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Should the macOS Sierra Theme Also Be Developed For Tiger?


  • Total voters
    29
  • Poll closed .
I'm still using them. Some of the resources I used from the other themes match Yosemite/El Capitan/Sierra pretty closely, and the ones that don't, I'll be replacing them. Install it, play around (especially copy a large file to test the progress indicator), and you'll see...

One thing to keep in mind is that this is an ongoing process that won't ever be perfect, but will get closer as more work gets done on it. All of the files that I'm posting are just tests and incomplete.

Oh... and you can install that file in Tiger as well...
OK, I'll try it out. A bit unsure because of that Good Gray theme, but I'll still try it. Thanks!
[doublepost=1477516029][/doublepost]As I thought, not a big fan of the Gray theme. I'll still try all of your new Extras files, but for now I'm reverting back to your previous test. Do you mind if I build upon that previous test with some more elements?
 
OK, I'll try it out. A bit unsure because of that Good Gray theme, but I'll still try it. Thanks!
[doublepost=1477516029][/doublepost]As I thought, not a big fan of the Gray theme. I'll still try all of your new Extras files, but for now I'm reverting back to your previous test. Do you mind if I build upon that previous test with some more elements?

Do your thing, and post it here. Have fun!

Most of the grey stuff is going to be replaced (arrow buttons, toolbar controls, etc). There were a lot of things in it that I wanted to use, like the slider controls and his templates for the progress indicators. Plus, the original Extras that I used has some sort of glitch in it with some pressable title boxes (little arrows appear within them; not sure if that's from Mountain Leopard or just Leopard itself) and the grey one doesn't.
 
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Do your thing, and post it here. Have fun!

Most of the grey stuff is going to be replaced (arrow buttons, toolbar controls, etc). There were a lot of things in it that I wanted to use, like the slider controls and his templates for the progress indicators. Plus, the original Extras that I used has some sort of glitch in it with some pressable title boxes (little arrows appear within them; not sure if that's from Mountain Leopard or just Leopard itself) and the grey one doesn't.
Sure, I'll post it! As said before, I do plan to keep testing your Extras files, so maybe I'll use them once they become less reliant on the gray theme.
 
EDIT- I have removed this file, as it compromises the stability of the system, as some apps and preference panes will cause crashes. I'll leave this post up for informational purposes, but using this information is at the user's risk. I am not responsible for any issues that may arise by anyone reading and attempting these mods.

Here's a lighter window frame mod for Leopard, made by editing the SArtFile.bin and reencoding it. Once I got over the hurdle of making 24-bit alpha channel PNGs with transparency in Photoshop, it was actually a pretty simple process. Grab it below, navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Resources/ and backup your original SArtFile.bin (copy/paste it somewhere), then delete it from that directory and replace it with the one that you downloaded here. Reboot and see your new lighter window frames. A couple of comparison pictures are below.

If you mess something up, it's on you, not me. This is for Leopard ONLY.

Original Leopard window frame:
orgframe.png


Modified Leopard Window frame:
modframe.png


I'll probably make a few more modifications to this in the future, to better match Sierra's window frame. Feel free to compare this mod to Sierra's window frames and make some suggestions. I tested a few apps and they all seemed to work fine, but please let me know if any apps crash with this mod (they shouldn't).

Enjoy!
 
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Here's a lighter window frame mod for Leopard, made by editing the SArtFile.bin and reencoding it. Once I got over the hurdle of making 24-bit alpha channel PNGs with transparency in Photoshop, it was actually a pretty simple process. Grab it below, navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Resources/ and backup your original SArtFile.bin (copy/paste it somewhere), then delete it from that directory and replace it with the one that you downloaded here. Reboot and see your new lighter window frames. A couple of comparison pictures are below.

If you mess something up, it's on you, not me. This is for Leopard ONLY.

Original Leopard window frame:
orgframe.png


Modified Leopard Window frame:
modframe.png


I'll probably make a few more modifications to this in the future, to better match Sierra's window frame. Feel free to compare this mod to Sierra's window frames and make some suggestions. I tested a few apps and they all seemed to work fine, but please let me know if any apps crash with this mod (they shouldn't).

Enjoy!
Just about to try this. But I can't seem to be able to get into the SArtFile, the recompression keeps failing in artTools. How did you do it?
 
You don't have to decompress it. Just backup, then delete the original SArtFile.bin from the directory I noted above, move the new one in, and reboot.
 
Sorry, I mean if I wanted to modify the file myself.

Make sure anything you replace is 24-bit pngs with alpha channels. The easiest way to do this is to go to Save for web, then make sure 24-bit and transparency is checked, click save then save the new file. It should recompress with no problem then.

Also, make sure the original SArtFile.bin is in the same directory as your arttools when recompressing. Java will throw an error if not.
 
Make sure anything you replace is 24-bit pngs with alpha channels. The easiest way to do this is to go to Save for web, then make sure 24-bit and transparency is checked, click save then save the new file. It should recompress with no problem then.

Also, make sure the original SArtFile.bin is in the same directory as your arttools when recompressing. Java will throw an error if not.
All I did was edit an image in Preview, changing some colors as a test. It still fails. Thanks for any help.
EDIT: Here's a screenshot.
Picture 5.png
 
All I did was edit an image in Preview, changing some colors as a test. It still fails. Thanks for any help.

Use Photoshop and follow what I outlined above. I pulled my hair out until I figured out that saving as a normal png messes up the resources.
 
Not trying to be picky, but is it just me, or is the red traffic light a little bit larger than the yellow and green ones?
 
Not trying to be picky, but is it just me, or is the red traffic light a little bit larger than the yellow and green ones?

They're all the same size. I looked at Henry's post above, and the yellow looks smaller in his picture for some reason (optical illusion?). In my mod, there is only one glitched inactive button that I have to track down, and it appears in a window that you rarely ever see.

As an update, I've been working on those pesky Finder bar buttons. The tabs were easy enough, but those damn spacers are a pain to get perfect. I pulled the Sierra appearance .car files apart using ThemeEngine and made some comparisons and unfortunately, I don't see a way to make Leopard's Finder buttons look exactly like Sierra's Finder buttons, as Sierra uses separate resources for the arrow buttons and the view buttons, whereas Leopard shares the same caps, spacers, and divider resources for all of the buttons on its tool bar. I've got all of the big push buttons done, finished up the progress bars, and have started on the smaller buttons. Once those are done, I just need to do the pull-downs and arrows, which will be quite time-consuming...
[doublepost=1477678977][/doublepost]
A bit old, but it'll do. Thanks!

Theme Park doesn't seem to like PS 7. I tested it on my iBook G3, and, while it will send the resources to Photoshop, it errors when trying to retrieve them. I don't know if this is a PS7 thing or a G3 thing. CS2 works fine, so if you're having issues with 7, try to find a copy of CS2, or just edit your resources, save them, and drag them in. PS7 will work fine for SArtFile edits and saving the pngs in the format that it needs, though...
 
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They're all the same size. I looked at Henry's post above, and the yellow looks smaller in his picture for some reason (optical illusion?). In my mod, there is only one glitched inactive button that I have to track down, and it appears in a window that you rarely ever see.

As an update, I've been working on those pesky Finder bar buttons. The tabs were easy enough, but those damn spacers are a pain to get perfect. I pulled the Sierra appearance .car files apart using ThemeEngine and made some comparisons and unfortunately, I don't see a way to make Leopard's Finder buttons look exactly like Sierra's Finder buttons, as Sierra uses separate resources for the arrow buttons and the view buttons, whereas Leopard shares the same caps, spacers, and divider resources for all of the buttons on its tool bar. I've got all of the big push buttons done, finished up the progress bars, and have started on the smaller buttons. Once those are done, I just need to do the pull-downs and arrows, which will be quite time-consuming...
[doublepost=1477678977][/doublepost]

Theme Park doesn't seem to like PS 7. I tested it on my iBook G3, and, while it will send the resources to Photoshop, it errors when trying to retrieve them. I don't know if this is a PS7 thing or a G3 thing. CS2 works fine, so if you're having issues with 7, try to find a copy of CS2, or just edit your resources, save them, and drag them in. PS7 will work fine for SArtFile edits and saving the pngs in the format that it needs, though...

Hey guys, sorry i didn't see this post before.
I have updated Dock so that stacks are readable now.
Picture_4.png

Download
edit: Found the app that makes finder bar transparent in unsupported macs,
 
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Hey guys, sorry i didn't see this post before.
I have updated Dock so that stacks are readable now.
Picture_4.png

Download
edit: Found the app that makes finder bar transparent in unsupported macs,

Nice. If you scan through this entire thread, you'll find files that we've posted that have been modded so far. I should have another test build up in the next day or so with arrows, progress bars, large buttons, and a few other elements finished.

I changed the menu bar text in Finder.rsrc to be a bit darker, and used OpaqueMenuBar to make it solid white. As far as the Apple menu goes, I still need to go into SArtFiles and change it to a smaller one, but I'm using a modded version of Classic Menu for a solid Apple logo for now. I'll have to see how Transbar reacts to all of this...

EDIT: works great. In fact, it's almost a frosted transparency with OpaqueMenuBar underneath it. If you click on the Transbar app after it's running, you can adjust some of its properties and, with OpaqueMenuBar running underneath it, you can approximate the "frosted" transparency in Sierra by lowering the transparency slider in Transbar.

OpaqueMenuBar is at http://www.eternalstorms.at/utilities/opaquemenubar/ if you want to give it a try. Make sure to turn off your system transparent menu bar in System Preferences before running it.
 
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Nice. If you scan through this entire thread, you'll find files that we've posted that have been modded so far. I should have another test build up in the next day or so with arrows, progress bars, large buttons, and a few other elements finished.

I changed the menu bar text in Finder.rsrc to be a bit darker, and used OpaqueMenuBar to make it solid white. As far as the Apple menu goes, I still need to go into SArtFiles and change it to a smaller one, but I'm using a modded version of Classic Menu for a solid Apple logo for now. I'll have to see how Transbar reacts to all of this...

EDIT: works great. In fact, it's almost a frosted transparency with OpaqueMenuBar underneath it. If you click on the Transbar app after it's running, you can adjust some of its properties and, with OpaqueMenuBar running underneath it, you can approximate the "frosted" transparency in Sierra by lowering the transparency slider in Transbar.

OpaqueMenuBar is at http://www.eternalstorms.at/utilities/opaquemenubar/ if you want to give it a try. Make sure to turn off your system transparent menu bar in System Preferences before running it.
Ill try it :)
Ps: you can edit artfile.bin instead of extras.rsrc.
are you using extracted png files from MacOs or creating your own in photoshop?
Great work so far
 
Ill try it :)
Ps: you can edit artfile.bin instead of extras.rsrc.
are you using extracted png files from MacOs or creating your own in photoshop?
Great work so far

I'm using the extracted png files, fixed up in Photoshop. I know I can edit ArtFiles, but I started with Extras.rsrc so I could theme Tiger as well. The guys on the Sierra Theme team are most likely using ArtFiles and SartFiles, so I'll leave that to them. Their theme is meant to be much more complete than the hacking around that I'm doing...
 
Will the final release use the Extras file or SArtFile for UI elements? Extras would be much better, of course, because of Tiger compatibility. All that would be left is the icons, dock, and foxboxes.
[doublepost=1478350057][/doublepost]
Hey guys, sorry i didn't see this post before.
I have updated Dock so that stacks are readable now.
Picture_4.png

Download
edit: Found the app that makes finder bar transparent in unsupported macs,
Will this fix the big where you can't click on things above the dock? I (like others) find myself shrinking the dock to click on things on the bottoms of windows.
 
Using the artfiles would be much more accurate, since there are a lot of elements that can't be themed in Extras on Leopard (i.e. a few of the Finder controls, the Apple menu logo, Finder window frames, etc). Leopard doesn't use much of Finder.rsrc either, where Tiger actually depends on it for a few of the controls. The Extras mods that I've been working on (and am still working on; there are a LOT) look better in Tiger than on Leopard, although not by too much.

The Dock issue hasn't been fixed yet, but I have a theory that I'll test to see if it fixes it (when I can get to it)...
 
I just freshly restored my iBook G4 to Leopard and I'll be using existing files to try and get a Sierra look. To help out the next person, I'll be posting all of the links to files I used in this post. Look for edits. Hope this helps! As I do this, I will add links below.
- About this Mac screen - https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/resources-to-replace-zip.639513/
- Dock - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/el-capitan-theme-for-os-x-leopard.1947376/page-3#post-22650393 AND https://uploadfiles.io/cb216 (merged some resources, may upload soon)
- Icons from PPC Archive Yosemite pack - https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0BwEu0DzoksSlYmRjaWhYVlVhLWM
- Sierra wallpaper - https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/sierra.jpg
- Window frame (thanks @swamprock) - (link used to be here) EDIT: swamprock has removed the file due to it causing crashing. The post of still above for reference.
- UI elements (traffic lights, checkboxes, etc.) - Extras.rsrc_test4.zip Thanks again @swamprock! EDIT: swamprock has released a new Extras file! Find it on page 6. He says it will be his last one.
- Font - Find it on page one. @swamprock has posted a download and instructions.
Login window screen (thanks @SourceSunTom) - https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/macos-sierra-wallpaper-macbook-wallpaperblur2-jpg.639485/
I finally finished, and I'm suprised with how my iBook looks. Here's some screenshots:
Picture 1.png Picture 2.png Picture 3.png
Thanks @gavinstubbs09, @MacCubed, @SourceSunTom, @swamprock, and @Halibabamindingu for the files.
Oh yeah, and foxboxes! I probably won't need those anytime soon, so I'll do that another time. I hope this post helped!
 
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