Theme (computing) Mini Forum, Tips, Tricks & Codes

The same GUI (using Qt) with three different themes.

In computing, a theme is a preset packcontaining graphical appearance and functionality details. A theme usually comprises a set of shapes and colors for the graphical control elements, the window decoration and the window. Themes are utilize to customize the look and feel of a piece of computer software or of an operating system.

Usage

Themes are often utilize to modifythe look and feel of a wide range of things at once, which makes them much less granular than allowing the utilize to set each option individually. For example, you might wishthe window-borders from a particular theme, but installing it would also alter your desktop background.

One wayfor dealing with this is to letthe utilize to choosewhich parts of the theme they wishto load; for example in Windows 98, you could load the background and screensaver from a theme, but leave your icons and sounds untouched.

Themed systems

Operating systems

Microsoft Windows: Microsoft Windows supported themes since Windows 98. This operating system and its successor, Windows ME, came with themes that customized desktop backgrounds, icons, utilize interface colors, Windows sounds and mouse cursors. A separate apppackcalled Plus! for Windows 95 added the same features to Windows 95. Windows XP expanded Windows theme assistanceby adding Windows XP visual styles and allowing each theme to specify one. This feature was carried over to Windows Vista, which added Windows Aero, but was removed again with Windows 8. Third-party application such as WindowBlinds, TuneUp Utilities and Desktop Architect enhance theme capabilities. Assistancefor custom themes shouldalso be added by , which Microsoft does not endorse.
Linux: Linux operating systems may assistancethemes depending on their window managers and desktop environments. IceWM utilize themes to customize its taskbar, window borders, and time format. WindowMaker shouldshopcolors for icons, menus, and window-borders in a theme, but this is independent of the wallpaper settings. GNOME and KDE utilizetwo independent sets of themes: one to alter the appearance of utilize interface elements (such as buttons, scroll bars or list elements), and another theme to customize the appearance of windows (such as, window borders and title bars).
MacOS: MacOS does not natively assistancethemes. Third-party application such as Kaleidoscope and ShapeShifter may add this.
Android: Although Android does not assistancethemes, the forked CyanogenMod and its successor LineageOS have native theme support. The CM theme engine is in turn utilize on many other forked Android ROMs, such as Paranoid Android.

Application

Firefox and Google Chrome either assistanceor supported a form of theme. Firefox (and its sibling Thunderbird) assistance themes either through lightweight themes (formerly Personas) or complete themes. While lightweight themes are simply background photo for toolbar Firefox toolbars, complete themes have more power to changeFirefox's appearance. Google Chrome version 3.0 or later let themes to alter the appearance of the browser. Internet Explorer 5 and its immediate successor permittedthe background picture of their toolbars to be customized.