OsxHiddenTheme

OS X is a beautiful thing, but I've always been annoyed that it's not really possible to make the backgrounds of windows anything but white. Sure there are some add-on theme programs out there, but they all cost some extra cpu, and invariably there is some application or three that just doesn't look right.

For as long as I've been using OS X, there was a neat little trick (that some folks have dubbed the 'stealth mode') that could be accessed by hitting ctrl+alt+command+8 (can be remapped in system preferences > keyboard and mouse > universal access => reverse black and white). In 10.3 this just made everything black and white, which really eliminated the idea of a useful theme. But in 10.4, apple provided full inverse color. This looks really really cool for lots of stuff. Applications such as finder, mail, safari, etc. default to black backgrounds with white text. It's (almost) exactly what I was looking for...

The reversal of all the other colors (e.g. red becomes cyan) makes a few things strange or annoying. This surely isn't for everyone. If you, like me, prefer white text on black backgrounds, want something that looks really haxorific, and generally prefer the path less oft traveled, this may be for you. Another reason I like this theme is that it sorta reminds me of looking at the lighvector art found at http://wearcam.org/.

Here are some additional things I've done or am working on:

terminal

• terminal theme changed to 'white' background so it looks black in 'stealth mode'.
• changed the ansi colors using TerminalColors which I found on MacUpdate.

emacs

• reversing all the colors in emacs theme...

images

• can be fixed using ImageMagick
• mogrify -negate <image>
• warning - modifies images in place, does not create a backup

images in safari

• images in safari can be fixed by setting up a proxy to convert images using ImageMagick...
• possibly to proxy only images using an autoproxy script

interesting or annoying, ymmv

• all images are inverse and can only be 'fixed' if viewed through a web proxy... in many places this is kinda kew.
• any annoyances can always be fixed by leaving 'stealth mode' (ctrl+alt+command+8)
• it's a good idea to make sure the colors you choose look reasonable in both modes.
• color names are all wrong, e.g. "green" looks purple and "purple" looks green. just look at the color, not the name.
• drop shadows are white. gives an eerie cool glowing effect.

transparency

Black backgrounds make for especially sexy transparency. SetAlphaValue from MacUpdate which letsyou change the default levels of transparency on carbon applications. Makes the theme look even cooler... Also, installing InvisiRay will allow changing the transparency levels using hot-keys F8 and cmd+F8.

proxy for images in safari

• autoproxy - images (*.(jpg|gif|png)) proxy through perl script
• perl script
• given a GET request, fetch image, negate, server out data
• check out old image script for webstats