Filed under: Google, Beta, Browsers
Google Chrome theme gallery opens with 29 themes, several blindingly ugly
Am I really going to stick with the grass theme? Probably not, but I was in the mood after finishing up my yardwork this evening. There are currently 29 different skins available.
As with other theme galleries, not all of the options are going to win a GUI beauty contest. Some of them (like Legal Pad - check it after the break) might make you do a spit take. There are, however, some interesting options. At the very least, maybe this will help spell the end of bothersome Chrome skinning that involves backing up the default.dll and restoring it after Chrome crashes due to an incompatible skin.
Some of the themes - like Dots, also pictured after the break - even bleed past the bookmarks toolbar on the new tab page. The download and history pages, however, are kept clean below the divide. Thank god, because that would be a little more than I could take.
Remember, you'll need to be running the Chrome 3 beta or developer channel or be using a recent build of Chromium to get in on the fun. If that includes you, check 'em out then tell us which one you're switching to in the comments. Unless you're not impressed with the selection, in which case - sound off!
After all this "make your Firefox look like Chrome" nonsense, I'm holding out for the Firefox skin - just so I can post confusing screenshots.
[via Google OS]
Dots
Miss Hot Dog Stand? Legal Pad is just as yellow, and 10% uglier!
Hey, Transparent should be good. It'll probably show off Aero Glass really nicely, right?
Wth? Since when does opaque gray-on-white checkboard = transparent?
That's more like it. I can deal with Brushed.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rollins said 11:02PM on 8-04-2009
Gray on white checkerboard is what shows up when you have transparency in Photoshop. It's possible that it's not quite implemented into Chrome yet.
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Lee Mathews said 11:06PM on 8-04-2009
That's what I was figuring, but come on...Enthusiasts pulled off some nice glass looks, why not the first official themes?
Would have made the "opening" much more impressive.
chrishigh said 11:21AM on 8-05-2009
I have a feeling that's not a 'placeholder' until they fix transparency. I bet it's trying to be 'cute' and mimic the checkerboard pattern in Photoshop intentionally. "But it's so ugly" you say - yes well look at the rest of them...
RepoMonkey said 12:07AM on 8-05-2009
Can I just congratulate you on that headline. Made me chuckle.
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JB said 12:11AM on 8-05-2009
Anyone else getting the following error for most of the themes?
Could not install extention from '____'. Invalid value for the theme images - tints must be decimal numbers.
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Phoenix said 3:39AM on 8-05-2009
Same problem here. I'm using the Windows 7 RC Build 7100. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I haven't checked on XP or Vista.
Xell said 6:01AM on 8-05-2009
Same problem here, Win 7 build 7100.
BOoooo
Ian said 8:46AM on 8-05-2009
Same here on Vista SP2.
Wes said 8:50AM on 8-05-2009
same here on XP
durdy said 12:24AM on 8-05-2009
They should make a ninja theme like the one for gmail!
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Josh said 1:13AM on 8-05-2009
I agree. That is one excellent theme. I've had it set as my theme on Gmail since themes were first released.
sharkbait said 12:33AM on 8-05-2009
Greyscale is the best. It has a nice overall black-to-white gradient with the bookmarks bar, and none of the colors anywhere are mindnumbingly ugly. The colors in the back of Glow are nice, but there is just waay too much contrast between the black and the white.
I'm hoping we'll be getting some really nice themes soon.
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davidgk said 12:35AM on 8-05-2009
i can't install any of the themes. it gives an error message
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Josh said 1:14AM on 8-05-2009
Some of these look like Myspace had the flu and this was the resulting mess...
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INVISIBLE said 2:21AM on 8-05-2009
Using the baseball one currently, (keeps me in the baseball mood). But I agree with sharkbait above, that the grayscale is one of the best looking themes.
The transparency theme has potential (if they fix the actual checkerboard to be transparent)
Otherwise, the default theme in Win7 looks pretty damn good on its own, with the half transparent look.
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kingkool68 said 6:38AM on 8-05-2009
Speaking of ugly, your AIM logo just above the comment box looks really, really bad! http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/framework.weblogsinc.com/media/aim-logo-small.gif
A Brushed chrome look does tickle my aesthetic senses.
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Leonardo Benveniste said 8:48AM on 8-05-2009
I've gone with Zen Spring, it's nice and not blinding as the others
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Thomas Maier said 2:06PM on 8-05-2009
urghs. "brushed" looks like Mac OS 10.0beta. holy shit. I really like the standard theme - why change? I thought on a Linux Gnome theme in Chrome style - would look kinda nice, wouldn’t it?
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