jmtodaro

Jeremy Todaro Wentzville, MO, United States of America

Hi, I am jmtodaro and I create Aurorae Themes, Plasma Themes, Plasma Color Schemes and more.

Statistics

20 Products

99 Comments

Plinged 0 Products

Got 0

Fan of 12 Products

Got 97 Fan-Likes

Last time active : Aug 08 2012

Joined : Mar 26 2009

Aurorae Themes

Ghost (Aurorae)

Aurorae Themes May 28 2012

Score 72.3%

Tragedy Deco

Aurorae Themes Dec 01 2009

Score 75.3%

Gaia 09 Black (Compact)

Aurorae Themes Aug 08 2009

Score 63.3%

Gaia 09 Black

Aurorae Themes Aug 08 2009

Score 70.0%

Gaia Recycled (Compact)

Aurorae Themes Aug 08 2009

Score 50.0%

Gaia 09 (Aurorae)

Aurorae Themes Aug 03 2009

Score 73.1%

Gaia Recycled (Aurorae)

Aurorae Themes Aug 02 2009

Score 76.7%

Plasma Themes

Ghost

Plasma Themes Apr 09 2010

Score 75.9%

Ghost:Legacy

Plasma Themes Apr 09 2010

Score 63.3%

Gaia Recycled

Plasma Themes Mar 26 2010

Score 55.0%

Gaia 09

Plasma Themes Mar 26 2010

Score 70.0%

Tragedy

Plasma Themes Mar 13 2010

Score 79.2%

Plasma Color Schemes

Ghost Color Scheme

Plasma Color Schemes Mar 27 2010

Score 66.7%

Gaia Color Scheme

Plasma Color Schemes Aug 02 2009

Score 58.6%

Tragedy Black

Plasma Color Schemes Apr 23 2009

Score 70.0%

Plasma 4 Widgets

Luna.svgz Yellow (Full Vector)

Plasma 4 Widgets Jun 23 2009

Score 53.3%

Luna.svgz (Full Vector)

Plasma 4 Widgets Jun 23 2009

Score 63.3%

Landscapes

Landscape006

Landscapes May 08 2010

Score 58.0%

Plasma Comic Sources

Maakies (en)

Plasma Comic Sources Feb 26 2010

Score 50.0%

Wallpaper Other

Tragedy 1280x1024

Wallpaper Other May 03 2009

Score 50.0%

Task Timer

Plasma 4 Widgets 44 comments

by priomsrb

Score 82.2%

Feb 02 2014

Great job on this plasmoid, it works perfectly. It is so very useful, Thanks a lot! - Nov 21 2010

Ghost

Plasma Themes 87 comments

by jmtodaro

Score 75.9%

Apr 09 2010

Hello! I'm sorry about the delayed reply. Welcome to the world of GNU/Linux, we are glad to have you =)

To install the plasma theme (widgets and taskbar), you now have to go to "System Settings>Style>Workspace" and click "get new themes". You can type Ghost into the search box from there.

Most of the widgets in the screenshot are available from the "Add widgets" dialog (click the cashew looking thing in the upper right corner of your desktop). My kmenu is actually not pictured, those are just various widgets arranged the way I like =). The one on the far left is actually a second panel with more widgets stuffed inside of it.

I'm not really sure where to find any good documentation, so all I can recommend is searching google for "KDE4 Plasma theme install" or something similar. Good luck! - Sep 06 2010

Good god no! It's just the best I could do to make a widget shape that interlocks with itself. I would never intentionally make anything look like the State of Misery, especially as part of a GiTS inspired theme! =D - Jun 02 2010

I'm not sure what could be causing this behavior. I tried following your description but was unable to reproduce the problem. The best suggestion I have is to restart kde after making the changes and hope it goes back to the way it should be =) Good luck, and please let me know if you find a solution! - Apr 26 2010

Thanks for your feedback! I'm sorry you prefer 1.2.1 as it is never my intention to alienate users of previous versions of my themes. However I feel that 2.0 is vastly superior, and much closer to my original vision. Sometimes you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet.

Concerning panel/tasks: Have you tried replacing panel-background & tasks with the alternate old-style versions I've included? (panel-background-alt.svg & tasks-alt.svg) A simpler option of getting an old style panel is to make the panel not maximised. Of course you can also try replacing with 1.2.1 version of either, but I have not tested this so I'm not sure how well it will work.

To make tasks look better with Smooth Tasks, uncheck the box "as only hover effect" under "Lights". Personally I find disabling "Lights" altogether works best for me.

I encourage users to tweak my themes to their needs, as I prefer to maintain only one version. And I don't update too often either (it's been nearly a year since the last update). It is rather easy to "remix" plasma themes as it usually just requires having the right files in the right folder. Just replace or rename the files in question. See http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Plasma/Theme & http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Plasma/Theme#Current_Theme_Elements for the only Plasma Theme documentation I am aware of. It's not the clearest, but it's all that is currently out there. Ghost usually resides in your home directory at ~/.kde/share/apps/desktoptheme/Ghost/

If your goal is to bring 1.2.1 up to speed with KDE 4.4, I would start by replacing the lancelot/theme.config with the newer version and copy over widgets/lineedit.svg and any other missing elements you wish to use.

Good luck, and please contact me directly if you do put together a good Ghost 1.4 (as in KDE 4.4) and I will either link to it or I can make it available through my personal website. With full credit of course. Please forgive me but I have been working on 2.0 for the past 2-3 weeks and intend on taking a break. Thanks!

- Mar 27 2010

Thank you! Version 2.0 is coming very soon, actually! I'd love to hear what you think =)

Previews:
http://jmtodaro.com/images/phocagallery/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_Ghost2-photo01.png
http://jmtodaro.com/images/phocagallery/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_Ghost2-photo02.png

Thanks for the tip about vertical taskbars. I never realized it was a issue but now that you mention it I can imagine how it must look. That's just the way it is, but I'm glad to hear there is a solution! I'm addressing the huge window decorations, and I have also created a color scheme. It is still dark, however it's not flat black.

Anyhow, thanks for your comment and yes I will look into the kdm theme. =) I haven't done one yet so I'm not sure exactly how much work it will require. Hopefully not too much heh. - Mar 21 2010

Thanks so much for your insightful critique! - Feb 23 2010

Thanks!

Actually, that is the "Quicklaunch" plasmoid I am using in the lower right. It typically requires some fiddling to make it look right, but it does support dragging shortcuts from Dolphin & Kickoff (widgets must be unlocked for this to work). Highly recommended! =) - Sep 07 2009

Well, oddly enough, it wasn't tarred properly. It appears to be working with GHNS now...and is also about 600k smaller. =)

Thanks again for pointing out this issue! - Jul 17 2009

Thanks for bringing this to my attention! I have no idea why it isn't installing through GHNS, but I am looking into it. Thanks! - Jul 17 2009

How is it not compatible? I designed this theme primarily on 4.3 RC1 & 2. Please be more specific as to the problem you are having and perhaps I can help. =) - Jul 17 2009

Thanks for pointing this out! I'm looking into the issue. I would like to know if you are using the theme with compositing enabled or disabled as I have noticed some strange behavior with compositing turned off, however when it is enabled it seems to be working fine. Just want to know if it is the same issue I'm seeing on my end. - Jul 16 2009

Thanks for your comment! Please don't be too harsh to d3, he was just offering advice on what he would see as an improvement. =) - Jul 16 2009

I can see how one might find it a bit distracting. I cannot say that I had complimenting & enhancing the user experience in mind when I created this theme. It's not like it's going to be shipped as the default KDE theme or anything lol. I'm just having a bit of fun with it and wanted to make something that looks cool. =)

Perhaps the effect could be used in a better way. However, I don't plan on making any drastic changes to this particular theme. I will certainly keep your opinion in mind if I decide to begin work on a "Ghost 2" or some such.

It's always nice to hear what others think about my work, be it good or bad...or both hehe. Thanks for your feedback! - Jul 15 2009

Sorry, I was confusing Krunner with Kickoff for some reason lol. I think this could possibly be a 4.2 issue as it appears Krunner has changed a bit in 4.3.

http://jmtodaro.com/screenshots/Krunner.jpeg - Jul 07 2009

Nice! I'm glad that worked.

As far as Krunner goes...Krunner is tricky. I think most, if not all fonts in Krunner are determined by your main color-scheme, and not by the theme. So check your System Settings / Appearance / Colors and see if switching helps or not. Hope this works for you! If not then please take a screenshot of Krunner I can look at. =) I know for sure it works with Tragedy Black - http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Tragedy+Black?content=103332 - Jul 06 2009

Yes I'm sure it is the same issue, but honestly I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't display properly on 4.2. I'm baffled.

I would recommend just removing Ghost manually and try to reinstall it. Maybe the colors file got corrupted or something.

First, switch to another theme besides Ghost

Type into a terminal:
rm -rf ~/.kde/share/apps/desktoptheme/Ghost

Clear the cache.

Then simply reinstall the theme and switch back.

Good luck! =) - Jul 06 2009

Thanks! =) - Jul 06 2009

I intend to try out a glow on the borders of the dialog background (kickoff, etc.) but it's going to be difficult, so I have been putting it off. =)

As far as the taskbar goes, I have tried the buttons all the same color, and it doesn't look too terrible, as the transparency is different for active and inactive tasks. I can't really make a button solid colored, as i don't have control over task state font color, and it would end up unreadable as white text on a brightly colored background.

I suppose if I were to go this route, I could add a subtler version of the shine (hover effect) to active tasks, or it may be possible to fill with a solid color but adjust transparency very light so that text becomes readable... - Jul 05 2009

Odd. I designed this theme with the same version of KDE. Something must be wrong, that is not the way it should look at all.

Here are my suggestions to try:

Firstly, switch to another theme, and switch back to "Ghost" if you haven't already tried this. Sometimes things get goofed up when switching between themes.

If this doesn't work, you could try to clear the cache the following way.
Switch to another theme, then type the following into a command prompt:

rm ~/.kde/cache-*/plasma* (this will return an error but it is okay to ignore)
rm ~/.kde/cache-*/kpc/plasma*

then logout of kde, log back in and apply "Ghost" again.

Please let me know if either of these methods work for you.
- Jul 05 2009

Thanks! I've designed this theme using 4.2.95 (4.3 RC1). I don't think it should be a version issue, as I believe panel font colors were inherited the same way in your version.

Here are my suggestions to try:

Firstly, switch to another theme, and switch back to "Ghost" if you haven't already tried this. Sometimes things get goofed up when switching between themes.

If this doesn't work, you could try to clear the cache the following way.
Switch to another theme, then type the following into a command prompt:

rm ~/.kde/cache-*/plasma* (this will return an error but it is okay to ignore)
rm ~/.kde/cache-*/kpc/plasma*

then logout of kde, log back in and apply "Ghost" again.

Please let me know if either of these methods work for you.

- Jul 05 2009

Thanks! When you say white and grey lines, do you mean all of them theme-wide, or just the taskbar? I'll consider changing the white and grey lines if there is more of a demand for it, but I'm happy with the way it looks for now.

As far as the active tab font color, I would love to try this, but as far as I know, all of taskbar text color is shared with the widget text. If I ever figure out it is possible, I will likely give it a shot. =) - Jul 05 2009

Thanks man! Yes, I suppose there is a chance. =) I'll try to include one in the next update. - Jul 05 2009

Ghost (Aurorae)

Aurorae Themes 25 comments

by jmtodaro

Score 72.3%

May 28 2012

That's a reasonable request and I will consider it. In the meantime, you should just edit the config file. It's easy! You'll likely find it here:

~/.kde/share/apps/aurorae/themes/ghost-deco/ghost-decorc

Just open with your favorite text editor and adjust the following values:
ButtonWidth=10
ButtonHeight=10
ButtonSpacing=8

The numbers denote pixel size. You will probably have to restart Plasma or KDE for the changes to show up correctly. Hope this helps! - May 19 2010

Yes this a bug with Ghost. I've already fixed it, I just haven't uploaded it to KDE-Look yet heh. I'll try to do so today, but in the meantime you can obtain 2.0.2 from my website here:
http://jmtodaro.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59:ghostdesktoptheme&catid=34:downloads&Itemid=60 - Apr 08 2010

I decided to write up a tutorial for you and any others who may need it. Hope this helps!

Tutorial:
http://jmtodaro.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78:how-to-install-aurorae-themes&catid=43:themes&Itemid=66 - Mar 29 2010

It could be the font. Have you tried adjusting the size or boldness, or a different font in System Settings/Appearance/Fonts? It's hard for me to say for sure without a screenshot or more information.

I did not create this with any particular font in mind. I'm using "8-bit Limit A" in the screenshot. - Mar 27 2010

Ghost Color Scheme

Plasma Color Schemes 4 comments

by jmtodaro

Score 66.7%

Mar 27 2010

Thanks for your comments, and thanks anyways for pointing out the issue. I noticed this while developing, but as far as I can tell, Amarok is STILL unthemeable by conventional methods. It just kind of uses whatever colors wherever it wants I guess heh. It's a shame really. - Mar 27 2010

Tragedy Black

Plasma Color Schemes 4 comments

by jmtodaro

Score 70.0%

Apr 23 2009

I do not believe it is a bug with the color-scheme, but rather the way your system is handling it. The color file could be corrupted or it could be a cache issue. Non-qt apps sometimes have a problem when kde colors are applied, but Lancelot should always be displayed properly. It could also be an issue with the plasma theme as I think that is where lancelot gets it's color information from if I remember right.

First: try to reinstall the color-scheme/plasma-theme. I am assuming you have already tried this =) You may need to manually remove them before reinstalling. They're located in ~/.kde/apps/color-schemes/ (for the color schemes) and ~/.kde/apps/desktoptheme/ (for the plasma theme)

If that does not work, I recommend that you clear the kde plasma theme cache as follows:

-Switch to another theme, then type the following into a command prompt:

rm ~/.kde/cache-*/plasma* (this will return an error but it is okay to ignore)

rm ~/.kde/cache-*/kpc/plasma*

-restart kde & reapply theme.

I hope this helps! Good luck! =)
- Dec 31 2009

Positronic

Cursors 4 comments

by KuduK

Score 50.0%

Dec 02 2009

I always did like this one =) - Dec 02 2009

Tragedy

Plasma Themes 88 comments

by jmtodaro

Score 79.2%

Mar 13 2010

I've just released a new version of the Tragedy window decoration! It should mesh a bit better with the updated plasma theme.

http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Tragedy+Deco?content=109918 - Dec 01 2009

Tragedy Deco

Aurorae Themes 6 comments

by jmtodaro

Score 75.3%

Dec 01 2009

Thanks! I'll see what I can do. - Nov 13 2009

Thanks! So you are the one who broke my homepage...lol!

I honestly don't see a design conflict, the deKorator theme looks good too, and provides more buttons for those who might need them.

I'm very sorry, but I would prefer not to take over the deKorator theme, Aurorae is enough for me. I'm trying to wrap up my projects as my development may be slowing down in the near future, but I would be willing to help however I can if you decide to update the look. Feel free to message me if you wish to discuss this further. =)
- Aug 10 2009

Sir K (Lightblue)

Plasma Themes 5 comments

by CyberWasteland

Score 58.0%

Oct 20 2009

Hi, nice theme!

I added the following line to your metadata.desktop to get it working under Karmic (w/4.3.2):

X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name=SirK

I have had the same problem with gethotnewstuff not working properly under 4.3. In my case I just needed to run tar with the -a argument so that it would make a proper tar.gz:

tar -cavf theme.tar.gz /theme

Good luck! =)

- Oct 18 2009

Gaia Recycled

Plasma Themes 16 comments

by jmtodaro

Score 55.0%

Mar 26 2010

*thwack* - Aug 14 2009

The file used for popups is located at dialogs/background.svg in the theme folder.

The non-composite version is located in opaque/dialogs/background.svg - Aug 04 2009

Thank you for the kind words! - Aug 03 2009

Thanks, I am glad you enjoy it! I will admit I prefer the Recycled version as well! ;) - Aug 03 2009

Okay, I have been able to reproduce the problem you are having.

Unfortunately, I don't see any way to fix this without a major design change of the dialog background, as it seems to be a limitation of Plasma. I do not think the plasma devs anticipated that backgrounds would be used in the manner I have done here. =)

I would think that you can switch to another theme to resize the things you would like to resize and switch back, however I have not tested this solution. - Aug 03 2009

Hopefully the latest release (1.1) will solve this issue. - Aug 03 2009

Smooth Tasks

Plasma 4 Widgets 842 comments

by panzi

Score 86.9%

Nov 05 2010

PTasks....or ZTasks! ZTasks 1.0 has a nice sound to it... - Aug 12 2009

Thank you for working on this! I have missed stasks, as it hadn't been working properly with 4.3 (betas & rc) on Kubuntu for awhile. I am glad to have it back! =) - Aug 10 2009

Gaia 09 (Aurorae)

Aurorae Themes 19 comments

by jmtodaro

Score 73.1%

Aug 03 2009

Hehe no problem. Sometimes if the site is not working properly it is best to try again later =)

I will try to make a black version, if I can find the time. I have been very busy lately. I would be have no problems if someone else is interested in doing this.

And please tell me what exactly you think looks bad on the non-compositing version. If you just say it looks bad, that is not very helpful. If it has anything to do with a black border around the edge, I think that is an Aurorae issue. - Aug 04 2009

I agree, green icons would look very nice with this theme!

However, I've never worked with an icon set before, and I have no intention of learning how to at this time.

There IS a lovely looking Gaia icon set for Windows, perhaps there is a way to convert them for use with KDE - http://www.gaia09.us/entry/win/icons.html - Aug 03 2009

Tragedy Theme For deKorator

deKorator Themes 3 comments

by hostmaster2

Score 72.2%

Sep 08 2009

I have not used deKorator before so I am unable to test it out on my machine at the moment, but it looks very cool in the screenshot!

Oddly enough I was just thinking earlier today that I should maybe make an Aurorae theme for Tragedy! Great minds think alike eh? =) - Aug 03 2009

Gaia Recycled (Aurorae)

Aurorae Themes 7 comments

by jmtodaro

Score 76.7%

Aug 02 2009

Thank you!

Sorry but I have no plans create one at this time, as I am not too familiar with how they work, and I am simply too busy at the moment to learn.

Although, I strongly encourage anyone with more knowledge in that area to take it upon themselves if they so wish! =) - Aug 03 2009