ColorScheme(1) AfterStep X11 window manager ColorScheme(1)NAMEColorScheme - defines color values for standard set of internal color
names, to be used in other configuration files
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
Active
Color that will be used for background of different focused
elemets, such as focused window's titlebar, selected menu item,
etc. This color should be contrasting with Base, Inactive1 and
Inactive2 in hue, but similar in saturation.
ActiveDark
This color should have slightly lesser value then Active (be
5-10% darker). This is usefull when background of focused title‐
bar is a gradient.
ActiveLight
This color should have slightly higher value then Active (be
5-10% lighter). This is usefull when background of focused
titlebar is a gradient.
ActiveText
Color of the text on focused titlebars. It should be in high
value contrast with Active color.
Angle
Defines angle on the hue circle between Inactive1, Base and
Inactive2 colors in color schemes, that are automagically calcu‐
lated by AfterStep. Default angle is 30 degrees. Use smaller
angle to make Inactive and Base colors more similar.
Base
This color is defining color of the color scheme. It will be
used for desktop background. When AfterStep is allowed to calcu‐
late color scheme automagically - it will use this color in con‐
junction with the Angle value as base of calculations.
BaseDark
Color that should be about 10% darker then the Base color, but
have similar hue and saturation. Usefull for drawing gradiented
desktop background.
BaseLight
Color that should be about 10% lighter then the Base color, but
have similar hue and saturation. Usefull for drawing gradiented
desktop background.
Cursor
This color will be used for pmouse pointer, and it should be in
high contrast with all the other colors.
DisabledText
Color of the text of disabled menu items. Should be very similar
to menu item's background color.
HighActive
Used for focused menus. Should be similar to Active color, but
somewhat lighter.
HighActiveBack
Used for current menu item's background. Should be similar, but
somewhat brighter them Active color.
HighActiveBackDark
Should be 10% darker then HighActiveBack color. Usefull for gra‐
diented background of selected menu item.
HighActiveBackLight
Should be 10% lighter then HighActiveBack color. Usefull for
gradiented background of selected menu item.
HighActiveDark
Should be 10% darker then HighActive color. Usefull for gradi‐
ented background of focused menu titlebar.
HighActiveLight
Should be 10% lighter then HighActive color. Usefull for gradi‐
ented background of focused menu titlebar.
HighActiveText
Color to be used for drawing text on focused menu titlebar.
Should be in high contrast with HighActive color.
HighInactive
Used for unfocused menus. Should be similar to Inactive1 color,
but somewhat lighter.
HighInactiveBack
Used for inactive menu item's background. Should be similar, but
somewhat brighter them HighInactive color.
HighInactiveBackDark
Should be 10% darker then HighInactiveBack color. Usefull for
gradiented background of inactive menu item.
HighInactiveBackLight
Should be 10% lighter then HighInactiveBack color. Usefull for
gradiented background of inactive menu item.
HighInactiveDark
Should be 10% darker then HighInactive color. Usefull for gradi‐
ented background of inactive menu titlebars.
HighInactiveLight
Should be 10% lighter then HighInactive color. Usefull for gra‐
diented background of inactive menu titlebars.
HighInactiveText
Color of the text on unfocused menu titlebar. Should be highly
contrasting with HighInactive color.
Inactive1
Primary color used for unfocused window titlebar's background.
Inactive1Dark
Should be 10% darker then Inactive1. Usefull for gradiented
background of unfocused windows.
Inactive1Light
Should be 10% lighter then Inactive1. Usefull for gradiented
background of unfocused windows.
Inactive2
Secondary color used for unfocused window titlebar's background.
Should be used for unfocused sticky windows.
Inactive2Dark
Should be 10% darker then Inactive2. Usefull for gradiented
background of sticky windows.
Inactive2Light
Should be 10% lighter then Inactive2. Usefull for gradiented
background of sticky windows.
InactiveText1
Color of the text on unfocused titlebars. Should be highly con‐
trasting with Inactive1.
InactiveText2
Color of the text on sticky titlebars. Should be highly con‐
trasting with Inactive2.
DESCRIPTION
AfterStep color schemes are supposed to ease the pain of assembling set
of colors that go well with each other, while providing additional
flexibility while designing custom looks/themes.
AfterStep Colorscheme is a standard set of color names, that may have
different color values assigned to them. This color names are used in
defining Look and in XML images. By assigning different color values to
teh same color names it is possible to instantly change colors through‐
out entire Look, without altering any images or configuration files.
Not all of the Colorscheme colors have to be explicitely defined. Only
the Base color is important. AfterStep is capable of autogeneration of
good-looking colorscheme, from this single color. Explicit color defi‐
nition in colorscheme file will override any automatic choice. Example
of this is the NeXTish colorscheme, where all of the colors are custom‐
ized. If grayscale color is choosen for Base - it will generate
grayscale colorscheme, where different shades of gray are used for dif‐
ferent colors.
Selected colorscheme file is loaded by all modules and afterstep
proper. Whenever new colorscheme is selected - it triggers reloading of
the Look file and all image files.
All of the supplied Look files had been written to take advantage of
the AfterStep colorschemes.
Please read below for more details on how colorschemes are generated
and other color-related topics :
HARMONIOUS COLORS Task of selecting a set of matching colors is a seri‐
ous matter, and it was studied by artists and designers for centuries.
AS the result there are certain rules developed to simplify this task.
Firstly, instead of selecting colors in Red/Green/Blue colorspace,
matching colors should be selected using Hue/Saturation/Value (HSV)
colorspace. Color hues are the most important characteristic of the
color, and is measured in degrees from 0(red hue) to 60(yellow hue) to
120(green hue) to 180(cyan hue) to 240(blue hue) to 300(purple hue) and
then to 360 which is the same hue as 0 - red. Hues could be placed on a
so called color circle, making it easier to choose matching colors.
There are two main approaches to selecting color scheme - single hue,
or several hues.
Single hue colors differ in its saturation, and usually allow for a
soothing, simple theme. Such theme could be pleasant to look at, but it
lacks in excitement, and makes it difficult to distinguish between dif‐
ferent elements.
Using several hues makes theme a bit more exciting, and adds more vis‐
ual cues to the screen, providing for easier operation, and allowing
user to relax eye muscles, resulting in better ergonomics. Accordingly
this is the approach that should be used for user interface colors. Now
how to select hues that compose harmonious theme? The rule of the thumb
is that hues that are close to each other on color circle go well with
each other, while those, located on opposing sides of the circle, cre‐
ate contrasting effect.
AfterStep addresses the task of selecting harmonious colors, by gener‐
ating a set of colors from a single color using designer rules. IMAGE
HUES Look of the screen (aka Theme), includes numerous images, such as
icons, backgrounds, bars, etc. Each such image may have one or several
dominating hues, which brings us back to the task of matching hues, in
order to achieve harmonious look.
The rule of the thumb to follow here is that, each image on any partic‐
ular interface element, such as titlebar, should have at least one dom‐
inating hue to be the same as the hue of the background of this ele‐
ment.
There are several way to make sure that hue of the image matches that
of the background :
tinting
If an image has single dominating hue, it could be converted to
grayscale and then tinted with the color of the background.
hue rotation
If an image has several hues, or a hue and some grayscale parts
- its hues could be rotated, by converting image into HSV col‐
orspace, changing range of hues, and then converting image back
into RGB colorspace.
superimposition
Also image hues may be altered by superimposing it over the
background image using allanon composition method, where each
pixel is substituted with the average of image's pixel value and
background's pixel value.
AfterStep addresses the task of changing hues of images using
XML image scripting. See asimagexml for more on that. COLOR
NAMES AfterStep Colorscheme color names could be separated in
several categories :
Foreground and Background
Foreground colors are used to render text, while background col‐
ors make up a backdrop for that text. Now there are several con‐
straints on foreground colors - they should be contrasting with
backgrounds, and it is always better to constrain foreground
colors to black and white, as colored text tends to "bleed"
ontop background, making it less eligible. Another problem with
foreground being colorfull is that it increases strain on user's
eyes, forcing them to adapt to too many different contrasting
colors.
Base, Active and Inactive
General color theme of the screen is determined by background.
Accordingly we term it a Base color, and determine the rest of
the colors as relation to it. Now at any given time there could
be one element that is focused and active, while other are off
focus and should assume lower visibility. We define Active col‐
ors to be used with focused items (should be contrasting with
the Base color). We also define Inactive colors to be used with
off-focus items (its a good idea to make them analogues to the
Base color). Now as we may have 2 kinds of off-focus windows
(sticky and non-sticky ), we actually define 2 Inactive colors:
Inactive1 and Inactive2.
Gradient colors
Gradients create very appealing look when used to color title‐
bars and other interface elements. Generally its a good idea to
use colors of the same hue, but having different intensity. To
denote colors designated for gradients we add Dark/Light postfix
to color names. COLOR VALUES AfterStep supports extremely flex‐
ible and extensive ways to define color value. Standard approach
is to use #RRGGBB notation. In addition to that, AfterStep sup‐
ports the following notations :
#RGB Same as #RRGGBB, only using 4bit values for components. For
example #F84 is the same as #F08040.
#ARGB This is the same as #RGB plus Alpha value is added (Alpha value
defines opacity of the color).
#AARRGGBB
This is the same as #RRGGBB plus 8-bit Alpha value is added.
hsv(hue,saturation,value)
Defines color using HSV colorspace hue is measured from 0 to 360
degrees, saturation and value are measured from 0 to 100.
rgb(red,green,blue)
Defines color in RGB colorspace. Similar to #RRGGBB form, but
values are not in hex, but in decimals (from 0 to 255). It also
allows for nested expressions, such as :
rgb(128,128,blue(Base)).
ahsv(alpha,hue,saturation,value)
Same as hsv(), but also adds Alpha channel.
argb(alpha,red,green,blue)
Same as argb(), but also adds Alpha channel.
hue(hue,color)
Alters hue of the given predefined color, preserving its satura‐
tion and value.
sat(saturation,color)
Alters saturation of the given predefined color.
val(value,color)
Alters value of the given predefined color.
alpha(alpha,color)
Alters alpha of the given predefined color. This is usefull to
make colors from colorscheme semi-transparent.
red(red,color)
Alters red channel value of the given predefined color.
green(green,color)
Alters green channel value of the given predefined color.
blue(blue,color)
Alters blue channel value of the given predefined color.
Example :
#This could be used in colorscheme definition :
Inactive1 #FF5C5B66 # or ahsv(255,245,10,40) or argb(255,92,91,102)
#This could be used in MyStyle definition in the look.
#That makes Sticky window's titlebar semi-transparent:
BackMultiGradient 6 alpha(50,Inactive2Dark) 0.0 alpha(50,Inactive2Light) 1.0
Actuall usage of colors is defined in AfterStep look file, in
MyStyle definitions. Also all ColorScheme colors could be used
in AfterStep XML images, similarly to standard X color aliases.
It is also possible to use different aspects of each color -
red, green, blue and alpha, hue, saturation and value individu‐
aly. For each color there are 6 variables defined using follow‐
ing sytax: $ascs.colorname.component . For example
$ascs.Active.hue represents hue of the Active color. This is
usefull while doing transformations (tinting, hsv, etc ) in
AfterStep XML images.
3rd Berkeley Distribution AfterStep v.2.2.11ColorScheme(1)
