CaseyRyback

Join Date 01/2008

Placing image on task bar

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Hi

I'm new to creating my own skin, and I'm having a really hard time skinning my taskbar. Is it not possible to place a large image to run along the taskbar. All I seem to be able to do is either tile a really small section of it, or stretch a small section of it. Both look nothing like the effect I want.

Is there a restriction to the size of a image you can use in the taskbar? Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

(I can post some images if this doesn't make any sense)

Thanks for any help!

skinning

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theAVMAN

Join Date 10/2006

+434

You can make the taskbar image the same width as your screen resolution ex...if screen res. is 1440x900 then your task bar image would be 1440 wide.Then set sizing margins to 0
and tell it to stretch since your image is as wide as the screen it actually wont stretch any.

This is not typical but will work but doing this in too many places in the skin will cause a very large file size.

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+351

It's generally a matter of trial & error - using images of various sizes, trying both tile and stretch modes. It can be time-consuming to get the end result you want, particularly so that double-height taskbars look right, so be patient. I usually make the vertical dimension of the taskbar image at least twice the height of the standard taskbar & set it to stretch vertically to accomodate those who like double-height taskbars.

Technically, there is no limit to the size of the image you use, but as theAVMAN points out, no point in having an image wider than your screen.

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Thanks guys, seems a bit tempermental, for some reason if I make a image the size of my screen it appears only half the size in actually use. So i've made a really long image, which works, but I'm sure it's not really the correct way to do things.

Does having large images really slow down the PC noticably?

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theAVMAN

Join Date 10/2006

+434

for some reason if I make a image the size of my screen it appears only half the size in actually use.

thats because that image requires 2 states top then bottom so it is cutting your single in half

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Ah, it's starting to make sense now, thanks.

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+351

I don't think larger images have much effect, if any, on performance once loaded, just on the skin's file size, which might make loading the skin take a few milliseconds longer.

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