LastFM PaintItBlack skin v1.0.4 [MR5 skin update] 3/14/2010

[Sebastian78]

My gripes with MM is not how it works, because it can do A LOT of different stuff and "it works". I'm aesthetically oriented person. When I use something often, I want it to be polished and aesthetically pleasing. In that respect, iTunes may be seen as "perfection" and Songbird is getting pretty close. But they are lacking in control and functions. The "Why Mediamonkey will fail" thread, is more to dramatically put my point out there, make people think about the subject and force some good change. I DON'T want MM to fail...............

Now this skin, is by far the best iteration of a "perfect" MM. I kind of feel where Douda is coming from and I sort of agree with him. I just installed the script and need to try it out for a while before I tear it appart. First hand, It might be a tad bit dark (edit: borders) and makes it feel "crowded" on a small 13" screen, but it's the best skin yet! Keep up the good work!

[nohitter151]

Do you have any plans to make a Song Information Panel skin that is more precisely fitted to your PaintItBlack skin?

Thanks again!

To be honest I don't even have the Song Information panel add-on installed, so its a bit hard to know what you mean (also why there is no preview.. ).

Could you maybe show me a screenshot?

=========
Also, on an unrelated note, just to show how tastes can vary -- I can't believe that two people now have mentioned "perfect MM" in regards to this skin. I really don't like this skin much and I greatly prefer the SimplyRed version. I only released the PaintItBlack because I knew based on the last.fm website that many users prefer the "black" version which is available.

Strange

[daouda34]

Hehe, now i really see what you mean nohitter when you wrote "you can't please everybody" : Sebastian just wrote about how he dislikes the dark (black) borders of the skin when i happen to be perfectly content with the (to my eyes) nice & elegant contrasted Black & White look (which on a side note i think is to be expected from a skin that is named "paint it black").

Therefore, until you tell me to shut the hell up, i will soon post suggestions about what i think will make this skin better without being matter of personnal taste (pointing out real design flaws & bugs, and maybe a little more personal usability issues), keeping it short, to the point, and illustrated with screenshots.

But before that, one little suggestion that i already sent you by pm : please have this skin be available for download from the "monkeywiki skinning page"!!! I really dont think noobs like me should ever have to dig all the way down to the "development" forum to be able to find this gem! Noobs will never (and should never have to) go past 3 or 4 intuitive clicks to find skins for their player!! (Mediamonkey.com --­> Addons --> Skins ---> Skins for MediaMonkey 3 and higher). Then again, you maybe want this skin to be a little more matured before putting it up there.

DISCLAIMER : the following comment is not intended at the skinners but at the MM marketing/communiations/development/whatever team :
I really think there is a lesson MM should take from the Mozilla approach to addons publication that make their products (Firefox, Songbird) expandability and personalization much more friendlier and accessible to the noobs, non-geeks crowd. We very much might be a majority among music lovers with a huge music collection, which are who MM is aimed at. Unless MM wants to restrict its target market to music-loving geeks, they should try a little harder make the whole customization experience more user-friendly for everybody.

[nohitter151]

But before that, one little suggestion that i already sent you by pm : please have this skin be available for download from the "monkeywiki skinning page"!!!

Soon MM will have its addons site available (in fact, I am one of the addon moderators for the new addons site) so that is why I haven't put it up there. Soon that whole wiki page will most likely be removed.

[gpzbc]

Here is the preview of how it looks in my current setup.


I think I originally said something about a darker background, but I think that might look awkward. I think it would be great if there was some sort of use of black or the brushed metal in the SI panel.
Thanks for taking a look at it!

[nohitter151]

...in the SI panel.
Thanks for taking a look at it!

Ok, thanks, I've updated the first post with new download links - you should uninstall the current SI panel skin from Tools > Extensions before you install the new one(s).

[gpzbc]

Excellent! Thank you very much.

[DeathAxe]

Nice skin man. Quite simple and clean. I like it.

Have some suggestions for the future:

1. The contrast between the black toolbars and the light listviews is very high. That's why it looks a bit ugly to have a light grey border around toolbars docked to treeview panel or playlist panel. Maybe those toolbars should be light grey, too.

2. The player does somehow not look as belonging to the skin. The dark player is surrounded by light grey borders and a light grey statusbar. Maybe the statusbar should be black, too, or even better - coloured like the player.

3. The Caption of dialogs/forms touches the black border.

4. The left/right border of a dialog/form are interuppted. Seems as two skin objects are overlapping there. Looks like pixelfighting. Sometimes the border is closed and sometimes not. Reproduction is possible by dragging the window.

5. The corners of comboboxes could be drawn a bit smaller and more accurate.

6. The Background of comboboxes' edit fields is drawn light grey, but the inner border is white.

7. The border of edit boxes should not be black, but a bit lighter and their corners could look better, too.

8. Why do you draw a black border around dialogs, but not around the main window? A black border together with the black statusbar would make the skin look much better, especially if the toolbars are docked to the bottom.

9. The bottom corners of the main form show strange black/white flicker effects, if it is not maximized and dragged around the desktop.

Hope my little feedback helps improving the skin.

Regards.

[nohitter151]

Nice skin man. Quite simple and clean. I like it.

Thanks.

Have some suggestions for the future:

1. The contrast between the black toolbars and the light listviews is very high. That's why it looks a bit ugly to have a light grey border around toolbars docked to treeview panel or playlist panel. Maybe those toolbars should be light grey, too.

I can't change those toolbars without changing the toolbar at the top of the screen. They use the same bitmap area, so they have to be the same image.

2. The player does somehow not look as belonging to the skin. The dark player is surrounded by light grey borders and a light grey statusbar. Maybe the statusbar should be black, too, or even better - coloured like the player.

Well, I'm just trying to replicate the last.fm look: http://www.last.fm/user/stplatt
If you log in and see a profile page there is an option at the top to change the color to "PaintItBlack".

3. The Caption of dialogs/forms touches the black border.

Not for me, maybe you can show a screenshot to clarify.

4. The left/right border of a dialog/form are interuppted. Seems as two skin objects are overlapping there. Looks like pixelfighting. Sometimes the border is closed and sometimes not. Reproduction is possible by dragging the window.

Again, no such problems here that I can see, maybe a screenshot can clarify.

5. The corners of comboboxes could be drawn a bit smaller and more accurate.

Not sure what you mean by "comboboxes", in the skin comboboxes are the drop down arrows (ie next to the search bar). If that's what you're referring to, I don't see a problem.

6. The Background of comboboxes' edit fields is drawn light grey, but the inner border is white.

Thanks, will be fixed in next release.

7. The border of edit boxes should not be black, but a bit lighter and their corners could look better, too.

If I do this, the search bar will be completely ruined and won't fit in. ( search box and edit boxes use the same style in skins )

8. Why do you draw a black border around dialogs, but not around the main window? A black border together with the black statusbar would make the skin look much better, especially if the toolbars are docked to the bottom.

To match the last.fm website, generally that is how it looks.

9. The bottom corners of the main form show strange black/white flicker effects, if it is not maximized and dragged around the desktop.

You mean the borders in the options menu?

Hope my little feedback helps improving the skin.

Regards.

Thanks again!

[DeathAxe]

Hi, as suggested I did a screenshot and draw some red circles around the issued areas.



I am using Windows 7 with default font settings (Segoe UI) and have this issue with "too large" fonts not only with your skin.

The screenshot does also show the black borders of the option dialog being broken. This does not always look like this. Sometimes they are shown correctly, sometimes the white area is simply black. I tried to find the issue using the theme editor, but I must confess, even though it is a quite intuitive GUI, it is still quite complicated to find bugs, like this one.

The corners of edit and comboboxes are shown, too. I think there is one pixel too much. Eighter the outer or inner should be deleted. I have changed the corners the way I think would look better and draw a blue circle around. I think the second one looks even better.

If I look at this page, the border colour of edit boxes is OK.

Regards.

[nohitter151]

Re: "Options" in the title bar - The skin uses Franklin Gothic Medium font, it looks like you don't have that font on your system somehow. Strange, because according to this: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/Fon ... x?FMID=576

it is supplied with Windows 7.

Re: the borders - I can't reproduce this, so I really don't know what could be the problem.

Re: the corners of the boxes - like I said, I can't change this because it will ruin the search bar.

[Sebastian78]

Hehe, now i really see what you mean nohitter when you wrote "you can't please everybody" : Sebastian just wrote about how he dislikes the dark (black) borders of the skin when i happen to be perfectly content with the (to my eyes) nice & elegant contrasted Black & White look (which on a side note i think is to be expected from a skin that is named "paint it black").

Daouda, I do like the black border, don't know what I was talking about! Must be mad...I feared they would "drown" everything else on my small screen.

What I don't like, is that the borders between the player, music explorer three and menu line is grey. Would look sleeker with that black as well, next to the black, BUT somehow maintaining the light grey round the library views ie. not frame them in black. BUT I would rather have it all black, than the way it is now.

One thing I DID NOT LIKE, are those hearts. I actually thought my sister had but all those heart in my flaylist haha....like start much better.

[Shiny Rabbit]

that looks rather nice for a dark skin, any chance of a version for those of us who like the light side of life?

[nohitter151]

that looks rather nice for a dark skin, any chance of a version for those of us who like the light side of life?

I'm not sure what you mean, the skin is rather light (most of it is white and light grey). There is also the SimplyRed version: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =9&t=42923

[gpzbc]

I thought the same thing. I consider this skin to be one of my light skins.
My test is this: If all the lights in the room are off and I open MM, do I need to turn down my screen brightness? If yes, then it is a light screen. If no, then it is a dark screen.
LastFM PaintItBlack is a light screen for me. The light background makes it quite bright.
With that being said, it is one of my favorite light screens.