Re: New looks replacing Metal?
Re: New looks replacing Metal?
- Subject: Re: New looks replacing Metal?
- From: "Sean McBride" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:18:41 -0400
- Organization: Rogue Research
On 2005-07-29 11:22, Zac Tolley said:
>In Tiger the mail app has a new feel about it, shared by other things
>such as spotlights search window. It seems to have gone away from the
>brushed metal so a software color scheme with thinner lines. When you
>are using the app the window areas are grey, when you move off them
>they are the old lined style. The buttens have a real nice feel to them.
>
>So the question is, in Interface designer there are all the tools and
>widgets and styles for the more traditional metal style, but how
>would I go about trying to make something look and feel similar to
>Mail?!
As others have said, part of mail's new look is the 'unified toolbar'
look, which is available in IB. But other new parts of Mail, like the
blueish sidebar, blue-grey toolbar buttons, etc. are custom UI elements
and are not available in IB. More info here:
<http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/3>
If you want something like this, you have to subclass and draw them yourself.
>Is this a general trend in app look and feel do we think?
The 'general trend' IMHO seems to be that Apple creates new kinds of UI
elements for each app it makes. QT 4 was the first metal app, and it
spread. Apps like Final Cut Pro and Garage Band use all kinds of
strange custom UI elements. In a way this is good, because it allows
Apple to experiment and get real world feedback, and some good things
may become system wide UI elements. But in many ways it is bad, because
apps are not consistent with each other and 3rd party developers want to
use the same looks but cannot. Some try to duplicate it, but its never
quite the same, and then there is more inconsistency.
I strongly encourage you to use only standard UI elements (ie those in
IB). It's less work for you, and a more consistent look and behaviour
for your users.
--
____________________________________________________________
Sean McBride, B. Eng email@hidden
Rogue Research www.rogue-research.com
Mac Software Developer Montréal, Québec, Canada
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