Themes and Customization

Themes and customization

Themes from Mac OS 9

ZacOS 9 never ships Apple's artwork. The Theme Installer builds a theme from your own Mac OS 9 installation.

1. Put your Mac OS 9 System Folder in ~/Classic (Old Dog), or let the installer copy it from Old Dog's startup disk.
2. In Mac OS 9, choose the look you want in the Appearance control panel.
3. Copy the theme file out of Mac OS 9 (Appearance ▸ Theme Files).
4. Drop it into System Folder ▸ Appearance ▸ Theme Files in the Sniffer.

The desktop files it, builds the theme and applies it. Dropping another copy of an installed theme does nothing; a changed file imports again.

There is no Theme Installer menu entry: the drop is the way in. The Theme Installer runs behind the scenes; its --file mode does the same from a terminal.

What a theme can change

• window chrome colours and title-bar artwork;
• the Apple menu icon and startup art;
• folder, disk, Trash and document icons from the theme;
• desktop pictures, patterns and alert sounds;
• the theme's own fonts for window chrome and programs.

Window geometry is not changed: only colours and artwork.

Apple Platinum and the other classic themes work with your own Mac OS 9 files. A theme whose optional pieces are missing still applies, with the missing piece left out.

See Themes and sound sets.

Appearance panel

Control Panels ▸ Appearance sets:

• theme and accent/highlight colours;
• desktop pattern or picture;
• alert sounds;
• Smart Scrolling and title-bar double-click behaviour;
• program fonts when the theme supplies them.

Sound sets

A theme can include a Mac OS 9 sound set. Choose it in Appearance, or use Control Panels ▸ Sound for individual alerts.

Desktop patterns and wallpaper

Use the Appearance panel, or drop a pattern or picture where the panel offers it. Classic Mac ppat patterns are supported where they can be read. Do not upload Apple artwork to this wiki.

Fonts

The Fonts folder shows the families a ZacOS session makes available. Arabic uses Noto Sans Arabic; Japanese uses Noto Sans CJK JP. Other scripts fall back through Fontconfig. See Fonts.