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Markus Gans edited this page Mar 26, 2024 · 16 revisions

User Themes

FINAL CUT supports color themes. That makes it possible to change the color of all elements of a widget in the program. Also, you can adjust the color palette to your preferences. If you want to switch back to the default themes, you can always call the method FApplication::setDefaultTheme() or FApplication::setDarkTheme() for the dark theme.

Widget Color Theme

FINAL CUT uses a default color scheme that the user can override in a derived class of FWidgetColors. All widget colors are redefined in the constructor by the method setColorTheme().

class myWidgetColors final : public finalcut::FWidgetColors
{
  public:
    myWidgetColors()
    {
      myWidgetColors::setColorTheme();
    }

    ~myWidgetColors() override
    { }

    auto getClassName() const -> finalcut::FString override
    {
      return "myWidgetColors";
    }

    void myWidgetColors() override
    {
      ...  // Color definitions
    }
};

For setting the widget colors, it is recommended to call the method FWidget::setColorTheme() via the FApplication object to create a new instance of the theme and assign it to the application.

finalcut::FApplication app(argc, argv);
app.setColorTheme<myWidgetColors>();

In the following example, we will create the BeeColorTheme. For this purpose, we will first create an include file that can be easily included later in your application.

File: widget-color-theme.h

#ifndef WIDGETCOLORTHEME_H
#define WIDGETCOLORTHEME_H

class BeeColorTheme final : public finalcut::FWidgetColors
{
  public:
    BeeColorTheme()
    {
      BeeColorTheme::setColorTheme();
    }

    ~BeeColorTheme() override
    { }

    auto getClassName() const -> finalcut::FString override
    {
      return "BeeColorTheme";
    }

    void setColorTheme() override
    {
      term =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightBlue   // Background
      };

      dialog =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Background
        finalcut::FColor::Red,        // Resize foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Blue        // Emphasis foreground
      };

      text =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Background
        finalcut::FColor::White,      // Selected foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Blue,       // Selected background
        finalcut::FColor::White,      // Selected focused foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Cyan        // Selected focused background
      };

      error_box =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Yellow,     // Background
        finalcut::FColor::Red         // Emphasis foreground
      };

      tooltip =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Yellow      // Background
      };

      shadow =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Foreground (only for transparent shadow)
        finalcut::FColor::Black       // Background
      };

      current_element =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::White,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Green,      // Background
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Focused foreground
        finalcut::FColor::DarkGray,   // Focused background
        finalcut::FColor::Brown,      // Incremental search foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightRed,   // Selected foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Green,      // Selected background
        finalcut::FColor::LightRed,   // Selected focused foreground
        finalcut::FColor::DarkGray    // Selected focused background
      };

      list =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Background
        finalcut::FColor::LightRed,   // Selected foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray   // Selected background
      };

      label =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Background
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Inactive foreground
        finalcut::FColor::DarkGray,   // Inactive background
        finalcut::FColor::Red,        // Hotkey foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Hotkey background
        finalcut::FColor::Blue,       // Emphasis foreground
        finalcut::FColor::DarkGray    // Ellipsis foreground
      };

      input_field =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Cyan,       // Background
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Focused foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Green,      // Focused background
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Inactive foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray   // Inactive background
      };
    
      toggle_button =
      {
       finalcut::FColor::Black,       // Foreground
       finalcut::FColor::LightGray,   // Background
       finalcut::FColor::White,       // Focused foreground
       finalcut::FColor::Green,       // Focused background
       finalcut::FColor::DarkGray,    // Inactive foreground
       finalcut::FColor::LightGray    // Inactive background
      };

      button =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Cyan,       // Background
        finalcut::FColor::White,      // Focused foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Green,      // Focused background
        finalcut::FColor::Cyan,       // Inactive foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Inactive background
        finalcut::FColor::Red         // Hotkey foreground
      };

      titlebar =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::White,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Blue,       // Background
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Inactive foreground
        finalcut::FColor::DarkGray,   // Inactive background
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Button foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Button background
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray,  // Focused button foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Black       // Focused button background
      };

      menu =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Yellow,     // Background
        finalcut::FColor::White,      // Focused foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Blue,       // Focused background
        finalcut::FColor::Cyan,       // Inactive foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Yellow,     // Inactive background
        finalcut::FColor::Red,        // Hotkey foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Yellow      // Hotkey background
      };

      statusbar =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::White,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::DarkGray,   // Background
        finalcut::FColor::White,      // Focused foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Green,      // Focused background
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Separator foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightRed,   // Hotkey foreground
        finalcut::FColor::DarkGray,   // Hotkey background
        finalcut::FColor::LightRed,   // Focused hotkey foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Green       // Focused hotkey background
      };

      scrollbar =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Green,      // Background
        finalcut::FColor::Black,      // Button foreground
        finalcut::FColor::Green,      // Button background
        finalcut::FColor::Cyan,       // Inactive button foreground
        finalcut::FColor::LightGray   // Inactive button background
      };

      progressbar =
      {
        finalcut::FColor::Green,      // Foreground
        finalcut::FColor::DarkGray    // Background
      };
    }
};

#endif  // WIDGETCOLORTHEME_H

Color Palette Theme

FINAL CUT has four color tables for the 16 standard colors in the terminal. These are a redefinition of the 16 ANSI colors. You can address the colors via indexes values from 0 to 15. They correspond to the following colors:

Index Color name
0 finalcut::FColor::Black
1 finalcut::FColor::Blue
2 finalcut::FColor::Green
3 finalcut::FColor::Cyan
4 finalcut::FColor::Red
5 finalcut::FColor::Magenta
6 finalcut::FColor::Brown
7 finalcut::FColor::LightGray
8 finalcut::FColor::DarkGray
9 finalcut::FColor::LightBlue
10 finalcut::FColor::LightGreen
11 finalcut::FColor::LightCyan
12 finalcut::FColor::LightRed
13 finalcut::FColor::LightMagenta
14 finalcut::FColor::Yellow
15 finalcut::FColor::White

You can define your color as an 8-bit value based on its red, green, and blue components. To create a color palette, create a derived class of FColorPalette. The constructor gets as argument the function to set a palette color. This function must have the following structure:

setPalette(finalcut::FColor index, int red, int green, int blue);

A possible implementation could look as follows:

class myColorPalette final : public finalcut::FColorPalette
{
  public:
    explicit myColorPalette (const FSetPalette& f)
      : FColorPalette(f)
    { }

    ~myColorPalette()
    { }

    auto getClassName() const -> finalcut::FString override
    {
      return "myColorPalette";
    }

    void setColorPalette() override
    {
      ...  // Palette definitions
    }

    void resetColorPalette() override
    {
      setVGAdefaultPalette();
    }
};

To set the colors of a palette theme, you should use the method FOutput::setColorPaletteTheme(). This method creates a new instance and saves it in the FOutput object.

finalcut::FVTerm::getFOutput()->setColorPaletteTheme<myColorPalette>();

The standard VGA palette is part of the FColorPalette class. To set it, use the method setVGAdefaultPalette(). You can use it to reset the color palette of terminals that cannot reset to default values with escape sequences.

VGA palette
Figure 1. VGA palette

The FINAL CUT eight-color palette default8ColorPalette is optimized for the eight-color widget theme default8ColorTheme. It is for terminals that cannot display more than eight colors.

FINAL CUT 8-color palette
Figure 2. FINAL CUT 8-color palette

The FINAL CUT palette default16ColorPalette is the default 16-color palette. It is optimized for the widget color theme default16ColorTheme.

FINAL CUT 16-color palette
Figure 3. FINAL CUT 16-color palette

The second 16-color palette in FINAL CUT is for the dark theme. It was adjusted for the widget color themes default8ColorDarkTheme and default16ColorDarkTheme.

FINAL CUT 16-color dark palette
Figure 4. FINAL CUT 16-color dark palette

In the following example, we want to create the palette them BeeColorPalette. For this purpose, we generate an include file again, in which we implement the new palette class.

Bee palette
Figure 6. Bee palette

File: color-palette-theme.h

#ifndef BEECOLORPALETTE_H
#define BEECOLORPALETTE_H

class BeeColorPalette final : public finalcut::FColorPalette
{
  public:
    explicit BeeColorPalette (const FSetPalette& f)
      : FColorPalette(f)
    { }

    ~BeeColorPalette()
    { }

    auto getClassName() const -> finalcut::FString override
    {
      return "BeeColorPalette";
    }

    void setColorPalette() override
    {
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::Black, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::Blue, 0x23, 0x21, 0x2c);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::Green, 0x26, 0x93, 0x7c);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::Cyan, 0xcf, 0xb3, 0xa8);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::Red, 0xba, 0x1a, 0x1a);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::Magenta, 0xb2, 0x18, 0xb2);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::Brown, 0xe8, 0x87, 0x1f);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::LightGray, 0xff, 0xfb, 0xe4);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::DarkGray, 0x3a, 0x36, 0x37);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::LightBlue, 0xa5, 0xa5, 0xb1);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::LightGreen, 0x5e, 0xeb, 0x5c);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::LightCyan, 0x62, 0xbf, 0xf8);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::LightRed, 0xee, 0x44, 0x44);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::LightMagenta, 0xe9, 0xad, 0xff);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::Yellow, 0xf8, 0xef, 0xa6);
      setPalette (finalcut::FColor::White, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff);
    }

    void resetColorPalette() override
    {
      setVGAdefaultPalette();
    }
};

#endif  // BEECOLORPALETTE_H

Use of Themes

If you include the two include files above in your application, you can use the widget color theme and the color palette theme. In the main function of your application, the object instances of both classes are created and set.

User theme example
Figure 7. User theme example

File: theme.cpp

#include <final/final.h>

#include "widget-color-theme.h"
#include "color-palette-theme.h"

using namespace finalcut;

class dialogWidget final : public FDialog
{
  public:
    explicit dialogWidget (FWidget* parent = nullptr)
      : FDialog{"Theming test application", parent}
    {
      Input.setLabelText("File name:");
      Input.setLabelOrientation(FLineEdit::LabelOrientation::Above);
      Input.setStatusbarMessage("Enter a file name");
      Browse.addCallback
      (
        "clicked",
        this, &dialogWidget::cb_FileBrowse
      );
      Apply.setStatusbarMessage("Apply settings");
      Quit.setStatusbarMessage("Exit the program");
      Quit.addCallback
      (
        "clicked",
        finalcut::getFApplication(),
        &finalcut::FApplication::cb_exitApp,
        this  
      );
      Open.addCallback
      (
        "clicked",
        this, &dialogWidget::cb_FileBrowse
      );
    }

  private:
    void initLayout()
    {
      setGeometry (FPoint{15, 5}, FSize{50, 9});
      Input.setGeometry (FPoint{2, 2}, FSize{39, 1});
      Browse.setGeometry (FPoint{43, 2}, FSize{4, 1});
      Apply.setGeometry (FPoint{24, 5}, FSize{10, 1});
      Quit.setGeometry (FPoint{37, 5}, FSize{10, 1});
      FDialog::initLayout();
    }

    void cb_FileBrowse()
    {
      auto filename = FFileDialog::fileOpenChooser(this);

      if ( ! filename.isEmpty() )
      {
        Input.setText(filename);
        Input.redraw();
      }
    }

    FMenuBar        Menubar{this};
    FMenu           File{"&File", &Menubar};
    FMenuItem       New{"&New", &File};
    FMenuItem       Open{"&Open...", &File};
    FMenu           Edit{"&Edit", &Menubar};
    FMenuItem       Undo{"&Undo", &Edit};
    FMenu           Help{"&Help", &Menubar};
    FMenuItem       About{"&About", &Help};
    FStatusBar      Statusbar{this};
    FLineEdit       Input{"input...", this};
    FButton         Browse{"..", this};
    FButton         Apply{"&Apply", this};
    FButton         Quit{"&Quit", this};
};

auto main (int argc, char* argv[]) -> int
{
  FApplication app(argc, argv);

  // Set the widget color theme
  app.setColorTheme<BeeColorTheme>();

  // Set the color palette theme
  FVTerm::getFOutput()->setColorPaletteTheme<BeeColorPalette>();

  dialogWidget dialog(&app);
  FWidget::setMainWidget(&dialog);
  dialog.show();
  return app.exec();
}

After entering the source code in theme.cpp you can compile the above program with gcc:

g++ theme.cpp -o theme -O2 -lfinal -std=c++14
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