Flatland is a GUI (Graphic User Interface) project which is a vehicle to develop new and interesting ideas for the general appearance of the User Interface for the Macintosh™.
Form Follows Function:
The Flatland colour scheme aims to be functional and pleasant to use. It moves a little outside convention by removing seemingly unnecessary embellishments.
‘Flatland’ is named after the book: ‘Flatland’ by Edwin A. Abbott.
The Platinum (Greyscale) Colour scheme is already a beautiful interface. Flatland uses this as its starting point and has evolved out of it. Flatland is compatible with Mac OS8 (with Kaleidoscope 1.7x), and so includes ‘intermediate buttons’ which are buttons with a little horizontal dash.
Installation:
For this colour scheme to work, please put the ‘Flatland’ scheme into the ‘Kaleidoscope Color Schemes’ folder, which you should find in the ‘Extensions’ folder on your computer. You can download and discover more about Kaleidoscope from http//www.kaleidoscope.net
May I suggest you try setting ‘Colorize Finder Windows’ option to:
Red: 87; Green: 87; Blue: 87.
Version History: First Release—July 1997
Developer Notes:
Flatland’s general appearance is slightly softer to the Apple™ Grayscale or Platinum scheme. All black lines have been knocked back into a dark grey. The GUI has been modified so as to give a flatter and more ‘plastic’ feel. All surfaces have been levelled off so as to look clean and accurate. 3D effects have been minimised to a visual 2 pixel height/depth for a subtle 3D effect which is just enough to suggest form and movement. 3D bevel effects are only used on objects which are pressed to perform an action. For this reason I have flattened out the scroll bar because its not performing an action as such (though of course you can click on it for an immediate active scroll response). Having no Racing Stripes (lines that appear on either side of the window title) is a purely cosmetic feature, taking these away just helps in the general ‘flat’ theme.
Scroll Bar and Thumb Blocks:
When the Scroll Bar Buttons, Scroll Bar or Thumb Blocks are clicked a green arrow and lines appear so as to signify the direction of ‘scroll travel’. The Scroll Bar and Thumb Block change tone to suggest that something is actually happening. The Thumb Block in Flatland is slightly longer than conventional Thumb Blocks. It is sized to a 2:3 ratio proportion. Flatland is compatible with the shareware Utility—Smart Scroll by Marc Moini. This Utility includes active scrolling (A feature included in MacOS 8).
Accents:
Flatland is compatible with ‘Accents’, these are alternative choices of colour for the Thumb Blocks, Progress Bar and Menu highlight. The ‘Gold’ accent has been modified to have a more ‘Orange’ appearance so as to conform to the Flatland ‘standard appearance’.
International Orange:
Orange is very much a ‘utility’ colour and so I have used it in a universal manner, so that if you see a object which is orange—it means that it actually does something!
Widgets:
The widgets at the top of the Active Window slightly decrease in size from left to right in a kind of visual 3-2-1 series. This is for both Gestalt and Aesthetic reasons. One aspect of doing this makes each widget individual and so reduces the need to have additional embellishments describing what it does. The ‘Close Window’ widget lines up with the ‘grab bars’ in Netscape Navigator™ 4.01x and Internet Explorer™ 3.01x. The ‘Maximise Window’ widget lines up with the left of the scroll bar.
Any similarity to other schemes is purely coincidental. It has been useful and interesting to see what other developers have achieved. The Progress Bar is similar to the one created by Ryan Smith, whose schemes are brilliant. A longer thumb bar block is used, this can be seen in ‘Jeff’s Greyscale Reversed’ by Jeff Gayton.
‘Blue Desktop Pattern’ derived from Interface used in the program: NewNote Pad II by Hisadon.
