How can I import/design differnet buttons for my remote

[newstuart]

I would like to import or design some different designed buttons, possibly Logos & Skins for my soft remote but do not really know where to start.

I have seen various buttons & logos I like the look at for Pronto remotes over on remotecentral.com but have no idea how/if I can use these in housebot ? Better still would be knowing how to design my own buttons.

Any newbie help much appreciated

[Timoh]

I use a software called freebuttons.org. It's pretty cool for texturing and colouring, etc. It just doesn't output in a very HB friendly format.

After creating my buttons, I need to save (export) them as bmp files, then open them in my favourite paint program to make them "folded" buttons.

I need to save my "normal" button and my "pressed" button and then stick them together in my graphics editor and set the transparency.

Tim

[newstuart]

Hi Timoh & thank you for your reply, could I just ask (and please excuse my ignorence here as I am new to graphics software). To clarify,

1) I create the button, using freebuttons.org and save it as a ".BMP" file

2) You say I then "save (export) them as bmp files, then open them in my favourite paint program to make them "folded" buttons" - Would I be correct in assuming you are refering to MS Paint ? (excuse my ignorance here).

3) How do I stick the "normal" & "pressed" buttons together ?

4) How do I then use these buttons with housebot ? I assume I need to save them in one of the housebot program folders but which one ?

[Timoh]

Any paint program will do. The way HB shows buttons is it will display the left half of the graphic when unpressed and switch to the right half when pressed. You can see how this works by using a button which is not "folded". You will only get 1/2 the button displayed.

So after generating my two graphics for my button and saved as seperate (bmp) files, I use GIMP to paste both buttons into the same file. Paint should work, but you might have issues with the transparency. You need to look at the size of the image. So let's say your button is 50x100 pixels (HeightxWidth). You will need to create a new image 50x200. Paste the unpressed button onthe left and the pressed version on the right.

In your themes in housebot, add a button object. During the button wizard, you should be able to browse to where you saved your file and select it.

Tim

[ScottBot]

For buttons, you can also use the ImageDup utility found in this post to simply duplicate a button image into HouseBot format.

[Timoh]

Hey that's a neat little utility. Now of course I'm a fan of having a different look when pressed (that I'm assuming this utility won't do). So you will still need to lighten/darken (or whatever) your right button so you get positive confirmation when pressed.
Tim

[ScottBot]

It can either take the single button image and just duplicate it for the 'down' button, or you can specify the 'down' image too. It's really just a low-tech way to create a quick button if you have an image. If you want a real 'down' look to the button, it will take some graphics work (and then you might as well just combine it in the graphics program).

[Timoh]

Didn't see that syntax usage in the original post, but obviously it's included in the file since I saw it when I ran the exe.

This utility is a great for use with freebuttons.org which produces two different states (up & down) which can be saved as seperate image files. Merge them together with the util and we're all set. Freebuttons.org has all sorts of cool design tools for different button shapes, colours, textures, 3-D depth. The part I dreaded the most was sticking them together. With this tool, I'll probably increase my button library and post some. They're mostly "wood" themed buttons as in the sample I have posted.