Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

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asqwerth
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#31 Post by asqwerth »

I have found rich's "borders" WM theme referred to in the first post of that thread cited by richb.
viewtopic.php?p=450794#p450794

It's truly amazing because the window bar appears to take on the background colour of whatever theme you're using, while the active window's border takes on a thin outline in the same colour as the cursor highlights. Don't know how he did that.

https://app.box.com/s/7gk3pwdn5onj5q5b9eowa2315qy8pcy3

I think maybe these thick WM themes could be packaged for the repos of MX15/16 and MX17/18? They could also be added to the Popular Apps theme category for users who want more graspable borders.

I can't believe I'd forgotten all about that thread and what rich made.
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Paul..
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#32 Post by Paul.. »

Here's rich's bottom_active.xpm...from that theme

the "." uses white as "active_color_2" which is the BG color...so it picks up whatever that is on a given theme...for 7 pixels
the "x" uses black as "active_color_1" which is also BG color...for only 1 pixel at the very edge

Code: Select all

/* XPM */
static char * bottom_active_xpm[] = {
"1 8 2 1",
". 	c #FFFFFF s active_color_2",
"x	c #000000 s active_color_1",
".",
".",
".",
".",
".",
".",
".",
"x"}; 
First guess: because they are both BG (background) colors, they are covered over by what ever is the active theme?

Second guess: both (7 pixels + 1 pixel) are detectable as handles for resizing?

for bottom_inactive.xpm below, rich leaves out the 1 pixel black BG border but leaves the 7 pixel white BG

Code: Select all

/* XPM */
static char * bottom_inactive_xpm[] = {
"1 8 1 1",
". 	c #FFFFFF s active_color_2",
".",
".",
".",
".",
".",
".",
".",
"."};
Makes sense...if my guesses are right?

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asqwerth
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#33 Post by asqwerth »

I haven't read up yet on how the .xpm files can be adjusted to change thickness. So the discussion above is still all Greek to me.

But the themes I'm using include those that don't have contrasting colours at their edges, e.g. Greybird. Yet rich's borders theme makes a thin outline in the same colour as Greybird's cursor highlight colour (blue). Very interesting.
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Stevo
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#34 Post by Stevo »

We do have the hdpi and xhdpi Arc themes with thicker borders also, but they also have a bigger title bar.

I think I can rebuild it with just fatter borders and call it arc-theme-thick. Are the borders in the xhdpi version thick enough to grab?

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asqwerth
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#35 Post by asqwerth »

I don't really use the hidpi ones. But visually thick may not automatically mean the grabbable area is also thick, I think. Will need to be checked, but I'm off to sleep now.

If rich's borders and arc dark wm themes can be packaged as well, it would be great. Not everyone needs giant window bars.
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richb
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#36 Post by richb »

Stevo wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:45 pm We do have the hdpi and xhdpi Arc themes with thicker borders also, but they also have a bigger title bar.

I think I can rebuild it with just fatter borders and call it arc-theme-thick. Are the borders in the xhdpi version thick enough to grab?
Tried both and they are easy enough to grab.
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fehlix
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#37 Post by fehlix »

asqwerth wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 12:50 pm Aha! It was the other rich!

Yes. Unfortunately his opendesktop link is no longer available, and I don't have his "sneaky camouflage" version that blends with Greybird.
I've downloaded from rich's link when he posted it here in the forum xfwm borders theme.
See attached tar-file.
Yes, it works great. Using the theme-switcher, @oops mentioned above, the thick borders change also nicely.
:puppy:
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#38 Post by Stevo »

Here's a backport of the Buster arc-theme with an embiggened border patch: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xTvTO ... UPbJwpsOlh

Looks like 3 or 4 pixels wide instead of 1--not as big as in the hdpi and xhdpi themes, but I think that's because they weren't scaled up along with all the other elements in the hdpi themes. I think I can make them fatter with some more work.

Svg files are text files, so if we can just identify what objects need a bigger width in pixels, we don't have to open and edit the file in Inkscape.

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Paul..
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#39 Post by Paul.. »

Stevo wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 4:32 pm Here's a backport of the Buster arc-theme with an embiggened border patch: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xTvTO ... UPbJwpsOlh

Looks like 3 or 4 pixels wide instead of 1--not as big as in the hdpi and xhdpi themes, but I think that's because they weren't scaled up along with all the other elements in the hdpi themes. I think I can make them fatter with some more work.

Svg files are text files, so if we can just identify what objects need a bigger width in pixels, we don't have to open and edit the file in Inkscape.
Okay, let me see if I understand this...

1. This arc-theme from Buster -- unfortunately, the xfwm4 folder there shows nothing but .png files...corners 3x3 px, bottom 3x16 px etc., so these are hard-coded to a color and will not change when mixed with other themes.

2. Rich's border themes -- his xfwm4 folder uses .xpm files for the borders and are written so that the "grabbable" areas are designated as BG (Background) and presumably sit behind other themes so they can be intermixed without clashes.

3. Even better, asqwerth has shown that we can place an xfwm4 folder (coded with rich's method) inside a random theme folder in the $Home .themes folder and it will get picked up somehow as other themes are used.

4. Then there's this cool Border Switcher script, too, from oops.

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Stevo
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Re: Increase the resizing space for the windows in XFCE4?

#40 Post by Stevo »

Yes, the Debian package uses the arc-theme original source code, which doesn't ship png, xpm, or anything but the text vector image svg files. The build process then uses Inkscape to generate all those other elements during the build, also adapting to whatever version of GTK+3 it's being built against. There are also some numbers that can be plugged into the build that affect the scaling of the elements, as well as the colors.

It's easy to just take a finished xfwm theme and plop it into the themes folder, but arc-theme doesn't work that way.
The problem with the xfce-only themes are that they don't support GTK+3+ applications, so those will appear with different borders and title bars, leading to a lot of questions here.

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