In computing, a
theme is a preset package containing graphical appearance details, used to customize the
look and feelLook and feel is a term used in descriptions of products and fields such as product design, marketing, branding and trademarking, to describe the main features of its appearance....
of (typically) an operating system, widget set or
window managerA window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment...
.
Graphics themes for individual applications are often referred to as
skinsIn computing, skins may be associated with themes as custom graphical appearances that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit its the purpose or topic, or the tastes of different users....
, and the words are often used equivalently, the primary difference being one of scope.
Themes are often used to change the appearance of a wide range of things at once, which makes them much less
granularGranularity is the extent to which a system is broken down into small parts, either the system itself or its description or observation. It is the "extent to which a larger entity is subdivided...
than allowing the user to set each option individually.
Discussion
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In computing, a
theme is a preset package containing graphical appearance details, used to customize the
look and feelLook and feel is a term used in descriptions of products and fields such as product design, marketing, branding and trademarking, to describe the main features of its appearance....
of (typically) an operating system, widget set or
window managerA window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment...
.
Graphics themes for individual applications are often referred to as
skinsIn computing, skins may be associated with themes as custom graphical appearances that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit its the purpose or topic, or the tastes of different users....
, and the words are often used equivalently, the primary difference being one of scope.
Usage
Themes are often used to change the appearance of a wide range of things at once, which makes them much less
granularGranularity is the extent to which a system is broken down into small parts, either the system itself or its description or observation. It is the "extent to which a larger entity is subdivided...
than allowing the user to set each option individually. For example, you might want the window-borders from a particular theme, but installing it would also alter your desktop background.
One method for dealing with this is to allow the user to select which parts of the theme they want to 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
- IceWM
IceWM is a stacking window manager for the X Window System graphical infrastructure, written by Marko Maček. It was coded from scratch in C++ and is released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License...
uses themes to customise its taskbar, window borders, and time format.
- GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment—a graphical user interface which runs on top of a computer operating system —composed entirely of free and open source software...
and KDEKDE is a free software project based around its flagship product, a desktop environment mainly for Unix-like systems. The goal of the project is to provide basic desktop functions and applications for daily needs as well as tools and documentation for developers to write stand-alone applications...
use two independent sets of themes: one to alter the appearance of buttons, scrollbars, list elements, (for example to specify glassy-effect pushbuttons or square ones), and another theme to customise the appearance of windows (for example, window borders and title bars).
- Mac OS
Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
is themeable through third party applications, such as KaleidoscopeA kaleidoscope is a tube of mirrors containing small colored objects.Kaleidoscope may also refer to:-Computing:* Kaleidoscope , a constraint programming language...
and ShapeShifterShapeShifter is an Application Enhancer plugin for Mac OS X developed by Unsanity that allows the user to make system-wide modifications to the appearance of the operating system's graphical interface by applying GUI skins through “injection” into running code and without modifying system files,...
. Apple had planned to release system themes in version 8 of their OS, but they were removed at the last minute.
- WindowMaker can store colors for icons, menus, and window-borders in a theme, but this is independent of the wallpaper settings (and WindowMaker has no taskbar to customise)
- Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It was released on June 25, 1998, and is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit monolithic product based on MS-DOS...
and Windows MeWindows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft.- Overview :...
came with themes such as "nature", "space", etc. which contained desktop backgrounds, iconsOn computer displays, a computer icon is a small pictogram. Icons have been used to supplement the normal alphanumerics of the computer...
, sounds, colors, and cursors. This was also provided by Plus! for Windows 95 and the theme program also in the VALUEADD for Office 97.
- Windows XP
Windows XP is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, and media centers. The name "XP" is short for "eXPerience"...
introduced several new themes, including LunaLuna is the codename for the default visual theme of Windows XP.Officially known as Windows XP style, the theme is available in three color schemes: Default , Olive Green, and Silver...
and Royale, which were both very different from the Windows "Classic" look in previous versions of windows.
- Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
introduced a new theme called AeroWindows Aero is the graphical user interface and the default theme in most editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 , operating systems released by Microsoft. It is also available in Windows Server 2008. Its name is a backronym for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open...
which aims to give the user a cleaner and sleeker look to windows. However, some older themes like XP's LunaLuna is the codename for the default visual theme of Windows XP.Officially known as Windows XP style, the theme is available in three color schemes: Default , Olive Green, and Silver...
have been removed.