Looking for the colors in Reapers 3.71 Theme

[Yfoiler]

I stayed in Reaper 3.71 for a long time and got REALLY used to the colors of the track items (MIDI and Wavs) and the selected items versus unselected. The colors I need are now the "un-selected" item colors in Ver. 4.x and I can't get used to working the reverse colors of a very black or dark selected item. To MY brain it's just the opposite. I feel like I'm working in a negative of an old photo. So...I've tried the theme editor but there are no MIDI item colors to chose. Plenty of background items and stuff like that. I thought it would be simple to change but it either is and I don't know how, or it isn't and I don't know how to get there. Thanks for any help. BTW, it would be PERFECT if I could find the 3.71 theme and apply it to the 4.32 version now! Yes?...

[Mr. Data]

All that comes to my mind at the moment is to try "Options -> Themes". In the submenu of "Themes" there should be an entry "Dafault_3.0".

HTH

-Data

[Yfoiler]

Thanks HTH,
I've tried that and the media and MIDI items are still reversed. The selected media item is nearly black (YUK!) and the non-selected items are the perfect color that I want. It used to be that there were never any black or dark grey items in my older Version 3.71 of Reaper.

Also, when I go to the theme editor and change the media item colors for odd/even and selected/unselected, nothing happens. I can select bright red for all of them and click Apply, and OK, and still they stay the same. Even unchecking the [x] Override themes boxes do not make a difference. Is it just me? Is everyone happy working on their selected item being nearly black?? It's like living in negative space! LOL...

[Mr. Data]

In this case there are pngs used to display the items.
I dunno exactly, because I found all the default themes extremely ugly.
You could have a look at https://stash.reaper.fm/ to find the old theme.
You could also have a look at "...\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\REAPER\ColorThemes" (Win7 path),
rename e.g. "Default_3.0.ReaperThemeZip" to "Default_3.0.Zip",
unpack it,
search for the graphics "item_bg.png" and "item_bg_sel.png",
change them to your likings,
put all you unpacked back into a "Default_3.0a.zip",
rename it "Default_3.0a.ReaperThemeZip" and
put it back into "...\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\REAPER\ColorThemes".

-Data

[Yfoiler]

Originally Posted by Mr. Data

In this case there are pngs used to display the items.

Thanks for the info on how to do this. I'll give it a try. But I've got to say; I wonder why anyone would not let the theme editor take care of these colors. I always thought the png files were for doing custom themes where you used a photo-shopped texture, such as brushed metal, etc to display. Heck, these colors I'm after are just that...solid colors. No textures or photo realism required at all. Funny too that the recent default versions also take away the ability to change the background colors of 'items' selected/unselected. That just seems so weird that we have all this incredible flexibility in Reaper's themes, and yet consistently, the freedom to change background colors of items just isn't there. But I can draw purple or orange lines around lots of things! LOL...

[Mr. Data]

I think if you delete (or rename) the mentioned pngs, you can set the colors in the theme editor. IIRC the pngs weren't in the early versions of Reaper.

I just renamed the pngs in the theme I use and voila: I can set the colors.
This idea I should have had earlier.

The ability to change the colors hasn't been taken away.
You might just have to scroll down a bit more to find them.
I'm using 4.32 BTW.


-Data

[Yfoiler]

Well, I must have done something wrong. I tried unzipping the default 3.0 theme like you said and it had what seemed to be text settings in the body with 8 digit color number settings for colors. Then there was the scrambled code below that. I searched for the bg.png files and did find some regular text mixed in with the code. I renamed them old_bg.png...zipped it back up and then Reaper wouldn't even run. Weird. So...I put everything back. Ended up reinstalling Reaper to get it to work. Geez...I guess I shouldn't mess with stuff over colors! Ha! Maybe later. Got a project going now... Thanks anyway, I'll get back on this later on.
Cheers!

[Mr. Data]

No, that wasn't good.

If you renamed the <whatever>.ReaperThemeZip to <whatever>.zip and unpacked it (best to an empty folder), you get a file named <whatever>.ReaperTheme and a folder <whatever>, containing all the graphic files.
Then go into the graphics folder and rename the files "item_bg.png" and "item_sel_bg.png" to something else.
Keep the hands off the "rtconfig.txt" inside the graphics folder and even the <whatever>.ReaperTheme file outside the graphics folder.
Just rename the above mentioned graphic files, zip all you unzipped before again and rename the <whatever>.zip back to <whatever>.ReaperThemeZip and put it in its original color themes folder of Reaper.
Then start Reaper and choose "Options -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Theme Editor" and scroll down the list and search for "Media item background (odd tracks)".
This and the following eight entries detemine the unselected and selected colors of items on even and odd tracks and the colors of the peaks.

You have to scroll down the list and search these entries 'by hand'. You won't find these entries using the "Find" button.

-Data

[Yfoiler]

Data,

Can't thank you enough for hanging in there with me on this. I was able to do exactly what you said (this time!) and it worked! I did see the png's graphic files for the media background items, and as you instructed, I just renamed them "Old", rezipped it all put it back and BINGO! Now...the problem is I can't quite get the exact colors I liked in the old version but that's just trial and error in the Theme Editor and color selector. At least now I don't feel like I'm working in negative space. I'm old school for sure. To me these new default selected item colors felt like I was picking up a piece of black blank music score paper, and then proceeding to write the score in white chalk....just doesn't work for me to look at something that is supposed to be the active selection, but it's dark. So thanks again...this was huge for me. I hope others pick up on your trick too. Cheers!!

[gofer]

One thing to consider (maybe Data already covered it, just to be sure):

If you tweak themes that come with Reaper's installer, you need to save your tweaks under a different name. The reason being next time you run the installer (eg when you update Reaper) the stock themes will be overwritten by the installation.

I am not sure whether it's enough in your case to do a "Save Theme..." from Preferences -> Theme Editor. I suspect it will not save your edited image folder.

To be on the save side, I'd rename the *.ReaperThemeZip file to something different from "Default_3.0" right in the ColorThemes directory. Or copy it and rename the copy.

[Yfoiler]

Yes, I have already renamed the Theme to "My_Theme" and it sticks through Reaper re-installation. Thanks much for the reminder.

[Mr. Data]

Originally Posted by gofer

One thing to consider (maybe Data already covered it, just to be sure):

If you tweak themes that come with Reaper's installer, you need to save your tweaks under a different name. The reason being next time you run the installer (eg when you update Reaper) the stock themes will be overwritten by the installation.

Thanks Gofer.
I actually didn't think about that.

Originally Posted by Yfoiler

Data,

Can't thank you enough for hanging in there with me on this. I was able to do exactly what you said (this time!) and it worked! I did see the png's graphic files for the media background items, and as you instructed, I just renamed them "Old", rezipped it all put it back and BINGO! Now...the problem is I can't quite get the exact colors I liked in the old version but that's just trial and error in the Theme Editor and color selector. At least now I don't feel like I'm working in negative space. I'm old school for sure. To me these new default selected item colors felt like I was picking up a piece of black blank music score paper, and then proceeding to write the score in white chalk....just doesn't work for me to look at something that is supposed to be the active selection, but it's dark. So thanks again...this was huge for me. I hope others pick up on your trick too. Cheers!!

No prob!

I'm quite nitpicky about the user interface myself.


-Data

[Mind Riot]

Very informative thread, I've been having some problems with some of this myself.

I do have one more question that I hope someone can answer for me. Once you've installed a theme and messed with the color scheme, is there any possible way to get that theme's color scheme back?

The color scheme of the peaks and background is often a big part of what attracts me to a theme. But now all of the themes show this same screwed up solid black mess of peaks, even the default theme.

Thus far I have removed and replaced all the themes.

I have removed them and removed my portable install of Reaper, and reinstalled. (4.32)

I have removed them and removed Reaper portable, and went back to the stash and re-downloaded every theme.

And the peaks are still f%$&@#% solid black on every single theme including the default.

Please, somebody help me before I go completely insane.

[gofer]

Do the options in Preferences -> Appearance -> Peaks/Waveforms: "Tint media item waveform peaks to:" help?

If not, maybe it would be a good idea to show us pics of both, what you want to see versus what you actually see, to help understand what the issue is ("this same screwed up solid black mess of peaks" may sound descriptive, but it actually isn't so much).

[Mind Riot]

The peaks were just me being stupid and not remembering anything about how to theme in Reaper since I've been working in my studio with one theme for so long. I've got that sorted, as moronic as it makes me feel to say.

But the real question I'm looking for an answer to is this: is there a way to restore a theme I got from the stash back to its default color scheme after it's been tweaked?

I mean, I've deleted every freaking theme from my PC and went and re-downloaded them from the stash and they STILL don't show their own colors in the arrangement window. They just display whatever ugly colors I was dinking around with last. I want to get back the default color scheme and have it stick.

[Mr. Data]

You might try to tick in "Options -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Theme Editor -> Setting for all themes" "Allow themes to override".

-Data

[Yfoiler]

Originally Posted by Mr. Data

You might try to tick in "Options -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Theme Editor -> Setting for all themes" "Allow themes to override".

-Data

+1 and Ditto... you beat me to it!

[witti]

This may help:

Normally if you download a theme today, the format is .ReaperThemeZip.
It contains a folder with the images and the .ReaperTheme file.
You can open the ReaperThemeZip for example with 7-Zip.
When you open the ReaperTheme file with notepad you can see all the color
and font information of that theme.

So when you tweak your theme in the theme editor and save it,
you have the tweaked version as a ReaperTheme file in your colorthemes folder.
But the original one is still there. It's in the ReaperThemeZip file.
If you want to revert to the original version, just remove the .ReaperTheme file
from the colorthemes folder and reaper will use the original one from the zip.

If you download some older themes, i recommend to zip them and then rename them from .zip to .ReaperThemeZip.

One question: Why do you overwrite the themes when you are making some changes ? Just save them as different versions.

In the theme editor there is a checkbox:
"Theme uses image resources"
When you are switching themes, make sure your theme is using the right resources.

[Mind Riot]

Originally Posted by witti

This may help:

Normally if you download a theme today, the format is .ReaperThemeZip.
It contains a folder with the images and the .ReaperTheme file.
You can open the ReaperThemeZip for example with 7-Zip.
When you open the ReaperTheme file with notepad you can see all the color
and font information of that theme.

So when you tweak your theme in the theme editor and save it,
you have the tweaked version as a ReaperTheme file in your colorthemes folder.
But the original one is still there. It's in the ReaperThemeZip file.
If you want to revert to the original version, just remove the .ReaperTheme file
from the colorthemes folder and reaper will use the original one from the zip.

If you download some older themes, i recommend to zip them and then rename them from .zip to .ReaperThemeZip.

One question: Why do you overwrite the themes when you are making some changes ? Just save them as different versions.

In the theme editor there is a checkbox:
"Theme uses image resources"
When you are switching themes, make sure your theme is using the right resources.

Thank you very much! This is extremely helpful information, I'll be resetting all my themes this way today.

I wasn't really messing around with great purpose or anything when I was messing with the themes (plus there was the factor of my trying a new sleep medication that made things a little dreamy and woozy at the time).

But I was also expecting version 2.x and 3.x behavior. In 3.x I could mess around with a theme and if I didn't like it I could just switch themes and come right back and the theme would be in its default state, all my tinkering erased. I've never run into the kind of behavior 4.x is doing, where I can screw around making things hot pink with purple unicorns just for fun and then change themes without saving and find that my hot pink/unicorn motif is going be a millstone hung around my neck, changing every theme I open.

To be perfectly frank, the method in 2.x and 3.x makes a lot more sense to me.

EDIT: witti, Apollo looks brilliant, I'm looking forward to trying it out.