V2 Sneak Peek: Theming

In v2, you’ll be able to theme Alfred to match your desktop or your mood. The theme editor has been overhauled completely so not only will you now be able to change colours, but also fonts, sizes, width and height of Alfred’s window, and even the roundness of corners.

v2 Default Theme: Standard sizes & fonts

 

v2 Tiny Theme: Squarer corners, small Menlo font and Terminal colours

 

v2 Avatar theme: Large Papyrus font, wide window, rounded corners and blue colour scheme.

We’re still on track for a first beta release to Mega Supporters in the first half of January, so keep your eyes peeled! If you currently have a v1 single user license and want to take part in the beta, you can upgrade your license to a Mega Supporter to join the fun!

Alfredthe.me: Share your custom themes & browse for new ones

What makes developing Alfred so much fun is the amazing community that has grown around him over the past two years. And sometimes, Alfred users simply blow us away with their creativity!

Hot on the heels of last week’s search for the perfect custom themes to add to version 1.2, long-time Alfred friend and extension creator Kailey Lampert created a new site, Alfredthe.me, where you can share your custom themes and discover new ones.

You can watch a useful video on importing, exporting and customising your own themes on Alfredthe.me.

As an aside, Kailey is also the creator of the rather awesome Hangman extension, amongst many others. Play a sneaky game of Hangman using Growl and the boss won’t even notice! 😉

Happy theming!

Cheers,
Vero

Two new custom themes for Alfred version 1.2

Last week, we invited Alfred users to submit their own custom themes for version 1.2. You contributed in droves with over fifty themes to choose from! With your help, we have now picked the themes that will make it into the Alfred core.

Coming soon to your theme selection

Two themes from this competition will be added to Alfred; Dark and Smooth and Pistachio.

Dark and Smooth is a gorgeous deep grey theme with dark blue for the selected result, and was created by Brock Angelo.

Pistachio is the second theme we chose and was created by Chris George. Andrew and I liked this theme as it adds a bit of colour to the range of themes available!

The themes you loved

The creators of the themes you loved most will receive a Powerpack license upgrade and some very special Alfred goodies in the post too.

The first special mention goes to Javier Esquivel’s Elegant theme which received the most votes and looked fantastic.

Unfortunately, we were unable to add it to the default themes as it doesn’t display well over other windows due to its high level of transparency (for example, over text here), making search results difficult to read. If you’d like to use it and perhaps tweak the opacity levels, you can install the Elegant theme.

The Sleek Professional theme by Greg Cruz was also very popular but exhibited the same issues when displayed over a busy background. Install Sleek Pro if it’s the one that stole your heart.

And finally, out of left field came a bright and bold contender, Quick Purple, by Colin J. Kautz. If you love shades of pink and purple, this one is the one for you!

Thank you to everyone who let their inner artist out to play and created a custom theme! You can still download any of the themes created this week from our Facebook page.

Version 1.2 coming soon

The two winning themes will be added to version 1.2, which will be generally available within the next few weeks, alongside many more fantastic features. Check out the impressive change log for the list of new features and improvements coming in this next release.

Don’t forget that you can download and create your own themes and do much more with the Powerpack, so if you’re not sure which of the advanced features might tickle your fancy, check out our comparison chart between the free version and the Powerpack.

Stick around for more fun competitions, tutorials and great extensions in the coming weeks!

Competition: Get your custom theme included in Alfred’s core

[Update: Time to go let us know which of these 56 themes you’d love to see included in Alfred v1.2. Pop over to the Facebook album and dish out the thumbs up.]

Since we launched Alfred two years ago, users of the free version have been able to choose between a light and dark colour theme. When Lion was released, we added a matching theme to celebrate its arrival. Today, we are looking for new and exciting custom themes for Alfred and are turning to you!

If we choose your theme to add to the Alfred core, you’ll get recognition in front of a million users as well as some unique Alfred goodies. Read on to find out how to participate or vote.

Contributing your own theme

To participate, create the most gorgeous custom colour theme for Alfred and post a link to the screenshot and theme file in the comments below. You have until Thursday 12th April to submit your theme.

In your comment on this blog post, include:

• A link to a screenshot of your theme
• A link to the theme file
• A valid email address (in the address field) so that we can contact you

To participate, you need to have your own Powerpack license and the theme needs to work well for common uses (e.g. over other windows).

Don’t know how to export your theme? Have a look at this knowledge base item.

If your theme has a fun name or a story, we’d love to hear it 🙂

Voting for your favourite theme

By Friday 13th April, we’ll put all of the themes on our Facebook page where you can look through the album we’ve created to vote for your favourites. We’ll post a link to the album here on Friday but you can join us on Facebook now to get a headstart!

Pop by our Facebook photo album to like your favourite themes so that they’re in with a chance to be included in version 1.2!

To vote, click the Like button on Facebook for the themes you love the most. At the end of the week, we’ll pick 2 of the 5 themes you’ve liked the most to include in Alfred’s core set of themes.

This means that if your custom theme wins, over a million Alfred users will be able to pick it as their everyday theme. Instant celebrity status! 😉

The two winners will get the following:

• An upgrade from single user license to mega supporter (for a lifetime of Alfred updates) or a single license for a friend
• Their theme and name published as part of Alfred’s core themes for all users to see
• Some Alfred goodies (stickers and keyboard brushes) in the mail

What are you waiting for? Set your inner artist free and create a beautiful Alfred custom theme and submit it before Thursday for your chance at these prizes.