For those of you who haven't met it yet, Kaleidoscope is a wonderful Mac toy created by Greg Landweber, Fred Bass, and Ed Voas. It changes your Mac interface into....something else. If you don't have it, you should go get it.
Third party plug-in schemes began appearing almost as soon as Kaleidoscope was introduced. With version 1.5, the authors began providing more support for third party developers, and the world of Kaleidoscope exploded.
For all those who have written to me (or are about to), asking if I plan to update these schemes to take advantage of the new features offered in Kaleidoscope 1.8: It's on my to-do list. Really. As soon as I can find the time.
There are as many styles and philosophies of scheme design as there are Mac users. No matter what your taste, you can probably find something to suit it at the official Kaleidoscope Scheme Archive. There you will also find links to Kaleidoscope utilities and information on creating your own schemes. And don't miss the Kaleidoscope Scheme Directory, a searchable directory of schemes brought to you by Akamai Design, creators of Designer's Studio, the ultimate scheme design software. Beware though, entering the world of scheme creation can eat away all of your free time. Trust me on this. The proof is below...
A retro sort of scheme with a hand-drawn look, Lounge Lizard placed second in the MacUser Kaleidoscope Scheme Contest.
Congratulations to all who entered the competition, and especially to the other winners: Stéphane Sinotte, Anthony Kwiatowski, the incredible Layne Karkruff, and Mark Dymowski. Be sure to take a look at their winning entries.
Thank you to MacUser for sponsoring this contest, and to MacUser Online editor Philip Dyer and all of the judges for their surprising (to me) consideration of Lounge Lizard. I had begun this scheme for myself and, thinking it was probably a little too off the wall, almost didn't send it in. But, happily, I did, along with the next two slightly more conservative also-rans. As Chuck Berry said, "It goes to show, you never can tell..."
Inspired by pink and gray table tops and tile floors, Diner and DinerToo share the same design with a slight variation in the coloring: Diner emphasizes the gray; DinerToo, the pink.
Both schemes are designed to coordinate with the basic Apple gray you find in many application windows. Both include coordinating folder and trash icons.
The Diner package was a runner-up in the MacUser Kaleidoscope Contest.
Softer is a pastel scheme in shades of lavender-blue and pale teal. It is designed to coordinate with the basic Apple gray and lavender-blue you find in many application windows and default icons.
Softer includes coordinating folder and trash icons. Softer Lite includes a custom trash icon, but uses Kaleidoscope's default folders.
Although these schemes contain all of the resources needed to run at 16 colors or black and white, they look best at 256 colors and above. If you regularly use 16 colors or less, you will not be happy with them.
These schemes are Freeware: Use them in good health. You don't owe me a penny. I do, however, ask one thing: If you find yourself using a scheme which is Shareware, please send the designer the requested fee. I always do. These puppies are a lot of work. Really.
Lounge Lizard, Lounge Lizard Lite, Diner, Diner Too, Softer, Softer Lite, and all included artwork © Patricia Lillie, 1997.
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