  - added "label.margin = #" option to allow setting the left margin for a
    label


Skins Howto:

  Making a skin for Licq is fairly straightforward.  To begin with, skins
  can be:
  1) Transparent
  2) Non-rectangular (essentially using transparency)
  3) Any color

  A skin is composed of a skin.name directory in {prefix}/share/licq/qt-gui,
a name.skin file in that directory, and any graphics files necessary, also
in that directory.
  The best way to explain how to build a skin is to look at a sample
name.skin file.  Basically each object has various fields that must be
specified.  All fields must be specified, text fields can have a value of
"default" to use the default behavior.  Pixmap fields can have a value of
"none" as well to specify no pixmap.  All pixmaps specified must be located
in the {prefix}/share/licq/qt-gui/skin.name directory.
  To not display an object, set all the position coordinates to be
the same (non-zero) value and it will be hidden.


# ==============================================================================
# Border Skin

# Frame Styles, add them together for combinations
#  NoFrame = 0, Box = 1, Panel = 2, WinPanel = 3
#  Plain = 16, Raised = 32, Sunken = 48, MShadow = 240

[skin]

# ---Frame---
# The frame represents the background image and overall structure of the skin
# It can be of any format supported by Qt (bmp, xpm, ppm, gif)
# The mask is a 1 bit (black and white) image used for transparencies.  Any
# region of the mask graphic containing 0's (white) will be transparent,
# a region with 1's (black) will be opaque.
frame.pixmap = frame-t.xpm
frame.mask = mask.gif

# The frame style uses the numbers above to create the frame around the user
# window.  The transparent options (which can be 1 or 0 for true/false)
# indicates whether the user window should be transparent or use the
# background color specified below.
frame.frameStyle = 51
frame.transparent = 0

# The frame.border specifiers are used in two cases.  First to determine where
# to place the user list (it will be places inside of the border), and second
# for resize effects.  A typical graphics resize will ruin a border by
# stretching it in all directions.  Licq will resize the frame pixmap by
# stretching only the section inside of the border in both directions, and
# expanding the horizontal and vertical borders in one direction only.
frame.border.top = 15
frame.border.bottom = 110
frame.border.left = 15
frame.border.right = 15

# If this is set to a non-zero value then the skin will have a menu bar with
# the system button as the only member.  This precludes any settings in
# btnSys below.  Any height positions specified for other widgets will be
# automatically adjusted to be below the menu bar (ie 0 corresponds to the
# pixel right below the menu bar)
frame.hasMenuBar = 0

# ---Status Label---
# The rect specifiers show where to place the object.  A negative specification
# for any field indicates a number of pixels back from the opposite side of the
# window.  So setting x1 to 20 and x2 to -20 means the label will strech across
# the entire window with a 20 pixel border on each side.  The two points are
# the top left and bottom right corners of the object.
lblStatus.rect.x1 = 20
lblStatus.rect.y1 = -40
lblStatus.rect.x2 = -20
lblStatus.rect.y2 = -20

# Colors are pretty self-explanatory.  Using "default" will use the default
# colors.  Also, setting .bg to "transparent" will make the label be
# transparent.
lblStatus.color.fg = default
lblStatus.color.bg = black

# Frame style allows setting of what type of frame the object has.  Get the
# values above, and OR them together for a combination.
lblStatus.frameStyle = 0

# Margin sets the left margin for the label, typically it would be combined
# with a pixmap to give a nicer interior look to it.
lblStatus.margin = 0

# This sets the background pixmap for the object.
lblStatus.pixmap = none

# ---System Button---
btnSys.rect.x1 = 20
btnSys.rect.y1 = -65
btnSys.rect.x2 = 70
btnSys.rect.y2 = -45

# These three pixmaps are what the button will look like when it's up and has
# the focus, up and without the focus and down.
btnSys.pixmapUpFocus = btnsysupfocus.xpm
btnSys.pixmapUpNoFocus = btnsysupnofocus.xpm
btnSys.pixmapDown = btnsysdown.xpm
btnSys.color.fg = default
btnSys.color.bg = black

# This is the text that will appear on the System Button.  If there is a pixmap
# set then this will be ignored.
btnSys.caption = default

# ---Message Label---
lblMsg.rect.x1 = 75
lblMsg.rect.y1 = -65
lblMsg.rect.x2 = -20
lblMsg.rect.y2 = -45
lblMsg.color.fg = yellow
lblMsg.color.bg = transparent
lblMsg.frameStyle = 0
lblMsg.pixmap = none
lblMsg.margin = 0

# ---Group Combobox---
cmbGroups.rect.x1 = 25
cmbGroups.rect.y1 = -90
cmbGroups.rect.x2 = -25
cmbGroups.rect.y2 = -70
cmbGroups.color.fg = default
cmbGroups.color.bg = grey76

# --- colors ---
colors.online = blue
colors.away = dark green
colors.offline = firebrick
colors.newuser = yellow
colors.background = default
colors.gridlines = black
colors.scrollbar = #22436a
colors.btnTxt = #e6e6e6

# ==============================================================================