MP3 Winamp Skin Tutor

Creating Your Own Winamp Skins

Accessory Programs Needed

• Paint program such as Paint Shop Pro.
• If you plan on making new cursors, a good program is Microangelo.
• The Base 2.x Winamp Skin for use as a starting point.

Steps:

1. Create a new directory in your Winamp\Skins directory. Name it anything you like.
2. Unzip the Base Winamp Skin into your new directory. Browse the directory and files to get a feel for what files you will be editing.
3. You should find:
   • .cur (cursor) files,
   • .bmp (bitmap picture) files,
   • three .txt (text description) files.
   Most of these files are optional, any missing file be replaced with the default WinAmp files.
   
   
4. Begin editing the various BMP bitmap files. You will need to reload your skin to see the changes (F5). However; cursor changes take effect instantly when you save the file.
5. Play away with the bmp files once you see which file changes what look of WinAmp, the world is at your doorstep.
   
6. The three .txt files change the resources used by the skin.
   • pledit.txt:
     where changes to the font and color of the playlist text are made. The format is fairly simply with hex color definitions:

     [Text]
     Normal=#AAFF00
     Current=#FAFAFA
     NormalBG=#222222
     SelectedBG=#333333
     Font=Times
     

     pledit.txt Entry Descriptions

     Normal: The color of normal text. When the song is not playing or selected.
     Current: Text color of the mp3 playing.
     NormalBG: Background color when not selected.
     SelectedBG: Background color when selected.
     Font: The font face.
     

     The Text header is to inform WinAmp what section we are dealing with. The last line FONT describes the font you wish to use. If you are producing a skin for distribution, use a standard font that everyone should have on their system. Usability studies have shown people find Arial followed by Times to be the easiest to read.

   • viscolor.txt
     Defines the default visulization colors. The file is self documented in the // comment sections.

   • region.txt
     Describes various sections of Winamp's main window and EQ window. You can define of the window as transparent or as visible. The file is self documenting in the comments sections. If you are not up for editing it, you can delete it and the default Winamp skin will be used.

7. Finally, if you are making the skin for distribution, have it viewed by as many people as possible in order to find your bugs.

How to use winamp skins

Put all files from the zipped skin in the directory you just created. All most all skins are compressed with zip, so you can use winzip or pkunzip to decompress the files. Often skins come with the directory included by default so you may have to move files back. We usually dezip skins into a separate directory before moving them into the winamp skins directory.

To envoke the skin in Winamp, choose the skin browser from the options menu, or press ALT+S. A window opens with the names of all the skins currently in your selected skin directory. Simply highlight the new skin and go go go.

Winamp Skin Specs

http://www.algonet.se/~daniel7/winamp/skinspecs.html