Theme / Scheme

[rawCoder]

Hi All,

Have you noticed that Outlook ( dont remember which version ) utilizes
three to four colours to give the Blue theme look

AliceBlue
LightSteelBlue
Midnight Blue

You can use the above colours in appropriate places to give the look of
outlook atleast in terms of colours.

I was wondering if someone knows combination of colours for green or yellow
or some other colour.

Or in a more broader perspective ... Is there any help that I may have If i
want to make themed applications.

Thank You in advance
rawCoder

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

rawCoder,

There is no native theming library in .NET for windows apps. However,
there may be some open source projects for this sort of thing, or there may
be a third party library that you can purchase.

As for getting the colors that you want, you should be able to get the
RGB values for these colors using any program that has an eyedropper tool
(they allow you to determine the RGB values for any color on the screen
usually).

Hope this helps.

 

[rawCoder]

Thanx Nicholas,

I don't actually need a theming library or something like that ... just set
of colors that are in contrast with each other and don't look bad.
As some one said that a developer might think he has aesthetic sense, but he
doesn't.

Secondly I am not aware of any such chameleon application that has multiple
reusable themes ( colours ) in it , so I cant pick the colors :-(
Besides I was referring to the colors that are available by name in .NET and
not in RGB.
You see, I think that there must be like many sets of these named colors
that can be used to make good looking GUIs or themes.

Thanks anyways
rawCoder

rawCoder,

There is no native theming library in .NET for windows apps. However,
there may be some open source projects for this sort of thing, or there may
be a third party library that you can purchase.

As for getting the colors that you want, you should be able to get the
RGB values for these colors using any program that has an eyedropper tool
(they allow you to determine the RGB values for any color on the screen
usually).

Hope this helps.


--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- (e-mail address removed)

Hi All,

Have you noticed that Outlook ( dont remember which version ) utilizes
three to four colours to give the Blue theme look

AliceBlue
LightSteelBlue
Midnight Blue

You can use the above colours in appropriate places to give the look of
outlook atleast in terms of colours.

I was wondering if someone knows combination of colours for green or
yellow
or some other colour.

Or in a more broader perspective ... Is there any help that I may have If
i
want to make themed applications.

Thank You in advance
rawCoder

 

[steve]

the way i've done it is to create an extended graphics class and in the sub
new method of any given form, assign the different paint related events to
delegates of that class (whether for the form itself or any of its
controls)...events like mousedown, mouseup, paint, etc. i use it a bunch for
controls...i didn't want to create a lot of bitmaps to get the look i
wanted. the only coding i have to do now to change the appearance of the
whole app is to set properties of the class.

i don't know if that's the way you'd want to go...but, if it is i'd read
about the graphics class for things like drawstring, drawrectangle,
fillrectangle, etc.

hth,

steve

 

[steve]

| Besides I was referring to the colors that are available by name in .NET
and
| not in RGB.
| You see, I think that there must be like many sets of these named colors
| that can be used to make good looking GUIs or themes.

your aren't stuck using the named colors. you can use the colortranslator
object to use html-style color convensions like #8080FF (not quite
lightsteelblue but close, just a bit darker- one of my favorites) or rgb or
whatever.

named colors are for convenience but you can't always get what you want by
just using them. an example would be fading effects.

anyway, just something to think about.