Dsfg

How to make a new skin

1. Introduction.
2. MasterBitmap
3. Skin Editor (ASkinEditor).
4. Usage of masks.

1. Introduction.

To create a new skin, you should have the latest version of the ASkinEditor.exe and any graphics editor (Adobe Photoshop is recommended).

Most skins contain two files. The first one is an image of certain skin items collected together in the Bitmap format (the sorting of different items does not matter). Further the file will be referred to as MasterBitmap (there may be more image files but we will not consider such cases here). The other file (“Options.dat”) contains skin settings in the Ini- format. The settings reside either as general (“GlobalData” section) or as applicable for each separate type of control. Now it seems reasonable to single out two main parts – image file creation and skin creation in ASkinEditor.

To conclude, skin making means creation of a MasterBitmap file and further configuration of the Options.dat file in the ASkinEditor program.

2. MasterBitmap

Since we aim at understanding the keystones of skin creation, the simplest images will be used to make our first skin. More sophisticated cases will be provided later along with some helpful hints (such as MasterBitmap optimization, mask usage and so on).

I guess you should realize that your first skin will not be intended for any serious application. However, they will become better as you acquire experience (. Spend some time practicing to enjoy finally the skin created for your own projects all by yourself! ;)

The pattern represents the content of the Master.bmp file for the WLM skin (this is the skin which will be discussed throughout the article).

MasterBitmap contains a set of all required images of various items of controls. Each image can hold information on how an item looks like in every specific state (0 – regular, 1 – active, 2 – pressed). Hence it appears that the width of each image must be multiple to the