Creating Firefox themes

[DirtDawg]

So last night, I downloaded this browser called "Avant" on the recommendation of a friend. ( http://www.avantbrowser.com/ ) Though it's not a bad browser, I do still like Firefox better.

However, one thing I found very nice was a GUI based tool for creating skins for Avant. (The Avant Browser Skin Factory) Within a matter of a few minutes, I had replaced several Avant icons and the background image and colors.

I've looked several times for some kind of simple tutorial concerning Firefox theme creation, but have yet to find a good one. The tutorials I have found keep referring to XML files and alot of things I just plain don't understand.

SO: I wondered if anyone knows where I can either find a really simple explaination concerning skin creation for Firefox, or if there's a GUI tool I haven't found yet, or maybe an ancient Tome of dark secrets that might contain the knowledge I need?

Thanks all

Peas :mrgreen:

[kassetra]

SO: I wondered if anyone knows where I can either find a really simple explaination concerning skin creation for Firefox, or if there's a GUI tool I haven't found yet, or maybe an ancient Tome of dark secrets that might contain the knowledge I need?

Eh.
Firefox themes are somewhat complex to create from scratch (ok, complex and t-i-m-e consuming) - so if that's what you want to do, oooh boy do you have a lot of work on your hands. A Massive Ton Of Work.
(http://kb.mozillazine.org/Theme_development)
If you want to just edit a theme, however, now that's not as bad.
1. Download a theme you like and want to edit.
2. Rename the .jar extension to .zip (that's all it is anyway), and extract the contents into a folder.
3. Edit the icons/colors ...

Here are some pretty good starter type pages:
first steps (http://cheeaun.phoenity.com/weblog/2004/12/first-steps-in-theme-design.html)
tutorial (http://www.eightlines.com/neil/mozskin/index.html)

[DirtDawg]

Thanks for all the info. I read through some of the documents, but I'm still confused. Well, maybe I'll try to dig through them one of these weekends. :)

[DirtDawg]

Hmm I found this editor, Chromedit. Will this thing help in creating custom themes or icons?
http://cdn.mozdev.org/

I'm at a little of a loss as to why creating skins and icons for Firefox is so seemingly difficult... :-?

[kassetra]

Hmm I found this editor, Chromedit. Will this thing help in creating custom themes or icons?
http://cdn.mozdev.org/

I'm at a little of a loss as to why creating skins and icons for Firefox is so seemingly difficult... :-?

Not exactly... editing your chrome is like for when you want a customized version of firefox - like how your menus are arranged, etc. It changes the app, not the theme... make sense?

Firefox theming is complex because it's extremely flexible; not to mention that Firefox itself is very complex these days.