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allan.nyholm

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 22, 2007
2,317
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Aalborg, Denmark

Requires PaintCan plugin for MacForge - had to quickly add that.

Also, in addition to SystemIntegrityProtection to be disabled/off - you'll also have to disable LibraryValidation​

All this hacking and cracking macOS Big Sur is getting long in the tooth. I doubt any more work will be done to this unless a magical fairy appears and knocks Tim Cook off as CEO of Apple and inserts me to deal with who gets hired to make their interfaces for future macOS versions.​

My Windows 10 virtual machine on VMware 12 won't boot using MacForge and in particular PaintCan. Despite MacForge is set to ignore VMware. Xcode is the same; won't launch. Why....whyy....​

Hey,

I've been messing about with themes for Big Sur and I have tried and tried and tried times infinity.

Then a MacForge plugin called PaintCan arrived - this has helped out a great deal for testing and application of themes.

PaintCan can be installed via the MacForge app itself by looking for it. Or via here(look towards the bottom of the page):
PaintCan on GitHub

You can now safely apply themes and test your themes that you're building too using this plugin.

Of course? MacForge requires SIP to be off - so you'll have to get over that.

Also, Retina capable assets only.

I am pushing PaintCan this much because it's really a safe way to apply themes like the one below.

Call it a theme or just a mod - probably the latter more than the former

There's minor modifications to some background colors and there's different .car files for either the gradient toolbar as PaintCan can take two .car files at a time; The Aqua and DarkAqua files.

From a readme file within the archive linked in this comment
replace the existing files inside the PaintCan bundle to try the gradient toolbar look.
revert to the old files if you dislike the appearance and the quirks I have yet to figure out

icon view doesn't have a gradient toolbar - one of the things I'm trying to figure out.
the two views called Week and Month inside Calendar doesn't respond to the titlebar change.
in my other experiments I did have success changing that, but it led to other problems entirely.


Please, read the readme files or don't :p


Either use a private browsing mode for just downloading or login for saving to your own Google Drive.

Google Drive direct link for Big Sur Rubberduck theme

Google Drive - direct link. You can try this link too - This is SnowLeopard-y for some reason. I think I've lost track of what's what

Proceed with caution on all accounts.

ThemePreview.pngThemePreview-GradientTitlebar.png
 
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This glitch happens, so far only safari, whenever I load another window in front of it.
 

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something else is that the effect on this part of the notes tab doesn't show up for 10 seconds or so when first opening notes.
 

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something else is that the effect on this part of the notes tab doesn't show up for 10 seconds or so when first opening notes.
I see what you mean, for this I take the sidebar divider and drag it all the way towards the left edge and then towards the right again - just a little bit - the titlebar isn't too willing here - without releasing the mouse button. Or leave the sidebar small in width. Try that and report back.

This is just an example of the various blips - the same with Week and Month views in Calendar as outlined in the readme

IF I were to fix the titlebar for reals I would have to have some help with CoreAnimation Archives and how they resize and how to constrain them. Because the way I've been making them isn't working
 
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Jumpshare archive is gone. Are you planning on making this available again? Thank you!
 
Jumpshare archive is gone. Are you planning on making this available again? Thank you!
Yeah, I deleted my account on there. Sorry for not seeing this comment - I must have turned off comment e-mails
I don't have the archive myself anymore it turns out.

I do however still have the resources that I could re-build from and share from iCloud instead. I have to rebuild for macOS Big Sur 11.3 because even my MonDet theme is not 100% OK with High Contrast mode on 11.3 - but it was on 11.2.3

right now I am recovering from surgery in the eye due to cataract. I have a bit of a blurred vision and I was ordered to not spend too much time looking at screens.
The surgery was this past friday and I would need 3 weeks in total to recover - if all goes according to the scriptures.
 
Baby steps in a good direction, kudos for that. As much as I am a fan of flat design, I have to understand that the flat design has had its time and needs some evolution into some more details from other tendencies.

Not everything has to be flat, some things can pop up too.

But no neuomorphism, please... I hate that trend. Its worse than skeuomorphism.
 
Is this compatible with Catalina.
It's not compatible with Catalina directly via replacement - via PaintCan?! Perhaps.

PaintCan I think goes all the way to Mojave.

If you are only referring to the red - yellow - green buttons then I believe I can make that work on Catalina's theme files if you want.
 
I injected both commands successfully, and dropped those 2 files in the proper folder, now how do I apply your theme?
If you have placed the files in the correct place then it ought to be show in next launch of Finder for instance.

You've injected both commands successfully? MacForge, PaintCan and Terminal command below

Disable Library Validation for use with MacForge.
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.libraryvalidation.plist DisableLibraryValidation -bool true
 
I already ran that command successfully, I don't have PaintCan installed yet. When I click on PaintCan link it will redirect me to MacForge website.
 
I downloaded it through the MacForge app, but I still can't see any changed in Finder. Is it because I have M1 macbook?
Ah, there's the ticket.. You will have to go download the beta version of MacForge for M1 Macs.
If you are not on Discord, where Macenhance has as server, I can talk to the author of MacForge and hear if it's possible to share with you outside of Discord.
 
Ok, managed to get it up and running, still don't see any changes though. Man this is rough. Also I don't see your plugins in the Macforge app. When I try to drag/drop into the view nothing happens, it won't install your plugins.
 
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btw.. this is perhaps more a FYI - not as much directed at you @EugenesSoggySalami as your latest comment clearly stated you had it up and running.

I'll try and explain a little better, my initial post here was in hindsight too much "in the know"-kind of deal.

When you have turned off System Integrity Protection on your M1 Mac then the following ought to reveal my theme.
When you open MacForge and have clicked the "GET" button for PaintCan in the Discover section then PaintCan is essentially installed.

There's no interface as such as PaintCan is a bundle that shows itself via the button that is now "OPEN" - inside this bundle my theme files is to be placed.

The bundle I mention has its files revealed via Show Package Contents and then navigating to the Contents -> Resources folder.

There's a little file called "placeholder" - this remains there. What else you put here should be taken on by macOS Big Sur.

System Integrity Protection for M1 Macs can be turned off via:
Code:
csrutil disable



Press and hold the Power button until the display shows Loading Startup Options, then release it. This takes you to the Startup Options screen.


Select the Options icon, then click Continue underneath it.


Tools provided include:


  • Main window – Restore from Time Machine, Reinstall macOS, Safari, Disk Utility
  • Apple menu – Startup Disk, Restart, Shut Down
  • Utilities menu – Startup Security Utility, Terminal, Share Disk
  • Online help is available when you open Safari.

Taken from here:
https://www.macenhance.com/blog/2020/m1.html


Note that:
A new feature of M1 machine is that they allow users to run iOS applications on their Mac.

At present if you disable System Integrity Protection you will be unable to launch iOS apps. It is unclear as of now if that is the intended behavior.
 
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All dots are green, still unable to see your theme.
You would still be required to put the theme files from either one if these links inside the PaintCan.bundle/Contents/Resources folder - it ought to work. Try using the light mode and then see if that changes. Switch to dark mode after the fact. I have included dark mode too.

NSAppearanceNameAqua.paintcan.car and NSAppearanceNameDarkAqua.paintcan.car - if only file exist in one of the archives below then that's the file for that appearance.

Either use a private browsing mode for just downloading or login for saving to your own iCloud Drive.

Theme Archive on iCloud Drive

Gradient toolbar.. has issues. Download on iCloud Drive

I hope that you get it to work. If not, I can see if the problem is with my themes.
I am required to take a nap nights sleep now. I will return in the morning.​

:)

 
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