TheD2JBug TheD2JBug

Windowblinds themes for the visually impaired

Windowblinds themes for the visually impaired

Haya peeps .

Any idea if anyuone has made a Windowblinds theme that allows for the use of large high visibility fonts? I would like to apply one for someone who uses this PC and has vision difficulties so she can use something other than Luna Silver.

Thanks.
17,443 views 61 replies
Reply #26 Top
And Shameless....Thanks for being an interested observer
Reply #27 Top
SNK,

Sorry to be so tardy in responding to you, but life beyond the messageboard has gotten in the way the past couple days. First of all, let me say that if you made those buttons mostly in MS Paint, then I tip my hat to you, for both the quality of the product as well as the dedication it would take to spend that kind of time making those buttons. Second, I have to say...

Dude! You need to start learning PSP... You''''ve done a great job learning Skin Studio from what I''ve seen so far. You''ll be a lot more productive, and I think happier with your results when you start learning to use PSP. If you would like some help, links, tutorials, or anything along those lines, just give a shout, and I''ll be happy to do what I can.

As for the gradient fills, it''s not that difficult a trick to learn the basics, and PSP7 has a very good set of gradient tools for you. I''m not sure what aspect of it you''d like to learn, but if you could be more specific, I''d be happy to help.

For those particular buttons, I just made a rectangular Selection 3 pixels in on all sides from the visible border of your buttons. I then flood filled the Selection using a foreground-background gradient of what I thought was the primary hue of your buttons. My foreground and background colors were just set to light and dark shades of that hue. My gradient was set on sunburst type, with the focus quite high in the upper left (H 15, V15 I believe). All of these settings apply to PSP, by the way, and the Foreground-Bacground Gradient is a standard setting in PSP.

Hope this helps, and if there is anything else I can do to help, you have only to ask.
[Message Edited]
Reply #28 Top
Shameless....you''re right, I suppose it''s about time I learned PSP, can you point me in the right direction on a decent tutorial? Maybe one that goes through making examples.
Reply #29 Top
The first place I''d suggest you try for learning the tools and basics of PSP7 would be Robin''s site at putertutor.net http://putertutor.net/paint/psp7.htm This is primarily a link site with tutorials listed and organized by category. The General Info and Specific Tools categories will give you a real good start. Personally, I would pay special attention to the Selection tools, Vector Tools, and Gradient, Blur, and Masking effects as I think those will be among the ones you will use most often in the beginning. Two points about the tuts at Robin''s site: She updates the links on a fairly regular basis, and she tries most of the tutorials herself and won''t list them if she doesn''t think them worthwhile.

Another categorized link site that also has links to some excellent tutorials is psplinks.com http://www.psplinks.com/ . It''s not quite as well run as Robin''s site, and they occasionally have some bandwidth problems, so if you get a 404 error, try back a few minutes later. They do however, have some links that you won''t find at Robin''s site, and the tuts have user ratings as well, which can be useful. They also have links there to some worthwhile downloadable goodies for PSP as well.

+PSP Links http://www.pluspsp.com/cgi-bin/in/index.cgi?display is also a categorized listing of tuts and other resources, but it''s geared more toward the tagging and scrapbooking crowd in my opinion and not quite as good as the other two. Still, there are some links there you won''t find elsewhere.

Some of the best sites for learning how to make buttons, bars, and other interface parts as well as learning basic techniques are:

Pinoy 7 http://www.dumlao.cc/psptutorials/default.htm Outstanding tutorials for metallic and mechanical looking parts. In my opinion, better to try these after you become a bit more familiar with your tools, as some are fairly advanced.

State of Entropy http://www.state-of-entropy.com/home.htm A very good series on making basic interface parts here, especially if you like the mechanical look. Don''t overlook the PSP6 and even some of the PSP5 tuts either. The lessons are still valid even though the tools have changed slightly in PSP7.

Extenuation.net http://www.extenuation.net/psp/ is now hosting Joe Cilinceon''s tutorials and effects now that New Dawn Micro is closed down. He has an excellent tutorial there for making Aqua type buttons and bars among other things. Joe also has some great filters for PSP that really come in handy. His Eliminate Black filter is priceless in my opinion.

Randy Mann''s site http://www.mannmadeimages.com/ is also an excellent source for PSP tutorials, but here again, I''d suggest trying them after you''ve become a bit more familiar with the basic tools.

Nanson''s Place http://nansons-place.com/psp/tutindex.htm also has some very good tutorials for making glassy and metallic finishes. It is an outstanding site for learning some more advanced techniques with PSP. The guy is a real wizard with gradients.

PSP Interactive Zone http://www.pspiz.net/tutorials/ also has some very good tutorials in the PSP6 section that are worth checking out. The PSP 7 tutorials are all from State Of Entropy, though and referenced above.

If you want some more links to tutorials and resources for PSP, I''d also check out the PSP Users Group http://www.pspug.org/ and Digital Art Resources http://www.digitalartresources.com/PSP/ArtResources/tutorials.htm Both are active current sites which are well run and growing.

Also, if there is anything you need in terms of personal assistance via e-mail or a messaging program, give me a shout. I''ll be happy to help any way I can.

[Message Edited]
Reply #30 Top
Excellent links all. I''ve bookmarked them all. Thanks. Someday I''m going to start making skins myself. Oh hell, who am I kidding. >
Reply #31 Top
Thanks again Shameless....it'll take time, but I'll figure it out....I just found out today how to open the tool options menu.....I'm such a n00b
Reply #32 Top
Anytime, man... And I''m serious, if there''s anything I can do, just shout. One last unsolicited comment until then...

We all learn in different ways. Some learn better by observation, some through the written or spoken word, some learn only through hands-on. When it comes to a craft though, you can''t say you''ve learned it until you''ve done it. Don''t just read the tutorials and say to yourself, "OK, I''ve got that." I call that cheating yourself.

Make yourself go through the exercise. Follow along with the steps, and actually produce something. Then do it again. Then change things up a bit and expand on it. Then combine it with something else you''ve learned. The more that you physically use the tools with the goal of actually making something, the more those skills become really yours.

There are some people who are naturally gifted, and can produce great work with very little training. But most of us have to pay our dues, learn the lessons, and practice, practice, practice. And the thing is, after a while, as your skills improve, you find out that it''s a lot more fun than it is work. At least, that''s how it is for me. I hope you find it that way too.
Reply #33 Top
Boy can you nail it It is fun, frustating because it seems everytime you learn something new, you hit a new wall, a new challenge you''ve got to figure out, but still fun. My very first attempt, pathetic even then, was done entirely in MS Paint, everything was white with a one or two pixel blue trim. That experience got me pretty comfortable with SkinStudio and helped me to focus on trying to get things to look and function right in a WB vs. how pretty does it look. That''s why it always kills me when I see these skins that have great concepts and pretty decent graphics (light years beyond what I can do) look so bad because the skinner hasn''t go a handle on SkinStudio. Thanks again for all your valuable assistance. It really helps having you point me in a direction instead of me just meandering around at the low end of it all until I stumbled into the right direction.
Reply #34 Top
this thread is *way* more informative that I evern intended it to be :up:
Reply #35 Top
D2J....I'm still working on it. It's just taking more time than I expected. I figured out how to do the buttons like Shameless did and they're much cleaner in appearance than what I had did. I am determined to get this done <= determined look
Reply #36 Top
hay no hurrys dude .. just a *lot* of info that I can use on my Winamp skin project if I ever get around to it.
Reply #37 Top
This is possibly THE most informative and educated thread I've read to date on WC. I wish they all started and continued in this manner.
I look forward to seeing the next "step" in creating this wb. I also hope it's going to end up in the libraries, as my dad is vision impaired and I'd love to set him up with something viewable and pleasant.
Reply #38 Top
SNK,

I haven't had a lot of time lately, but I have been trying to figure out if there is anyway to do anything in Skin Studio re: your post #25. Unfortunately, I too have come up blank on the font sizes for the 15 items you listed. I think there are only two ways to adjust the size of those fonts and neither of them can be set in a skin.

One way is to use the User Overrides in WB through the WB config or going through Display Properties>Appearance Tab>Advanced Settings, which amounts to the same thing in the end.

The other way would be to use the Accessibility Wizard or manually setting Accessibility Options through Control Panel. For WinXP users, Here is a good site for finding out about how to acess those features: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsxp/default.aspx

One thing about both of those methods of changing font size, unfortunately, is that if you set the fonts too large, you are going to have some ugly things happen with skinned elements. I've only just started to explore where the limits are on that, but I promise I'll get back to you as soon as I can when I have some more definitive results.

Of course there is another way to make everything more visible, which is to change the monitor resolution and/or dot pitch of the monitor. But that really wouldn't affect the skinning aspect overmuch, at least as far as WB is concerned.

As for the system buttons and tabs you referred to in your post, I have a couple ideas there as well, but I need to check them out before I say more.

I guess, I don't have much good news for you, in this post, but like you, I'll keep trying to do what I can to help. I think it's a very worthwhile project.

P.S. Thanks, SNK, for your input on the All Programs hover thread on the skinning board. With your help, I got it figured out and posted my results over there. You are rapidly becoming a real expert in Skin Studio, and I appreciate your help.
Reply #39 Top
wulfn1..... I agree and I am going to upload it here when it's done.

Shameless....on the font sizes that's what I thought, I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing anything. So I am going to focus on getting the fonts to look correct in the skin. I am fortunate that I have the ability to test on three different monitor sizes 15, 17 and 19.

Can anyone recommend a resolution that someone with difficulty with vision might use in all three monitor sizes. I'm guessing...
15inch => 640x480
17inch => 800x600
19inch => 1024x768
Reply #40 Top
dont think you wanna go down to 640 aye
lots of programs have a helluva lota problems at resolutions that small
plus you wont fit much on the screen!



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Reply #41 Top
Essencay:

I have Cindia ( and by extension me cause I don't know an app that can use different resolutions for users in XP ) on 1024x768 . She currently uses size 15 fonts bolded . They work well. She can navigate and do anything as long as she dosen't get default lame dialog box text. We use Eudora for email she uses Trillian and browses , plays games uses Word. We're pretty happy with our setup.

BTW I'd like to give a shot at doing a matching Winamp classic skin when you are done. That OK?
Reply #42 Top
oh that's on a 19"
Reply #43 Top
Thanks for the info on the resolution When I finish and upload it, you will be more than welcome to port it to any other skinnable app that you'd like
Reply #44 Top
Hey I learned something new today...most of my fonts that I can't change the size of in SkinStudio, can be change in Display Properties => Appearance => Font Size. I haven't check every single one out yet, but it sure does make the skin look more consistent

And I figured out how to get the tabs to look better
Reply #45 Top
cool
Reply #46 Top
How is it going? any previews for us?

TheD2JBug, look at my current desktop, you think something like that would be something she could work with?
Can finish it up in a day or maybe 2.
Reply #47 Top
btw, can I have your email so I can contact you?

Feel free to add me to msn: [email protected] you can also use it to email me.
I want to help you out too.
Reply #48 Top
Working through the controls right now and making sure I didn't miss anything. Next up will be the Taskbar. I'll post a screenshot soon as I'm done with the controls. I keep changing things trying to keep focused on keeping it clean with a good contrast (just how many times can I say keep in the same sentence )
Reply #49 Top
alright. I just want to make one too, lets say as a promo of my special services, 'custom design' especially for special cases.
Reply #50 Top
I think it's great that you and Shameless have taken an interest in this skin idea and would love to see someone else's idea of a skin that is easy to use for someone who has vision impairment