The Transparent Experiment Lives!
CrystalClear Interface 2.0 will soon enter a public beta release. This is a major step from the previous version, released in March 2008 and described in the Mars article:
CrystalClear Interface 1.9:
Going Where No Theme Has Gone Before
Those of you who found CCI 1.9 outlandish no doubt find that version 2.0 sets a new standard for outlandishness.
CrystalClear Interface 2.0
Window Transparency
Adjust the transparency of windows as much or as little as you like. Customize for individual windows and applications. In CrystalClear Interface, transparency is used to make the top window very obvious and to reduce distraction from inactive windows.
Window Colors
In CCI 2.0, you can set different colors for various kinds of windows:
- Regular windows
- Panels
- Alert windows
- Sheets
Window Frames
Also new in CCI 2.0 are custom window frames. You have 8 frame designs to choose from for regular windows, 5 for panels, and 3 each for sheets and alerts. CCI also automatically applies the "HUD" frame and color to most utility windows, such as Colors and Fonts.
Unified Leopard Widgets
The new Leopard button look you see in the Finder, iCal, System Preferences, and a few other apps is really great, but it's not uniformly applied. CrystalClear Interface 2.0 tries to remedy this with Leopard-style widgets throughout.
And one more thing . . .
Actually, there are many more things, but they'll have to wait until the beta release, which I hope will be before the end of the year. The software is pretty much done, but now there's the documentation and Help pages. Stay tuned!
