NeXT 48 theme for Stardock's Iconpackager. Intended for use at 48pix size ONLY. By Gary Waugh http://www.tersono.com. The NeXTSTEP / OpenSTEP operating systems not only have the most sophisticated and powerful UI of any OS yet released, but also have some of the prettiest system icons ever designed. Although there were several other Next/OpenSTEP-inspired Iconpackager themes out there when I first put this theme together, I found them to be either only vaguely NeXT-like or otherwise unsuitable for the (correct) 48-pix icon size I prefer to run on my system, so I assembled this collection for that purpose. With the minor exception of a few icons where I have re-constructed missing items from scratch or have put together icons derived from elements of several other items, there is no original work here - Most have been obtained from the the original .tiffs, from screenshots or from the various collections of original NeXT / OpenSTEP icons/cursors available on the 'net and have just been modified (where necessary) to provide the required range of sizes/colour depths. My thanks go especially to John T. Folden, not only for his help and advice, but also for the outstanding & comprehensive collection of icons and all things NeXT that he has assembled and made generally available on his invaluable resource site for NeXT/Openstep fans "The NeXT View" . Many thanks also to Ric Sharma for general OSE-related help - if you like this icon theme, you should certainly check out his excellent collection of gamma-corrected NeXT icons available from PCDesktops . PS. Since first posting this Iconpackager theme and writing the above, both John Folden and Chris Lang have posted their own NeXT icon packages (great minds think alike eh guys? ). You'll find that whilst there are a number of similarities between the four available themes, there are also some pronounced differences, so go grab the other ones as well! ;) ************************ If you would like to configure your system to both look AND behave more like the NeXT / Openstep OS, then I suggest you check out the Winstep Group's superb NextSTART and Workshelf products , which are, quite frankly, the best (and most versatile) windows ui enhancements I've ever had the pleasure of using. Other apps that will enable you to make your windows system behave more like NeXT / OpenSTEP include: Stardock's Windowblinds - a utility which changes the look of your application windows - there are several NeXT/Openstep skins available for it. ErgoSoft's Winbrowser - a clone of the NeXT file manager and _way_ better than Windows explorer . Microgarden's Themebar - a utility to change the look and feel of Internet Explorer - there is an excellent Openstep skin available for it (by John Folden) Poco - a rather fine skinnable email client - both John Folden and I have done Openstep-style skins for it. There are, of course, many NeXT / Openstep themes available for far more applications than I have room to mention here, so go have a look for 'em at Skinz.Org! ************************ This is my first iconpackager theme & I'm unlikely to ever do another as this one is turning into a career all on it's own! :-P I am, however, always on the lookout for NeXT/Openstep graphics/screenshots and icons (especially original NeXTSTEP .tiffs) to add to my collection. If you have any that you'd be willing to pass on, do please drop me a line. NOTE: The latest version of this and all of my skins / themes for various applications (around 50 or 'em at last count ) may be obtained at . If you wish to see my other work, then enter my user name (gw) in the search engine on the site. All of the other skins mentioned in this readme may also be obtained from either Skinz.Org or PCDesktops . Enjoy! Gary ************************ UPDATE HISTORY ************************ v1.4 19th December 2000. A few final (mostly minor) updates: 1: Some minor fixes to filetype icons to make them look a little better at 16pix sizes (usually only seen in application file open dialogs). This mostly involves using 'generic' icons at those sizes (i.e. without text on the icon). 2: Animated cursors now much more accurate as I finally managed to get hold of the originals (I actually got them from my copy of the MacOSX public beta, which as you may know is derived from NeXT/Openstep). 3: One or two other minor tweaks (mostly for 16 and 32pix icon sizes) *********************** v1.3 4th November 2000 I'm _really_ going to have to stop playing with this theme . More major changes: 1: All icons now in gamma-corrected 24-bit colour versions (previously uncorrected 256 cols). Due to system gamma differences between windows and NeXT/Openstep, converted NeXT icons look too dark if uncorrected. I've tried to get the tonal values as close as possible to the original, but there may be some minor inaccuracies here and there as I don't have access to all of the original .tiff files (owing to the fact that I only have Openstep for NT rather than Openstep/Mach). 2. Thanks to John Folden I've finally found out which were the correct icons for video/movie files (NeXTtime) - these two icons are now correct. 3: I've tweaked the animated cursors again. 4: I've had another go at 'inventing' a few icons for Windows-specific items where there were no NeXT originals - i.e. ActiveX folder, Admin tools folder & one or two others. I think these look a lot better than they did, but let me know if you disagree... (or have any better ideas). 5. One or two other icon changes here & there - mostly in an attempt to be different from the other NeXT IP themes now available. I really will try to leave it alone for a while now. Honest. :D ************************ v1.2 October 4th 2000 More major changes here in response to various suggestions, including better cursors and several new icons. I've tried to completely elimate any remaining Windoze influences in the icons and stick wherever possible to either original Openstep icons or (where suitable original items are not available) designs constructed from elements found in the originals. My thanks once again to John Folden for supplying both icons and advice, and likewise to Bob Barreveld. Thanks also to those of you who have mailed me with suggestions or requests. I'll try to stop fiddling with this package for a while now , but do let me know if there's anything else I've missed (inaccuracies particularly) or anything you would particularly like to see changed. *********************** v1.1 Sept 11th 2000: Several major changes made in this version in response to various requests and comments (thanks people - you know who you are. :) Keep 'em coming!). The biggest change is that the scheme now uses the correct icons for hard drives and CD. (DOH! I knew that - God knows why I got it wrong; I can't have been paying attention - sorry folks ). Also changed are several of the document icons, most of the network-related stuff and I've tidied up one or two other things here and there. I've fixed the 'phantom jumping around pointer(tm)' syndrome caused by misalignment of the 'working in background' cursor (which was obtained from a different source than the other cursors so it's not my fault. Honest. :-D). If you see anything else I've missed or have any suggestions, do please let me know. *********************** v1.0b Sept 3rd 2000 - added better animated cursors.