Okay, you said:
"Your buttons are standard, like those found on a VCR. Square for stop and Triangle for play. To me that is "kindergarden" graphics."

Dearest Beev, STANDARD is what keeps us from running into each other on the freeway (hopefully). That Square and that Triangle are international symbols. They are the symbols on all the remotes. They make sense because they are everywhere.

(Do you have any idea how hard it is to not be more sarcastic to you than "Dearest Beev?")

We could indeed come up with whole new symbols that only WE would understand. Your friends wouldn't be able to work your system. With the square and the triangle, they would get it. You would not be alone on the planet.

You can learn how to do your own artwork. I have avoided that because of the time involved. I do this for a living and am grateful enough to all who have contributed ccfs that if I had a complaint about a ccf, or a color scheme, I would simply "vote with my mouse" -- not use it. Calling it "kindergarden" was indeed the problem.

Speaking of standards, I must point out that Kindergarten is not spelled with d, but with t, and it is capitalized because all German nouns are always capitalized.

Beever:
1) we only expressed our opinion that there are several good CCF out there.
2) Since the Pronto uses bitmap files and most graphics can be saved as bitmaps, find the graphics you want (on the web?)and import them into your CCF
3) making graphics that look good at 256 is harder then you think
4) if you like the color, size & shape of buttons has nothing to do with professionalism, but personal preferences
5) functionality has nothing to do with button icons
6) the screen shots shown do not show the whole CCF and don't necessarily show the best parts of it.

And incidentally, making a CCF look good at 256 colors is hard enough. Making it look good when that particular palette of 256 colors is forced on you is far, FAR harder.

Daniel solved this problem by basing his design in grayscales, with excellent use of accent colors. There is a full gamut of grayscales in the ProntoPro palette, so I too was tempted to start from there.

However, I specifically wanted to NOT base by design in grays. Finding the specific colors I could use while still creating realistic shading was an interesting challenge. Believe me, there aren't many colors you can work from in the Pronto Palette and achieve smooth dithered shading AND have decent, readable contrast between the buttons and the text. What LOOKS like "three colors" takes about 60 palette colors to achieve.

To be honest, the reason I started working on my Version B CCF is that I wasn't happy with the end result of the constrast ratio of the text on the buttons of Version A. The only reason I kept Version A is that the bitmaps precisely fit the gray bitmaps, and I figured that alone was worth about 20 hours of CCF tweaking for folks who started from my gray CCF.

So, to throw one more can of gasoline on this fire, I'll add this: Yes, I DO have a CCF that isn't posted on the site, and it is, in my opinion, my best work yet. It doesn't look a thing like my current design or Daniel's. The reason I haven't posted it is that a client is negotiating for exclusive rights to it. We'll see how those negotiations turn out. I'll post it if the numbers don't look right.

Hopefully by then, Beever will have found his dream CCF, because I'd prefer that he not use any of mine.

Dale

I have to a a little wood to the fire as well. I guess I was a little miffed because I've sent in 3 pro ccfs that took days...AND I DON'T EVEN OWN A PRO!!! Yeah, mine aren't the greatest. Some of them aren'e 100% complete. I'll also admit that I am no where near considered an artist...to which you have to be to design a ccf. So my point is, why do I strugle for hours if people like you don't appreciate it.

That brings me up to a second point.....where's yours?

I think not, and for the reason pointed out by bomberjim:


Beever's subsequent comments still leave us with the same foul taste in our mouths. He has not admitted that his "kindergarten" reference was rude and condescending, and that there are some very good CCF's in the file area. Until then, we certainly aren't being too hard on him.

And, as said above, who would want to send him a professional design with an attitude like his?

... Greg :-)

Greg,

I think Barry was being somewhat less than serious. When he said "Maybe we're being too hard on the Beever...". It's dad's (Ward Cleaver's) line from the old TV show.

Maybe you're lucky enough to be too young to remember it (grin).

Jim L

By the way, even a ProntoPro CCF done completely in subtle shades of gray is taking great advantage of the hardware's 256-color display capability. If you convert something like that down to 4 shades of gray so that it'll work on an older Pronto, it's not going to look anywhere near as good.

The biggest advantage of the ProntoPro's color screen is its visibility. The fact that it can display a limited number of colors (256 out of 16 million!) is secondary, in my opinion. And, believe it or not, some people actually *prefer* a very subtle approach when it comes to the use of color!

Greg-

Jims right - I just thought it was mandatory that somebody had to make the obvious "Leave it to Beaver" jokes... June/Mom would say to Ward/Dad "Maybe we're being too hard on the Beaver". I've been waiting years to use that quote someplace.

Hey - just in case anybody else missed my sarcasm about the Beever, here's another quote that won't require any translation - this one could have been from Eddie "the weasel" Haskel on the "Beaver" Show, but strangely enough it's from Dale on another thread talking about posting his .ccf's...

{{cough cough aforementioned jerk cough}}

[Link: remotecentral.com]

Beaver background:

http://www.leaveittobeaver.org/

LOL, Barry & Jim. I kind of thought that is was a joke, but didn't want anyone else who might not know "Leave it to Beaver" as well as you do thinking the same thing as me! ;-)

This message was edited by GregoriusM on 03/16/02 19:39.32.

Beever is not spelled the same as beaver but, it's all good

Darnitol:"Hopefully by then, Beever will have found his dream CCF, because I'd prefer that he not use any of mine."

I give you my word, there is absolutely no way I will use your ccf, I promise.

To all other posters, I am sorry you feel that I don't appreciate your efforts because thats not true. I spent 18 hours just MODIFYING Daniels ccf. It must have taken him several hundred hours to create his ccf and it shows. Darnitol, you obviously understand what i am saying. You more accurately described the greyscales and the like.

GregoriousM:"And, as said above, who would want to send him a professional design with an attitude like his?"

Someone with a professional ccf, unfortunately there is only 1 color one and that is Daniels, in my opinion. By the way, it works quite well and I enjoy it immensely!

I'm glad you enjoy Daniel's CCF. It is a work of art! But obviously, you are the only one who has the opinion that Daniel's CCF, as great as it is, is the ONLY professional CCF on this site.

Tssk! Tssk! Tssk!

... Greg

No one is arguing that Daniel's CCF is great. All we said is that you did not need to insult the rest of them.

Let me retort:

Let me start by saying Daniels is the Mona freakin' Lisa of ccfs...

BUT...the beav claims he using Daniels ccf. So you have the audacity to say that no other ccf is pro and you use daniels. To me (no offence to ANYONE other than beev) that's like a "KinderGartener" using conect-the-dots compared to someone with a paint brush and easel.

In the end I could care less what the beev thinks...I mean...who do you think YOU are?

I JUST BOUGHT A SONY DVD 300 + 1 DISC CHANGER, AND I HAVE A PRONTO TSU 2000. I WAS WONDERING IF ANYONE CAN TELL ME HOW TO GET THE FRONT COVERS OF MY DVD MOVIES INTO MY PRONTO.OR IF ANYONE CAN TELL ME WHERE TO GO.
MY EMAIL [email protected] THANKS MIKE

Mike:
1) you should not use uppercase, it is considered shouting, and is harder to read
2) you should start your own thread. With the right title. The right person (one with a good answer) might not read this post lost in this thread
3) web sites are the best places to find "buttons" try going to a website that has DVDs, there you might be able to download the cover art, and then use a simple paint program to scale it and change palette to the one Pronto uses.