If I would have known how fun and easy it was developing a theme in the form of a Google Chrome extension, I would have done it a while ago. I had a hard enough time figuring out how to hack the dll last time I did this, I just assumed doing things on a more official basis would have been even more challenging, but I was wrong.
Since I am so short on free time, I didn’t do anything different with this than I did with the old one. It’s basically the same exact thing except people will actually be able to use this one. Now that I know what’s going on, I will definitely be designing something fresh as soon as I can.
Alright, I lied a little, the only difference is that I made the Incognito window darker.
I put this together and tested it while using Beta version 4.0.223.16 and it worked perfectly. I then switched to the dev channel and installed 4.0.237.0 and it seemed to work just as well, but then I saw that the background tabs weren’t getting brighter while hovering over them. That was the only problem I noticed, and I think it’s just because of bugs in the dev version. I switched back to Beta and the hover state was back. I also just reverted back to the latest stable build, 3.0.195.32 and the theme is working perfectly, so I think it’s good to go. If anyone runs across any trouble, please leave a comment and let me know. It will be a big help since this was my first shot at doing this and I am definitely interested in learning a lot more.
Also, there are a few things that can’t be skinned or altered when going the crx route. The dll hack allowed a little more freedom over the actual interface, so a couple little elements remain unchanged… but nothing at all distracting.
And of course I felt it was necessary to freshen up the icons, so you can download them as well if you’d like the complete package.
» Download Simply Black 2.0 / Total Downloads:
8 Comments
Please, the Google chrome logo make it colorful (like on blue default) on the new tab page. This is so beautiful. THANK YOU!!!!
Thanks! I really like every part of your black theme design, except for 1 thing: the simply-black-2.0 logo in the new tab window seems quite a distraction for me especially when the download bar appears.
The logo does block some part of my recently opened sites. Well i guess that it happens to me since I am using the 800×600 screen resolution.
Wow, this is great. I’ve been looking around and can’t seem to find any info on making the crx file for a Chrome Theme. Weird.
Thank you. There are sooooo many ugly themes out there, and all I wanted was simple, minimalist, and NOT BLUE, and NOT so dark that you cannot read the text. Perfect.
@Jacob
Yes, Chrome is my default browser and has been for a long while now.
I used to be a Firefox loyalist and I felt very strange making the switch… sort of how you described it, except I wore the pants in that relationship. Firefox was getting a little heavy and sluggish, and when I tried out Chrome it was quite a difference. Chrome is fast. Really fast.
There are so many cool little features in Chrome that almost go unnoticed. It’s all very seamless. And the great thing is, it’s constantly being improved and it seems like every week something new gets implemented.
It’s all a matter of preference I guess. I’m just happy to hear when someone is using something other than IE. But with Chrome OS in the distant future, I don’t think I’ll ever use another browser.
thanks so much for this, i couldn’t find someone who had updated their dark theme after chrome released themes.
Hey Paul, great work… if only I used chrome on a more regular basis. Afraid the ol’ ball and chain (firefox) would flip if she caught me cheatin on her. Do you use Chrome as your default browser? Maybe I just need to give it more of a chance.
THIS, is simply amazing. I already installed it on every computer i use chrome on!