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Better Desktop Dropshadows

Source (link to git-repo or to original if based on someone elses unmodified work): Add the source-code for this project on opencode.net

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Description:

After parsing through the KDE source code and looking through the net, I'd finally figured out how to make KDE 3.2/3.1 desktop dropshadows look a lot better.

As we all know, the default dropshadows look and smell like penguin poo! :)

Here's to hoping someone writes a GUI configuration program for this though. In the meantime, you now have my tutorial...

Last changelog:

16 years ago

December 27, 2004 - A couple small changes

May 4, 2004 - updated URL

PotajiTo
15 years ago

The link is broken!

SegFault
16 years ago

I've created a simple KControl-module you can use to change these settings in a more userfriendly way.
Please take a look at
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=19329

lokheed
16 years ago

This is an awesome tutorial. Excellent job figuring it out...much thanks!

philipacamaniac
16 years ago

I was having nightmares because desktop font-shadows looked simply awful in KDE, and look great in GNOME, OS X, and Windoze.

Someone needs to submit a bug to KDE and

a) Request this option be added into the "Configure Desktop - Advanced Options" GUI

b) Request that the default ShadowParameters be adjusted to look better, because let's face it, they look like crap until you apply one of these new settings.

polemos
16 years ago

great job..i think there are so many hidden features about personalizing the look & feel in KDE.

srgato
16 years ago

what a star. just as well someone takes the time to sort out those annoying things in kde. thanks!

Ekardnam
16 years ago

the default is just ugly, this is awsome! A gui version would be nice with "preview".

PARENA
16 years ago

This is very good. Definately worth for someone making a nice gui for this. Can't see why the KDE developers hadn't set any other default parameters, 'coz the current default are... well... ugly :P

Thanks for the tip, this is going into 'remember this stuff' file for me. :)

siliziumm
16 years ago

Speaking of shadows, anyone know if it's possible to draw a "bubble" around the text, like Gnome does for example (look at the home icon) :

http://ximian.dulug.duke.edu/screenshots/large/GnopernicusMagnification.png

thomas12777
16 years ago

Not without patching qiconview, kiconview and probably kdesktop - i think there was a patch doing this on the kde developer mailing list some time ago - so look around for this there.

timothysaddress
16 years ago

I will probally get it done tommorow and have it on kde-look.org- I will also try to staticly link the libraries it needs so it will work on any distro, while being shipped in one package. Doese anybody know a command to see all the libraries a file needs?

EliasP
16 years ago

ldd /path/to/file

Greetings

Elias P.

timothysaddress
16 years ago

I probally could make a UI for changing the shadows and automaticly refreshing the desktop without restarting kde, infact im almost sure I can. Youll probally see it soon on kde-look.org

abby
16 years ago

That would be very awsome! I was gonna give it a try also, but I'd never programmed with Qt/KDE before so it might have taken me a week or two to get up to speed.

Go for it :)

leinir
16 years ago

...there was actually a GUI tool for defining the shadows scheduled for 3.1, but it was removed because it would only clutter up the dialogs even more... Perhaps an option would be a button next to the Enable shadows that says "Edit shadow type" or somesuch, with the old shadow editing dialog showing up on a click there? Just an idea :)

And, by the way, great work with figuring the different shadows out :)

aivs
16 years ago

It did not suffice me, thanks

thomas12777
16 years ago

"YOU MUST RESTART KDE FOR THESE SETTINGS TO TAKE EFFECT!"

shouldn't it be enough to just restart kdesktop or even just call

dcop kdesktop KDesktopIface refresh

to update? (haven't tried yet - shadows seemed ok to me)

echobucket
16 years ago

Here's a good way to really make it do it.
Turn off the icons:
dcop kdesktop KDesktopIface setIconsEnabled 0
Then Turn them back on:
dcop kdesktop KDesktopIface setIconsEnabled 1

hoodedone
16 years ago

The dcop call won't do it. It refreshes some things on the desktop, but doesn't redraw the shadows. BTW, right click -> Refresh Desktop does the same thing, for those who don't want to deal with the command line.

Restarting kdesktop would probably do the trick, but it'd be even more awkward for most people than just restarting KDE.

abby
16 years ago

I'm not sure, lol. I was just making 100% positive that the settings you choose are applied.

I'll try out other methods today. Thanks for bringing this up.

hoodedone
16 years ago

This is very very awesome! Just yesterday I was cursing the horrible KDE drop shadows trying to get a good text/shadow color combination for the wallpaper here: http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=12352 but had to settle with something rather crappy. I had assumed that decent drop shadows were something that *might* make it into KDE 3.3, but now I don't have to wait. I haven't quite figured out what the perfect settings are for me, but I've restarted KDE enough for today.

A configuration UI would make this even better, as well as the ability to redraw the shadows without restarting KDE (possible wishlist items?), but this is a great start.

16 years ago

December 27, 2004 - A couple small changes

May 4, 2004 - updated URL

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