[Skinning] tip for GIMP users

2024-02-10 23:07:09

Discovered this today while modifying some of the stock PNGs in GIMP.

• To change the color of a selection (e.g., the Play triangle), set the Image Mode to RGB.
• After editing, reset the Mode to Indexed, otherwise it won't render in the skin, then save.

I was trying to use the Bucket Fill tool, but it wasn't making the change until I switched to RGB mode. Trial and error led to #2.

HTH.

Re: [Skinning] tip for GIMP users

Reply #1 – 2024-02-11 11:44:54

Right, that's often the 1st thing to do if anything more than simple cropping is needed.
Pretty sure that there are more tools that won't work or would give [subtly] wrong results.
By the way, it is also OK to save it as RGB, foobar would accept it just fine. At least for those images that I tried to edit (default album art, album icon)

Re: [Skinning] tip for GIMP users

Reply #2 – 2024-02-12 20:00:06

Definitely no problem with saving JPGs as RGB in GIMP for use in Windows fb2k, at least in the album art frame I use. That's all I ever use, and I'm constantly tweaking album art I find online. I've never run into the Image Mode problem before I started altering the stock PNGs for fb2k mobile skinning. I've never tried to skin fb2k for Windows. I also used PNGs for fb2k mobile, as that's what's recommended by the developers, not to mention they're what's provided. I don't know if an RGB JPG would work in those skins vs. the Indexed PNGs.

Re: [Skinning] tip for GIMP users

Reply #3 – 2024-02-13 15:25:04

Better keep it in RGB mode and test it.
That way further editing is easier.
Once you like how it looks run optipng on the files, it will change them back to indexed if it shrinks the file size.

Re: [Skinning] tip for GIMP users

Reply #4 – 2024-02-13 15:35:16

Yeah, the first trick for me was figuring out I needed to change the Mode to edit it. The next trick was figuring out I needed to change it back to Indexed for it to show up in fb2k mobile. That's for PNGs, mind. So, editing done, had to change the mode back. No problem in GIMP, of course, once I had the procedure down.

I'm still curious about using RGB JPGs for skinning. Reckon I'd better find some time to test, or it'll bug me 'til I do 

Re: [Skinning] tip for GIMP users

Reply #5 – 2024-02-13 15:42:11

The RGB mode pngs show up perfectly fine for me on mobile. Changing them back to indexed is probably better in the long run, but in the play around and see how it looks phase, it is simpler to keep them in rgb so you dont need to change it every single time you make an edit.

Re: [Skinning] tip for GIMP users

Reply #6 – 2024-02-13 16:12:55

Agreed, if you have the luxury of keeping them in RGB mode. For me, only changing them back to Indexed worked. Maybe there's some other setting in GIMP that would affect working in fb2k mobile, but I'm not chasing that bee.

Re: [Skinning] tip for GIMP users

Reply #7 – 2024-02-13 16:17:27

The weird thing is, i thought i once switched on some option to automaticaly change to RGB when opening a pic in GIMP, but apparently that isnt working.

Re: [Skinning] tip for GIMP users

Reply #8 – 2024-02-13 16:57:40

All right, research and testing done.

Research: "JPEG does not offer an indexed color mode. JPEG does not support an alpha channel." [first Google result; from Mozilla docs]

GIMP will let you save a JPEG as Indexed (or appear to), but opening it again shows it in RGB mode. That jibes with the above.

Quick test on the Play button using RGB and Indexed(? apparently not) JPEGs results in a black area where the button should be. Ditto a PNG in RGB mode.

Re: [Skinning] tip for GIMP users

Reply #9 – 2024-02-13 18:52:41

JPEG does not support transparency.
PNG does, but it's possible to accidentally lose the transparency channel if you use RGB instead of RGBA.
GIMP should by default not do this but I don't know, maybe with your settings it did.