How do you change the colour shade of a selected media item?

[seacave]

Hi,
New here - just trying it out before leaving cubase sx2.2 forever

If I click on a media item it turns a dark grey shade - regardless of its initial colour - but I find this shade too dark for me.

If I try and change the shade in preferences-appearance-theme-media item background selected - nothing changes - always the dark grey shade.

Please help!
Thanks
Gav

[Unox]

..this is probably a picturefile, it can't be made lighter from the prefs, but it can be done with an editor (the skins of Reaper can be found in the Reaper-colorthemes-default 3.0 folder).

In the stash are a whole bunch of themes to wade through, maybe there's something more appealing to your taste there.

[seacave]

Thanks - I otherwise like the default reaper 3 skin and don't want to change much else.

How would I go about finding the correct file to change?
Thanks again,
gav

[DarkStar]

Hello seacave and welcome to these forums. You'll find many helpful people here and a lot of useful information.

The .png files you want are:
item_bg.png
item_bg_sel.png

You'll ned a decent Image Editor, such as the GIMP.

They are in the folder C:\Program Files\REAPER\ColorThemes\Default_3.0 here.

To start with, I suggest copying that folder to, say, "seacave". Then in [Options] >> Preferences >> Appearance Theme, in the "Theme uses image resources" select "seacave" and Save your theme as, for example, "seacave_01". That way, you will still have the Default theme alongside your modified one.

Be warned, once you start changing themes it can become addictive

[EricM]

Originally Posted by DarkStar

You'll ned a decent Image Editor, such as the GIMP.

Or use any of the free online solutions for image editing:

http://www.sumo.fi/flash/sumopaint/index.php?id=0
http://aviary.com/

[EvilDragon]

GIMP is free too.

[seacave]

Thanks for all your help.

I've opened up the file in gimp2 and I know I've to leave the pink bits alone. I'm not sure how to colour in the rest of the image. Do I change the background and the foreground?
What tool inside gimp? I spent ages just trying to select a colour and paint and couldn't seem to manange!
THanks again,
Gav

[capthook]

Here's a real simple way:

Use Irfan : http://download.cnet.com/IrfanView/3...-10021962.html
The #1 image freeware program of all time. (45 million downloads @ Cnet alone)
Everyone should have it for lots of reasons.

Open the file you wish to edit in Irfan.
Then on the toolbar: <Image/Enhance Colors>
Adjust the Color Balance Sliders (R:red G:Green B:Blue)to get the color your want.
Adjust the other sliders for brightness, contrast etc. to taste.

[pcn]

hello,

i recently began to work with reaper and came across a similar problem:
i don´t like the behavior that the items change to light waves before dark background when selected.
i figured out how the colours could be changed in the theme-editor. problem is, the colour of the waves are changeable, but when i try the same with the background nothing happens.

the method described above won´t work since there are no item...png - files in my reaper-installation-folder.
(the other png-files for toolbar-icons and track-icons are in separate folders in C:\Programme\REAPER\InstallData\Data\ )

another thing i would like to change is that muted tracks are darkened that much. is that possible?


i am using version 4.54 with theme default 4.0 on windows xp sp3

[Pet]

Hi pcn, and welcome!
The first recommended step is to look at the first 3 sticky threads on the startpage of this forum. This will probably give you a good overview.

Have fun with Reaper!

Peter

[pcn]

thanks for the advice,

with the sticky posts i found out that i had to unzip the theme-file, but:

i replaced the relevant image-file with an edited one, but unfortunatly reaper kept ignoring it until i found out that only the zipped images are accepted, and the edited ones only if they are extrated from the zip, edited and stuffed back in it.

along the way i found out, even when you put all zips and theme-files out of the color theme - directory, reaper still has access to all themes used before - so i guess there must be some other place where these informations are stored as well...?!

[Pet]

Hi pcn, you can do it this way:

• open the ReaperThemeZip with e.g. 7-zip (do not unzip it!)
• double-click the folder "Default_4.0_unpacked" to open it
• drag and drop the desired png to your desktop (keep 7-zip open)
• edit the png and save it again to the desktop
• drag it back into 7-zip, where you first found it
• close 7-zip

There are a few other ways to handle editing png's of the theme, but for starting this topic, but I think showing only one method is enough for now.

Peter