ThemeTool, Persona Light Themes, and New Tab Page

[riiis]

Many important features of the ThemeTool add-on no longer work in Firefox version 42 (Developer Edition) or higher. But, ThemeTool continues to work great in Pale Moon. Accordingly, all versions of the ThemeTool extension have been pulled from further download from AMO. And, the new version 3 of ThemeTool, below, has been developed, which only runs on Pale Moon.

ThemeTool.xpi

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Use ThemeTool's right-click page context menus to open, change, or close any persona/light theme, without restarting Pale Moon.

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Or, use the ThemeTool's toolbar button to open, change, or close any persona/light theme, without restarting Pale Moon (Note, most of the persona/light themes below are custom light themes and stored on a local hard drive).

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Change color or image backgrounds for the new tab page using ThemeTool's right-click page context menus. Choose a color or image background for the new tab grid or blank page that best coordinates (or contrasts) with the chosen persona light theme or complete theme. Also, change number of columns and rows, and other settings, for the new tab page. Using ThemeTool's right-click context menus, modify thumbnail text descriptions, thumbnail link locations, or thumbnail images.

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Using custom thumbnail images:

Custom thumbnail images can be added to the new tab page by adding appropriate user script to the "userContent.css" file in the "chrome" folder in your user profile. A sample "userContent.css" file follows. Note that wildcards are used in the file. So, place the more general references before the more detailed references (for example, [href*="https://"] precedes [href*="google.com"] which precedes [href*="https://mail.google.com/"]).

Custom logos can be downloaded from the internet (for example, do a search for "gmail logo"). After downloading, adjust the logo image file to uniform size (for example, 256x256) using imaging software, such as "GIMP" or "Fast Stone Image Viewer". First, "resize" the image so that both image dimensions are less than or equal to the uniform size. Then, use "canvas size", if necessary, to adjust the remaining dimension. Save all images into a single folder on your storage device (for example, "F:/Logo/" as in the sample "userContent.css" below).

Note that these custom thumbnail images will override, but not delete, any images in your "thumbnails" folder of your user profile.

Sample "userContent.css":

@-moz-document url("about:newtab") {
[href*="https://"] .newtab-thumbnail {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.05)
url("file:///F:/Logo/no-image.png")
center center no-repeat !important; background-size: 100% !important;}
[href*="tvguide.com"] .newtab-thumbnail {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.05)
url("file:///F:/Logo/tvguide.png")
center center no-repeat !important; background-size: 100% !important;}
[href*="filehippo.com"] .newtab-thumbnail {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.05)
url("file:///F:/Logo/filehippo.png")
center center no-repeat !important; background-size: 100% !important;}
[href*="wunderground.com"] .newtab-thumbnail {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.05)
url("file:///F:/Logo/weatherwunderground.png")
center center no-repeat !important; background-size: 100% !important;}
[href*="mozilla.org"] .newtab-thumbnail {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.05)
url("file:///F:/Logo/firefox.jpeg")
center center no-repeat !important; background-size: 100% !important;}
[href*="google.com"] .newtab-thumbnail {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.05)
url("file:///F:/Logo/google-logo.jpg")
center center no-repeat !important; background-size: 100% !important;}
[href*="https://mail.google.com/"] .newtab-thumbnail {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.05)
url("file:///F:/Logo/gmail.png")
center center no-repeat !important; background-size: 100% !important;}
[href*="mozillazine"] .newtab-thumbnail {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.05)
url("file:///F:/Logo/mozillazine.png")
center center no-repeat !important; background-size: 100% !important;}
[href*="c-span.org"] .newtab-thumbnail,
[href*="cspan.org"] .newtab-thumbnail {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.05)
url("file:///F:/Logo/cspan.jpg")
center center no-repeat !important; background-size: 100% !important;}
}

Using custom and locally stored persona/light themes:

Persona/light themes are stored in the Pale Moon setting named "lightweightThemes.usedThemes" in "about:config". The value of the "lightweightThemes.usedThemes" is in json-file format. This value can be edited to change persona/light themes from on-line to local storage. Note that if a mistake is made during editing, your persona/light themes may no longer work. So, know what you're doing and make a backup beforehand. I used the "Notepad ++" program, with the JSTool plugin installed, for the following procedures.

1. Copy the value of the "lightweightThemes.usedThemes" setting to a new page in Notepad ++.
2. Click "File" then "Save a Copy As" to save a copy of this value, prior to edit.
3. Click "Plugins" then "JSTools" then "JSFormat". If "JSTools" is not found, first click "Plugins" then "Plugin Manager" to install "JSTools". Note that "JSFormat" parses and expands the json text.
4. Find a persona/light theme you want to change from on-line to local storage. For example:

[{
"id" : "420128",
"name" : "Blue Sky - Silver Sea",
"headerURL" : "https://addons.cdn.mozilla.net/user-med ... 1360016435",
"footerURL" : "https://addons.cdn.mozilla.net/user-med ... 1360016435",
"textcolor" : "#ffffff",
"accentcolor" : "#090e21",
"iconURL" : "https://addons.cdn.mozilla.net/user-med ... 1360016435",
"previewURL" : "https://addons.cdn.mozilla.net/user-med ... 1360016435",
"author" : "Chess",
"description" : "blue gray silver",
"updateURL" : "https://versioncheck.addons.mozilla.org ... eck/420128",
"version" : "1.0"
},

Download each "jpg" file and store in a folder on your hard drive or other local storage device.

5. Replace each online link address ("https://addons.cdn.mozilla.net/user-med ... ns/420128/") with the local storage address where you stored the downloaded "jpg" files (say "file:///F:/Personas/420128/"). For example:

[{
"id" : "420128",
"name" : "Blue Sky - Silver Sea",
"headerURL" : "file:///F:/Personas/420128/H-2-3-13a.jpg?1360016435",
"footerURL" : "file:///F:/Personas/420128/F-BlueGray.jpg?1360016435",
"textcolor" : "#ffffff",
"accentcolor" : "#090e21",
"iconURL" : "file:///F:/Personas/420128/preview_small.jpg?1360016435",
"previewURL" : "file:///F:/Personas/420128/preview.jpg?1360016435",
"author" : "Chess",
"description" : "blue gray silver",
"version" : "1.0"
},

6. Click "Plugins" then "JSTools" then "JSMin". Note that "JSMin" collapses the json text. Copy the entire collapsed json text.
7. Find and right-click "lightweightThemes.usedThemes" in "about:config". Select "Modify". Then delete the old value of "lightweightThemes.usedThemes" and paste the new modified value from Notepad ++. Make sure you have a backup of the old value before doing this.
8. Note that the "lightweightThemes.usedThemes" value must include at least one on-line persona/light theme. Also note, persona/light themes stored locally can continue to be deleted in the "Add-ons Manager" tab. However, persona/light themes stored locally can not be selected in the "Add-ons Manager" tab; henceforth, you must select these local persona/light themes using ThemeTool, Persona Switcher", or other appropriate extension.

[squarefractal]

Nice extension I tested it out a bit, and things seem to work fine.

[insert you-might-want-to-contact-Tobin-for-listing-at-APMO here]

[Eleventy_Threeve]

Does it work for FossaMail too? I don't know of any persona switcher that works for it.

[LimboSlam]

Nice little add-on by the sounds of it, I will have to try this one out later though. Yeah I'm going to be pretty busy today.

[riiis]

ThemeTool Version 3.5 was uploaded today to AMO, has been fully reviewed, and is now available for download. It's fully compatible with Pale Moon and comes with 36 locales/languages.

[loxodont]

Just checked the above 3.0 XPI for Pale Moon. Great tool for testing and fast scrolling through my (LW) themes! Years back I used Personas Switcher (or Changer?), but removed it as it loaded a looong list of featured themes. I also like the newtab background option. Even big pics seem to load fast (enough).
BTW, I installed the AMO one first, but I couldn't get into the menu options (PM 25.7.0 x86; W7-32)
thx and greetz

[riiis]

I installed the AMO one first, but I couldn't get into the menu options

ThemeTool 3.5 (at AMO) no longer supports the new tab page (i.e. Quickdial grid page or Quickdial blank page) for current versions of Firefox (FF39 or later). For these Firefox versions, ThemeTool 3.5 (at AMO) just supports Firefox persona/light themes. However, ThemeTool 3.5 (at AMO) continues to support all new tab page features and persona/light theme features in Pale Moon.

To access background and other options for the new tab page in ThemeTool 3.5, right-click the Quickdial grid page or Quickdial blank page. Then select "Background" from the page context menu. Then select "Options".

If you use the Quickdial grid page, additional options can be accessed by right-clicking any Quickdial grid page dial, then selecting "New Tab" from the context menu.

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To use the Quickdial grid page or the Quickdial blank page, open the "Tabs" pane in Pale Moon Options. Find "When opening a new tab, show:". Then, select "The Quickdial page" from the drop-down menu. To toggle between the Quickdial grid page and the Quickdial blank page, click the toggle button at the upper-right corner of the Quickdial/new tab page.

[riiis]

The Personas Shuffler extension can be used to rotate among personas/light themes installed in Pale Moon. "Personas Shuffler" will change the persona/light theme each time Pale Moon is restarted. "Personas Shuffler" works on all personas/light themes that work in ThemeTool (that is, including all local and custom personas/light themes, as well as those from AMO).

Most of the complete themes, at the Pale Moon Add-ons site, support personas/light themes. However, whenever "Personas Shuffler" is installed, enabled, or disabled-- Pale Moon may switch, by default, to using the Pale Moon default theme, instead of the other complete theme you may have been previously using. If so, reselect your preferred complete theme in the Pale Moon Add-ons Manager tab. Then select a persona/light theme using ThemeTool's toolbar button or right-click page context menu.

If you're using the Quickdial grid page or Quickdial blank page, you can use ThemeTool to change the background color or image of the Quickdial grid page or Quickdial blank page. If you're using the Quickdial blank page, you can also change the background color by changing the value of "browser.display.background_color" in "about:config". To use the value of "browser.display.background_color" for the Quickdial blank page, be sure to first "close" the background color/image in the ThemeTool "Background" sub-menu of the right-click page context menu.

ThemeTool includes several pre-set background colors, that you can select from the "Background" sub-menu in the right-click page context menu (or from the "colorpicker" in background options). You can also input a custom color or image in background options. To identify an appropriate custom color, the ColorZilla extension or ColorPix software program may be helpful.