DESCRIPTION
AfterStep color schemes are supposed to ease the pain of assembling set of colors that go well with each other, while providing additional flexibility while designing custom looks/themes.
AfterStep Colorscheme is a standard set of color names, that may have different color values assigned to them. This color names are used in defining Look and in XML images. By assigning different color values to teh same color names it is possible to instantly change colors throughout entire Look, without altering any images or configuration files.
Not all of the Colorscheme colors have to be explicitely defined. Only the Base color is important. AfterStep is capable of autogeneration of good-looking colorscheme, from this single color. Explicit color definition in colorscheme file will override any automatic choice. Example of this is the NeXTish colorscheme, where all of the colors are customized. If grayscale color is choosen for Base - it will generate grayscale colorscheme, where different shades of gray are used for different colors.
Selected colorscheme file is loaded by all modules and afterstep proper. Whenever new colorscheme is selected - it triggers reloading of the Look file and all image files.
All of the supplied Look files had been written to take advantage of the AfterStep colorschemes.
Please read below for more details on how colorschemes are generated and other color-related topics :
HARMONIOUS COLORS
Task of selecting a set of matching colors is a serious matter, and it was studied by artists and designers for centuries. AS the result there are certain rules developed to simplify this task.
Firstly, instead of selecting colors in Red/Green/Blue colorspace, matching colors should be selected using Hue/Saturation/Value (HSV) colorspace. Color hues are the most important characteristic of the color, and is measured in degrees from 0(red hue) to 60(yellow hue) to 120(green hue) to 180(cyan hue) to 240(blue hue) to 300(purple hue) and then to 360 which is the same hue as 0 - red. Hues could be placed on a so called color circle, making it easier to choose matching colors.
There are two main approaches to selecting color scheme - single hue, or several hues.
Single hue colors differ in its saturation, and usually allow for a soothing, simple theme. Such theme could be pleasant to look at, but it lacks in excitement, and makes it difficult to distinguish between different elements.
Using several hues makes theme a bit more exciting, and adds more visual cues to the screen, providing for easier operation, and allowing user to relax eye muscles, resulting in better ergonomics. Accordingly this is the approach that should be used for user interface colors. Now how to select hues that compose harmonious theme? The rule of the thumb is that hues that are close to each other on color circle go well with each other, while those, located on opposing sides of the circle, create contrasting effect.
AfterStep addresses the task of selecting harmonious colors, by generating a set of colors from a single color using designer rules.
IMAGE HUES
Look of the screen (aka Theme), includes numerous images, such as icons, backgrounds, bars, etc. Each such image may have one or several dominating hues, which brings us back to the task of matching hues, in order to achieve harmonious look.
The rule of the thumb to follow here is that, each image on any particular interface element, such as titlebar, should have at least one dominating hue to be the same as the hue of the background of this element.
There are several way to make sure that hue of the image matches that of the background :
AfterStep addresses the task of changing hues of images using XML image scripting. See asimagexml for more on that.
COLOR NAMES
AfterStep Colorscheme color names could be separated in several categories :
COLOR VALUES
AfterStep supports extremely flexible and extensive ways to define color value. Standard approach is to use #RRGGBB notation. In addition to that, AfterStep supports the following notations :
Example :
#This could be used in colorscheme definition : Inactive1 #FF5C5B66 # or ahsv(255,245,10,40) or argb(255,92,91,102) #This could be used in MyStyle definition in the look. #That makes Sticky window's titlebar semi-transparent: BackMultiGradient 6 alpha(50,Inactive2Dark) 0.0 alpha(50,Inactive2Light) 1.0
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AfterStep version 2.00.01