ClassicWB Palettes and Themes

[Bloodwych]

Introduction

In order for people to make an informed choice, I thought it useful to show you the differences between the different Palettes and Themes in the ClassicWB packs. Also how you can make wallpapers based on these palettes to suit your own tastes (thanks to Cammy for her ImageStudio advice and showing what's possible with 16 colours).

Create your own 16 colour wallpapers using ClassicWB P96 or UAE

If you wish to create your own wallpapers for any version of the ClassicWB, it's easier to use the ClassicWB P96/UAE versions to do so. The palettes used in the various ClassicWB versions and ImageStudio are all available in the ClassicWB P96 or UAE packs, so you can knock up some great wallpapers in WinUAE for your real Amiga.

There are three fixed pen Palettes used (and can be loaded into ImageStudio):

1. Default 16 - locked 16 colour palette based on Rebel's and Cammy's work. It was altered so the ClassicWB default windows and icon colours remain intact. Without alteration, the icons and windows took on different colours.
   
2. Optimized 16 - Rebel's original palette, the very best 16 colour palette possible and compatible with his icons and borders. Also MagicTV friendly. Makes some ClassicWB icons and default themes look different however, hence the option of the palette above.
   
3. FreshIcons - The palette used exclusively for the ADV version, which uses the FreshIcon pack.

These are labelled ClassicWB, Rebels16 and FreshIcons16 in ImageStudio's palette drawer in the P96/UAE packs, for easy identification. It's simply a case of loading your chosen wallpaper image (JPG, PNG BMP etc) into ImageStudio and resizing first, without reducing colours, then loading the relevant palette and applying a form of dithering for optimal results. You should then end up with a wallpaper with the correct size and 16 colour palette, so save it as an uncompressed IFF file for best Workbench performance.

There is also a Higher Colours ClassicWB install option - this uses the Default 16 locked colour palette, a 256 colour screenmode and a 128 colour wallpaper. The wallpaper still looks good however in 128, 64 and even 32 colour screenmodes. This is the option if you don't want to use a fixed pen 16 colour screenmode.

Bonus WB 1.3 Theme

ClassicWB GAAE, 68k and LITE all come with a WB 1.3 theme for those who love the look of the old school 4 colour blue Workbench. Screenshots can be seen on the main webpage.

Theme screenshots

RETRO Theme - first pic is the Default 16 palette, second pic Rebel's Optimized 16 palette.




REGEN Theme - first pic is the Default 16 palette, second pic Rebel's Optimized 16 palette.




RETRO and REGEN High Colour palette - the wallpaper was changed for the High Colour REGEN theme, as PixelOz's wallpaper didn't map well to 128 colour un-dithered settings and the Amiga tick shown below didn't dither well to a fixed 16!!! I choose the best situation for both. This is in 256 colour screenmode, but looks great in 128, even 64 and 32 screenmodes.




COPPER Enabled screenshots - just to show you how Copper works under theme settings. This can easily be changed in the Copper Demon settings.




and again in the FULL 640x256 PAL packs. Notice the wallpapers in low res - not too shabby!!!:




FRESHICONS and ADV pack - this pack is unique. It uses wallpaper mapped to the FreshIcon palette and it results in the first two pictures. Notice that the images are not as good, but the icons look as they should. The second two images show Rebel's palette, with the colour order of the palette changed to mirror the FreshIcon colour position. The result worked out quite well, icons not as colourful as with their original palette, but MagicTV friendly and the wallpaper looks better (especially the REGEN using PixelOz's wallpaper).

So first, the FreshIcon's palette:




Rebel's palette, re-ordered pens to match colour positions of the FreshIcon palette:

[Bloodwych]

Icons and Palettes - finally, some shots showing the icon and window colours under Default 16 (first three) and Rebel's Optimized 16 palette (last three) and how they differ. The choice of what to use is up to you:

Default 16:





Rebel's Optimized 16: