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Low-res X Working, Gnome Themes



Hi,
Yet another small personal victory concerning Linux accessibility. I asked around in various places regarding the X low-res problems I had. a friend of mine, whose a die-hard Amiga user on a side note, passed on the query and told me that adding these three lines in the monitor section should do it:

Modeline "320x200" 12.588 320 336 384 400 200 204 205 225 Doublescan Modeline "320x240" 15.750 320 336 384 400 240 244 246 262 Doublescan Modeline "400x300" 25 400 424 488 520 300 319 322 333 Doublescan

I really don't know at all what these numbers mean, anyone? The most important thing is that it really works. I can get quite nice magnification in X, though I'd prefer an even larger "virtual" resolution, something like 1280x1024 to get even more zoom when actually using the thing in 320x200.

Darn blackbox looks difficult with magnification initially, fortunately there's a scheme called Minimal. Well, I just removed Blackbox, as I only wanted to quickly see how it was like at the moment, and just installed Gnome. WIll be adding Gnopernicus soon, not sure how well it works yet if at all.

Apart from telling this news, one query regarding Gnome:
I'd like to heavily customize the colors and fonts used in Gnome to be as optimal to me as possible. Real stark contrasts between different foregrounds and backgrounds as well as certain minimalism in the Widgets with no or very little eyecandy. I know what I want but now the problem is how.

I know one graphics artist whose willing to actually do the kind of minimalist, high-contrast widget bitmaps that I'd need provided that I know the format, size and depth of the images. I'm planning to do a kind of a high contrast theme for Gnome that should be pretty much optimal to me but that other magnification users might also find benefitial. BEfore using LInux I planned skinning XP with these widgets but LInux allows me to have more control once again. No stupid legacy limitations that say: dialogBg = buttonBg and dialogFg = windowFg as in Windows.

I would appreciate any howtos, specs and templates regarding the Gnome theme format? isn't it some XML based dialect? I just learned what XML is, though I've know some HTMl and CSS already, and I must say the idea of an easily parsable, tag-language family with the ability to roll your own languages sounds real nice initially.

Finally, could someone please elaborate a bit on how theme files work in Gnome? Are there several components that determine the overall look of the OS, umm ment GUI, silly me?

I don't know how it works, as I just said, but I'd imagine you'd basically choose fonts, colors and sizes in one theme file and widget looks as bitmaps or vectors in another. Also, another newb question, what's the role of the window manager in Gnome and does it matter which one I use? Can I use say Blackbox?

I seem to notice positive changes in my LInux attitude. I've pretty much lost interest in Windows tweaking programs, eventually getting a grasp on how much easier it is to do all kinds of mods if the OS is open and modular, including the graphical side.

--
With kind regards Veli-Pekka Tätilä (vtatila@mail.student.oulu.fi)
Accessibility, game music, synthesizers and more:
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~vtatila


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