


ColorScheme(1)     AfterStep X11 window manager    ColorScheme(1)


NAME
       ColorScheme -  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.






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ColorScheme(1)     AfterStep X11 window manager    ColorScheme(1)


       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.




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ColorScheme(1)     AfterStep X11 window manager    ColorScheme(1)


       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.




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ColorScheme(1)     AfterStep X11 window manager    ColorScheme(1)


       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.





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ColorScheme(1)     AfterStep X11 window manager    ColorScheme(1)


       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 cus-
       tomized. 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



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ColorScheme(1)     AfterStep X11 window manager    ColorScheme(1)


       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
       visual 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



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ColorScheme(1)     AfterStep X11 window manager    ColorScheme(1)


              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



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ColorScheme(1)     AfterStep X11 window manager    ColorScheme(1)


              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



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ColorScheme(1)     AfterStep X11 window manager    ColorScheme(1)


              usefull while doing transformations  (tinting,  hsv,  etc  )  in
              AfterStep XML images.























































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