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About iPulse
iPulse Jackets are a fun way to customize the look of iPulse. You can set your own background image, choose your own gauge colors, and save your settings to an iPulse Jacket file to share with others. Looking for instant gratification? You can always download and use Jackets that other people have created for an instant makeover of your iPulse utility.
This document will explain the basics of creating your own iPulse Jackets, from making your own background image to setting your gauge colors and opacities.
Creating the iPulse
Background Image
iPulse can use any 128x128 TIFF or PNG as a background image. The background image is positioned on a layer beneath all of the gauges. To change the image that iPulse uses, launch iPulse, open the preferences panel, and select "Other" in the preferences toolbar. Click on "Set..." and browse to select an image.
The real fun begins when you create your own custom background image. Though iPulse can use any 128x128 TIFF or PNG, a Jacket often works best if the image is circular, and if the image takes into account the exact positioning of the gauges drawn by iPulse. To help things line up pixel-perfect, we've included a layered Photoshop file to use as a template. This file is called Jacket_Template.PSD and can be found in the folder you downloaded that contained this tutorial.
Using the Template File
The template file includes a layer for each of the three main "ring" areas of the iPulse interface. There are also lines which demarcate the major divisions around the perimeter of the circular interface -- this can be useful for lining up elements in your image with the tick marks that can be displayed around the outer edge of the iPulse interface.
Here is what the template file looks like:
For comparison, here is a screenshot of what iPulse looks like in action -- you should be able to see how the divisions in the template file relate to the gauges in iPulse:
To create an image, use an image editing program to draw your background, either directly on the individual layers of the template, or on your own layers placed above the template layers, using the template as a visual guide. Remember that iPulse will place its gauges on top of this image, and that later on you'll be able to customize the color and opacity of these gauges. This means that parts of your image may not always be visible. Because of this, some of the best Jackets may actually have very simple background images, letting the gauge configurations contribute a large portion of the look of the Jacket.
Also, remember that if you are creating a round image, leave the area outside of the circle transparent -- don't color in the area around the outer circle of the template unless you are doing so to achieve a certain effect with your Jacket.
Saving Your Background Image
If your image consists of more than one layer, you may want to save a separate copy of the file, with the layers intact, in case you need to go back and edit your image later. After doing that, you may proceed as follows:
First, be sure to turn off any unused layers, including the original layers of the template file (unless you're using them as part of your image). Next, if you've used more than one layer to create your image, you'll want to merge those layers together into one layer, being sure to keep that layer on a transparent background. Finally, you'll save your image as a TIFF file. In the options menu for your TIFF file, be sure to discard layers, but preserve transparency. We've provided two sample background images from the Jacket Gallery with the construction kit. They are Talon.tif & Cygnus.tif. Take a look at these images to get a feel for two possible approaches to iPulse background images.
Creating the Status Bar
Background Image
iPulse is now able to display a status bar in the menubar, and this is customizable as well. Use the Menubar_Template.psd file in the Jacket Construction Toolkit to layout your own background image for the status bar, and save it as a TIFF file. You can look at the Menubar Default.tif file provided to see what the default status bar background graphic looks like.
Customizing the
iPulse Interface
Now that your background image is ready, it's time to get your hands dirty under iPulse's hood. The iPulse interface consists mainly of circular and semi-circular gauges overlaid on top of a background image. Both the color and opacity of these gauges can be changed individually. In fact, by setting the opacity to zero, you can even turn a gauge completely off.
Setting the Background Image
The first order of business is to load in the background image that you've just created. Launch iPulse, open the preferences panel, and select "Other" in the preferences toolbar. Click on "Set..." and browse to select your image. The opacity of the image can also be set with the slider in this preference panel.
Customizing the Gauges
The next step is to go through each panel of the iPulse preferences and customize the color and opacity of the gauges associated with that panel. To do this, open the iPulse preferences, and click on one of the icons in the toolbar (other than the "Main" icon). The panel will show, in the upper left, an image that indicates where in the iPulse interface this particular gauge appears. For instance, in the case of the CPU gauge, you can see that it appears in the centermost part of the interface. To customize the appearance of this gauge, simply click on each of the color swatches, and use the color picker to adjust the color values and the opacity.
After you make your adjustment and close the color picker, you should immediately see the effect of your changes in the iPulse interface. If it's not what you had in mind, simply click on the appropriate color swatch again, and make new adjustments.
Customizing the Status Bar
Under the "Global" section of the Preferences panel, in the "Displays" tab, you can customize the look of the status bar by checking the "Show status in menu bar" option and adjusting the colors to your liking. You can also set the status bar background image in this section.
By clicking through each of the icons in the preferences toolbar and changing the gauge colors and opacities, you'll soon have iPulse completely customized to your liking!
Tip: Sometimes it may be difficult to see the results of your changes in the iPulse interface. For instance, if you've just made a change to the network gauges, but there's no network activity, you won't be able to see what the gauge looks like. To see your changes, you may have to perform some activity, such as connecting to a server, loading a webpage, or opening a few applications. This will get your computer working, and you should see the results in the iPulse interface.
Saving Your iPulse
Jacket
Once you are finished customizing the iPulse interface, you'll want to save your settings to an iPulse Jacket file. To do this, click on the "Main" icon in the preferences panel, and then choose the "Save settings" button at the bottom of the panel. Decide what you want to name your Jacket and where you want to save it. Also be sure to check the options for including visual settings for the information window and status bar if you've made changes to these areas of iPulse. Then click the "Save" button, and you're finished! Your Jacket is saved for future use, or for sharing with your friends.
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