Community project - Clean design touch optimised skins for small windows 8 devices

Hi,

These are the best upscaling programs for pixel art i’ ve seen so far.:

download 2xbrh from there:

http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13667&PN=1

2xbrh : https://anonfiles.com/file/92e2ed25e7efaae5fe28f76608658be8

or this program:

http://code.google.com/p/2dimagefilter/downloads/list

Its done for another purpose, but perhaps they will help you with the upscaling progress. 

I new to window blinds, but i could to modify it. I`m used to gtkl3 theming which is not easier.

If you need to reconfigure something just send me the .wba and tell me what to do. 

Might also send you the screenshot how to modify it with skinstudio 7.4 ( or how to modify the buttons position with notepad.). Am buying the wb thing soon ( have now only a trial since i just started theming ( that only goes for wb.)

regards bluedxca93

Thanks bluexca93! Love to sea screenshot, I tried upscaling the icons etc using paint but it didn't work so well, think I need PhotoShop or something.

first part : export the .tga and export it to .png with gimp  to be able to work with uoscalers. I`ll post upscaling things soon. had already done it but my screenshots were gone damn.

Do download the imageresizer.exe. I`ll write here again in half an hour .

regards bluedxca93

So that are some screens how i do it . The asset above shows the image rescaled with triangular algorithm and the first frame  edited a bit with gimp ( not much) .  I use gimp and ImageResize.exe from image2d  for such tasks. The advantage of image2dresize.exe from image2d on google projects site hawkynt google for it.  is that it has more and better algorithms than photoshop, gimp or illustrator. Noblend is used for not introducing new colors.

Don`t try  pre upscaling with photoshop or gimp . Lanczos is better than the ones in paint, but so blurry.

The other tasks than preupscaling you can do with hq bicubic/bilinar downsampling from imageresize.exe or with triangular algithm + gimp or photoshop. It doesn`t matter here which one you use and gimp is free b.t.w. The converting from .tga to .png can also be done with irfanview for the entire theme with a simple batch command.

Also do understand that the gamma/contrast value don`t change for the upscaled  images, but your mind could be assuming it is the case . 

b.t.w the acronic theme is a free  theme  made by lightstar1. i did use his free theme as an example, since my skins min max close buttons are always bigger.

regadrs bluedxca93

Have you tried icondeveloper yet for upscaling?
another way to resize it to a much larger scale would be as an smartobject /vector 

hi,

onlky some technical informations:

Your solution might be possible too, but it isn't free and also i doubt that the result is better.  Please do try the small imageresizer.exe and do compare it to your solution. I bet it looks not so good, or is harder to edit. Since my way to to dit , does not introduce new colors for upscaling and nearly none for downscaling. ( and it looks really better than nearest neighbour.

Yes  did try photoshops filters, they are garbage to be honest.

Potrace from inkscape is not bad, however you have to disable all rounding and error corection filters for small files and it supports only b/w well .And it might be good to use epx3, hqx, eagle or the best till now xbr algorithms for preupscaling.

But thx for the tip. For images there was a good upscaler by akviz ( with good 30 day trial ) .

For downscaling you might also set bg to #ff00ff and use the old rot sprites proggy somewhere in the net (also good for rotating pics nearly without quality loss in any angle  , you might compare it to SD icon solution too). also does good 1110% or 120% upscaling: http://info.sonicretro.org/RotSprite

regards bluedxca93

IconDeveloper has a 30-Day trial
since you haven't posted the tool of yours yet i can't compare the quality or the results.
IconDeveloper
 

Hi, yeah i will do comparisions soon.

here is the list of the best and most completed rescaling tool i do know:  ( no tga  support the one from screenshot, suports more than png). xbr4 and epx3 are the best for upscaling in my opinion but you might try the others too. And it does support limitted  batch formatting too.

http://code.google.com/p/2dimagefilter/downloads/list

http://code.google.com/p/2dimagefilter/ 

and there are two another great tools:

http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13667   mean the one from Usage: 2xBRh <input png> <output png>

http://info.sonicretro.org/RotSprite for image downszing and rotation. doesn`t support pngs and is very picky abiout input formats.

.regards bluedxca93

I think I know that WB you are posting screen shots of. If you want to modify a Windowblind for personal use no one can stop you. If you are going to use another users WB modify it and post screen shots and pass it around to each other that isn't allowed. you should really make your own WB from a template and make all the graphics to what ever size you want to have. You want to know how to re-size others hard work and pass it around.

Hi,

 the green them is made entirely by me. i didn`t  copy it from anywhere.  If you mean that is a copy, tell me the self proclaimed original. It is not fair assuming that i would post a modified theme without allowance from the author. !!! Dave Bax the green theme is mine and i would post it here on WC soon. Don't be so silly to say i would steal smeone elses them. 

 We do only discuss here rescaling not posting upscaled artworks from others. Keep that in mind!!! The rescaled icon is only for showing purposes, not for copying.

thx for your non understandabvle comment davebax.

!!!

You call it what you wish. Really I know you are fairly new here but it was said for the person that posted the thread. I have never seen him here and he has no skins made. Nothing wrong with not having made any skins just wanted to make sure he understood about others works. Wasn't talking about the Green by the way. Was just trying to help a newer person to make sure he knew about others work. I myself would have offered help but buttons and graphics can only be made so large and still work in WB. Well i'm done and do hope you get it working the way you want it to. 

hi,

sry it was a misunderstanding from me. I translated your words to german in my mind and the sense got a bit deranged. sry for my harsh and unfriendly comment. Now i do understand what you meaned  

 And i do have to admit that  i do figured out how .wba files are made and how the file structure is   and hoe skinstudio works, but i don`t know anything about the WC  community and how the forum works here.

here a comparision pic  of the different upscaling methods did search to find one that shows well the differences but don`t look so bad on all algorithms :

Not for copying this pic this time and also thelastexample too only for technical information ( copyright free but also unkown) this time.

nearest neighbour I Icon Delopper ( modified enhanced bilinar i suppose better than i tought.) I Imageresize.exe xbr3 modified noblend 3x

regards bluedxca93

No problem, stuff happens.

The forum works to help people needing help, information about updates, problems, etc. announcements and much more.

Yes things can be re-sized and you showed that. One reason you don't see any help here is because there is no answer for the request. One can make buttons and other graphics as large as they want but you know they won't work in WB. So I have no idea how to help the poster with their request using WB. I'm thankful I can skin my desktop and have no idea how to do those other small devices. Would love to learn how to make apps for phones but way to old to start now. Have a good day, suppose i'm done here.