I think an app dedicated to covers and artwork must be, at least, nice looking. And, in this regard, I believe each user has its own preferences. This is why I designed MyTunesCovers with the objective to allow each user to customize the look of the app by choosing a predefined skin or by designing its own skins.

From here on, you can belong to one of these two groups:

  1. those who have some graphical skills and just a bit of technical knowledge in order to create their own skins;
  2. and those, like me, that do not have the artistic fiber in them.

If you are from the second group, all you can do is select one of the existing skin in the lower part of the Settings dialog box... and hope that the first group will hear my call for new skins to augment your choice of skins.

If you are from the first group and have some spare time, have fun creating your own skins! You will find tips on how to do that below. And if you think your creation can make MyTunesCovers nicer for other users, all you have to do is zip your skin and email it to me at this address: ahk@jeanlalonde.ca. Tell me under what name you want your skin to be published ("skin name - by designer's name") and confirm that you allow me to distribute your skin under the same licence used for MyTunesCovers.

Procedure

  1. Locate the skins folder under the app's folder. Make a copy of any of the existing skins sub-folder and rename it, for example MySkin.
  2. Inside your new skin folder, rename the existing .ini file to MySkin.ini.
  3. Run MyTunesCovers and check in the Settings dialog box if MySkin appear in the Select your favorite skin dropdown list. If it does not appear, make sure the MySkin folder is inside the skins folder.
  4. Select MySkin and restart MyTunesCovers.
  5. Now, edit the MySkin.ini file following the explanation below and replace the .png images files with your own images, keeping the same image size.

Skin's anatomy

A skin is composed of an

  • .ini file (for example, MySkin.ini)
  • and a set of image files

all regrouped in a folder. The folder and the .ini file must have the same name. This name is displayed in the skin selection dropdown menu in the Settings dialog box.

Content of the .ini file

[Global]
PictureSize=200

Default size of the picture (200x200). User can change it from to 60x60 to 320x320 pixels.

[Fonts]
NameXYZ=Verdana
OptionsXYZ=s10 w700 C404040

"XYZ" stands for one of the various text zones in the app described below. For all fonts:

Select a font name for "NameXYZ". See available font names (yellow fonts are recommended).

For "OptionsXYZ", possible values are one or more of the following option letters and parameter. Each option must be separated by a space:

  • C: Color name (see color chart) or RGB value. Example values: cRed or cFFFFAA.
  • S: Size (in points). For example: s12.
  • W: Weight (boldness), which is a number between 1 and 1000 (400 is normal and 700 is bold). For example: w600.

(Source: http://ahkscript.org/docs/misc/FontsStandard.htm)

Here are the various fonts that you can customize in MyTunesCovers and example of values:

NameTitle=Verdana
OptionsTitle=s10 w700 C404040

Font of the app's title (upper left)

NameHeaderText=Verdana
OptionsHeaderText=s10 w500 C404040

Font of the app's header, including Artists and Albums dropdown menus

NamePage=Verdana
OptionsPage=s8 w400 C404040

Font of the paging section at the bottom of the app.

NameBoardInside=Arial
OptionsBoardInside=C404040

Font of the text inside left board covers. Automatically sized at s6, s8 or s10 points depending on cover size. If you specify a size here, it will overwrite the automatic size regardless of the cover size.

NameBoardName=Arial
OptionsBoardName=s8 w700 C404040

Font of the text below each board covers.

NameCoverInside=Arial
OptionsCoverInside=C404040

Font of the text inside main section covers. Automatically sized at s6, s8 or s10 points depending on cover size. If you specify a size here, it will overwrite the automatic size regardless of the cover size.

NameCoverName=Arial
OptionsCoverName=s8 w700 C404040

Font of the tune's names below each main section covers.

[Colors]
WindowBackground=FAFAFA
WindowControls=FAFAFA

WindowBackground: Background color visible during app's initialization.
WindowControls: Background of dropdown menu, not very visible.

Image files

Image files must be in .PNG format and reside in the same folder as the .ini file. Each image file is described below. The following illustration will help you to localize most file on the screen.

MyTunesCovers Skin Turotial

MyTunesCovers Skin Turotial - Click to enlarge

  • background_header.png (2000x600) see note 1
  • background_covers.png (1780x1440) see note 1 and 2
  • background_board.png (420x1440) see notes 2 and 3

Background of the header, left board and main covers section.
Note 1: Width must be at least as large as the largest screen where the skin will be used.
Note 2: Height must be at least as high as the tallest screen where the skin will be used.
Note 3: The covers background will overlap the board background if the board column is narrower than its background image. For this reason, if you wish to make a vertical separator line, it must appear on the left-side of the covers background.

  • button_about.png
  • button_delete_selected.png
  • button_deselect_all.png
  • button_help.png
  • button_next.png
  • button_previous.png
  • button_select_all.png
  • button_settings.png

Buttons appearing in the header. You can make these buttons the size you want. However, they must fit inside the header height of 60 pixels.

Cover system pictures (original pictures of size 200x200 are resized automatically  according to cover size selected by the user):

  • fill_cover-200x200.png (in the main section, fill the page after the last cover is displayed)
  • no_cover-200x200.png (in the main section, when there is no cover - normally, not displayed)
  • selected-200x200.png (in the main section, when a cover is selected)
  • error-200x200.png (in the main section, when an image should appear but cannot be retrieved - normally, not displayed)
  • empty-200x200.png (in the left board, when there is no image loaded)

Images of the square button appearing at the right of each cover in the main section (original pictures of size 200x200 are resized at 25% of the cover size):

  • clip-200x200.png
  • select-200x200.png
  • deselect-200x200.png
  • paste_here-200x200.png
  • delete-200x200.png

Images of the square button appearing at the right of each cover in the left board (original pictures of size 200x200 are resized at 25% of the cover size):

  • paste_to_selected-200x200.png
  • make_master-200x200.png
  • load_clipboard-200x200.png
  • load_file-200x200.png
  • remove-200x200.png

 

You would like to share your brand new skin designed for My Tunes Covers? Please, contact me here: ahk@jeanlalonde.ca