Three new color schemes

[Catalin C.]

Throughout this summer I've taken some time trying to tweak some of ABox's default color schemes into something new.

I can say I've had both aesthetics and usability in mind. I kept the "default" one (that applies at startup) unchanged, and as for the other ones, they've suffered gradual changes until they looked satisfactory.

The "dark" theme (Scheme #2) got more vivid colours as well as very light grey text. Realizing it was intended as a night mode, I've kept this functionality. The background is now a blackboard and some elements also remain dark - turn off the light in the room and everything will be perfectly visible.

The "high-key" theme, on white background, made me think it would be suitable for printing. Though I've put some effort, the changes seem minor compared to the night mode. It took some tryouts to get the balance right, B/W printing is tricky, you need high contrast but also have to save ink. But it looks good, even in color. So here it is, the "print mode" (Scheme #3).

And bonus, I decided I could re-design also that "candy shop" theme that comes in slot 4. It's still fancy, still on the borderline of usability, but now it's bearable to look at, go try it - again at slot 4.

The well-known theme (with the background looking like sand...) now goes into first slot. I've moved it there, from #2, way back when started working on this. Now I think it might not be the best idea, as the print scheme comes right after the dark one, so watch your eyes when switching.

All schemes have very distinct colours for signals, much like the default one.

I've saved the schemes by exporting the registry branch and here it is. It's the text file, just change the extension to .reg.

It will not alter the file history or the VST register, I've edited that out of the key file.

Enjoy,

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Catalin

[Catalin C.]

I'm back with another update to my initial set of schemes and also a new set.

I deleted the previous posts to make this topic less confusing.

The update: It's the print scheme that got my attention again, as I was trying to work in ABox while the Sun was shining through my window behind the monitor. I applied it and... the hover/selection/locked lines were too light-colored and thus almost invisible. Obviously I didn't care much about them on first thought, since I was only concerned with taking snapshots in this scheme. Now we can use it anytime we need high-contrast. I also made the processors' background a little lighter, that increases the contrast and eats up less ink. Other elements got slight tweaks, just to reduce the number of colors in the palette. B/W print will have no issues, I hope. Check the first two attached images.

Older changes:

- in "night" (#3) hover and locked are now in teal, also minor tweaks to other elements in their lightness and saturation;

- in "candy" (#4), tweaked controls' background to better blend in with the canvas (breadboard?), plus changed the displays to some sort of raspberry icecream...

This summer I also tried my hand at making an entire set of fancy themes. And I believe they're usable too, especially the one that looks like another night mode.

You will recognize the "Christmas" in slot 4, as it was in its first release - well I wanted to give it some companions. #1 will appear at ABox start after applying the registry update.

I saw I can upload registry keys - no more fiddling with extensions!

Apart from the colors, the keys store information about the selected window layout. Both these keys will maximize ABox on screen, just as I was working with it.

Enjoy & take care,

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Catalin

[JP Burtell]

Hell there,

I am loving the look of these color schemes, and I appreciate the work you've done. Unfortunately, I can't find your original email that explains how to use these.

Can you please let me know what I need to do to apply these changes?

Thank you!

John

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[Catalin C.]

Hello and thank you for the interest!

I guess some info got lost. Now I'll also go into some further detail.

ABox stores all information concerning its window's layout, including the 4 color presets, in the Windows Registry. So to save the schemes for share and reuse I employed Regedit and exported the branch*, this yields a registry key (.reg) file. Any such key can be opened directly by double clicking it, at that moment a dialog box will show up asking whether to add the information in it to the Registry or not. With Abox, you first close the program, then open one of the keys and confirm change, and finally at a future start ABox will load the new settings - that's it.

The keys uploaded here include only this window layout subkey (again, no MRU or plugin lists that would replace your own usage history). Apart from the colors I expect you also get maximized window, as I keep it that way all the time, not just while working on schemes, and then: status bar on, no clocks display, highlight changing signals and fast graphics update. 

Hope I've been helpful.

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Let's jam,

Catalin

*for anyone interested, the registry branch:

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-527237240-1004336348-842925246-1003\Software\AndyWare\ABox2

[JP Burtell]

Thank you so much for getting back to me. The issue is definitely on my end. Even when I open Regedit as an administrator, it's giving me an error.

No worries though, thank you for your help. If I get the error issue resolved I'll be using these color schemes for sure.

Have a great day!

Joh 

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