[mythtv] Plea for new themes

[Stuart Morgan]

Dear users and contributors,

With the new UI we need desperately need new themes and now would be the time 
to get to work. I'd like to think that we'll see better quality themes than 
those which have appeared in SVN in the past, many of which themed just the 
menus and background image.

In case you are not aware of just what is now capable, and what is yet to 
come, you should read the Wiki pages on MythUI.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythUI
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythUI_Demo_Theme

For the information you'll need to create your theme you'll need to read the 
following: 
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythUI_Theme_Development
You can also look at other new themes, Terra and Graphite to see how different 
effects were achieved.

If you'd like to see your theme in SVN then attention to detail is key, 
alignment of text and images is often a big problem. You should aim to prevent 
text running into each other or 'spilling' over background images. Designs 
don't have to be too fancy, but we'd like to see some variety and attempts to 
break away from the restricted designs of the old UI. Try not to overuse 
imagery, a 50Mb theme is unlikely to be included. Try to remember that there 
are often different views available in screens and the theme should work with 
all combinations of options. Lastly your theme will be used throughout the 
world, so it should not hardcode text and use of icons/imagery to represent 
things instead.

I expect fan art, banners and the like to be a popular addition to themes, but 
please remember that it may not be available to all users. We'll want at least 
one theme that does not use it and for the rest, it is important that your 
theme looks good without it.

N.B. Mythui is an ongoing effort and new features will continue to be added 
throughout the 0.23 development cycle and beyond. It may be worth keeping this 
in mind but you should not compromise a theme created for 0.22 in anticipation 
of things to come.

That's all for now ... Get to work! :)
-- 
Stuart Morgan