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In this tutorial you will learn how to create a bootskin step-by-step. In this example I’m using
actual screenshots of the process of making a Bootskin of my own called Genesis Aftermath I.
A. Introduction:
Basic tools:
- Bootskin: The actual program to create and apply Bootskins with ease and safety.
Bootskin Website: Link
- Photoshop CS (either full or free trial version): This is where the main work is done.
Adobe Website: Link
- Notepad or Object Edit or any other text editor: Used to make the little script that comes with
every Bootskin. (Notepad is intergraded to Windows so you don’t need to download anything
else).
- We will now attempt to make the screen image we want to use for our Bootskin. The whole
process will take place in Adobe Photoshop CS. All terms referred are from the actual Photoshop
layout.
1. You need to make your image in 640x480, the resolution that any Bootskin screen image is. So
if you have a bigger sized picture-wall you need to drop its resolution to 640x480. Appropriate
wall sizes are: 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960 and 1600x1200. If you have any other resolution
you may need to do some clipping or stretch the image.
2. The way to do proper image resize is from the menu "Image>Size…" Upon click on it a Dialog
Box will appear.
3. Tick all the check-boxes that appear on the lower part of the Dialog Box. Those are:
- Scale Styles (if you have a multilayered image and you used styles or blending options
on them to scale them as vector forms, gives them a cleaner look)
- Constrain Proportions (so that your image doesn’t get hindered too much)
- Resample Image (the mode to resample your image). In the drop down menu next to
Resample Image select Bicubic; this is the best method to bring down an image.
4. Now at the text box labeled as Width insert the number 640. With Constrain Proportions
activated the Height should adjust automatically to 480. Press Ok to resize.
5. If your image is not of the resolutions mentioned above, then don’t click on Constrain
Proportions and in the text boxed labeled as Width and Height insert the numbers 640 and 480
correspondingly. Press ok to resize. Note: This might alter image quality, but that is your choice.
7. The way to properly reduce the image color depth is to go from "Image>Mode>Indexed
Color…" Indexing an image means that you’ll reduce its colors to a specified number and all
pixels will be accordingly adjusted. The largest possible palette when you Index an image is
consisted of 256 colors. Note: Imagine the image palette as a big matrix of boxes each one
representing a color of the image. Each box has a unique value. The first color in the palette is
called the Master Color. (Note this for future reference, since it’ll help you understand the relation
between Screen Image and Progress Bar)
8. A property window will open. At this stage you’ll need to play a bit with all the fields. Check the
check-box called Preview in order to preview the changes to your image and in that way you may
experiment freely. The following fields are the ones that appear in the window with short
explanatory tips:
- Palette: The way the color will be applied to the image. You may select from three kinds which
are: Local (Selective), Local (Perspective), Local (Adaptive). You choose the one that is best for
your image. I recommend using mostly Local (Selective) or Local (Perspective) since they map
colors better.
- Colors: The number of colors you want the image to be indexed in. Here you just type the
number 16, since this is the value for 4-bit images.
- Forced: The number of colors forced to be as default first colors in the palette. Here I
recommend choosing Black & White, since these are the primary colors needed for the picture. (If
you are an advanced user you may choose None or Custom).
- There is a check-box called Transparency. Do not check it, as it’ll ruin your work. The Windows
system doesn’t recognize Transparency for system images, basically there is no transparency for
4-bit images at all. It is a feature for 256 colors images and beyond.
- The Matte drop-down list may be active or inactive, I don’t know what it is supposed to do, but
you’d better not touch it and leave it as is.
- Dither: It has four different methods to dither the image. You may play with them freely and
adjust it to your image needs. I recommend dithering with Diffusion.
- Amount: The amount of the applied dithering method. Usually is only active for Diffusion. I
recommend setting it to about 85-95% for Diffusion.
- Also there is a check-box at the lower part of the Dialog Box labeled "Preserve Exact Colors".
Do not check this as it’ll also ruin your work. Preserving colors is only possible for 256 colors or
above images.
- After you bring the image to your liking Press Ok to apply changes. Note: Not all images look
good in 16 colors. See the tips area below for more info as to the selection of images.
11. A property windows will open. In front of you is the palette of your image. Press Save and
save the palette somewhere in your drive. Note: You may notice that the palettes are saved as
.atn or .act (depends on your Photoshop’s Edition), those are action files, a collection of macros
to perform various actions in Photoshop.
- We will now attempt to make the progress bar image we want to use for our Bootskin. The
whole process will take place in Adobe Photoshop CS. All terms referred are from the actual
Photoshop layout.
1. You need to make your image in 22x9, the resolution that any Bootskin proper progress bar
image is.
2. Paint the progress bar black with the bucket tool and reduce the colors to the 4-bit palette or 16
colors.
3. The way to properly reduce the image color depth is to go from "Image>Mode>Indexed
Color…" Indexing an image means that you’ll reduce its colors to a specified number and all
pixels will be accordingly adjusted. The largest possible palette when you Index an image is
consisted of 256 colors. Note: Imagine the image palette as a big matrix of boxes each one
representing a color of the image. Each box has a unique value. The first color in the palette is
called the Master Color. (Note this for future reference, since it’ll help you understand the relation
between Screen Image and Progress Bar)
4. A property window will open. At this stage you won’t need to play with any fields. Just leave
them as they are and hit the ok button.
7. A property windows will open. In front of you is the palette of your image with only 2 or 3 colors.
Press Load and find your screen image’s palette you previously saved somewhere in your drive
and hit ok. Now you’ll see that you have the identical palette as your screen image. Note: You
may notice that the palettes are saved as .atn or .act (depends on your Photoshop’s Edition,
those are action files, a collection of macros to perform various actions in Photoshop.
9. Pick color chooser and start picking the colors you’ll need for the progress bar image. Using
the pencil tool draw your progress bar at any kind of design you like. For your convenience you
may want to zoom to 1600% to be more precise as the progress bar is a very small image.
- We will now attempt to make the script we want to use for our Bootskin. The whole process will
take place in Notepad or Object Edit and MS Paint.
1. The actual script is very simple. It consists of ten lines of properties code.
2. You open Notepad or Object Edit and write down the following code or copy/paste it exactly as
given:
[BootSkin]
Type=
Name= ""
Author= ""
Description= ""
Screen=
ProgressBar=
ProgressBarX=
ProgressBarY=
ProgressBarWidth=
[BootSkin]
Type= 0
Name= "Genesis Aftermath"
Author= "Cyberworld"
Description= "At the dawn of the new light..."
Screen= Genesis Aftermath Screen.bmp
ProgressBar= Genesis Aftermath Progress Bar.bmp
ProgressBarX= 115
ProgressBarY= 436
ProgressBarWidth= 475
5. You might have some trouble figuring out the x/y values as well as the progress bar width. So
the easiest way to resolve this is via MS Paint. Open both your screen and progress bar images.
On your progress bar image hit Ctrl+A to select the whole image and then Ctrl+C to Copy the
image to the clipboard. Now on your screen image hit Ctrl+V to paste the progress bar image
within it. You’ll notice that the progress image floats within the screen image and you can move it
all around the image. I recommend that you already zoom into the area where you’d like your
progress bar to start from prior to pasting the progress bar image. Place your cursor just one pixel
above the area selected and see at the lower right part of MS Paint a place where some numbers
appear. Those are the mouse coordinates the exact x-y values you need for your script. After that
use the selection tool to draw a rectangle starting from the x-value of your progress bar image
and pull it to a satisfying progress bar width. Again at the lower right part of MS Paint another set
of numbers will appear stating the width and height of your rectangle. The first one is the width
and the actual progress bar width value you need for your script.
6. When the script is ready save it as "bootskin.ini" from Notepad or Object Edit in the same
directory with your screen and progress bar images.
1. This is the less recommended way to compile a .bootskin, yet it is the fastest and up to now the
most efficient for me. Go to the directory where your screen and progress images are, as well as
your bootskin.ini and select them all. Using WinZip or any other zipper program zip the three files
into one .zip file. After this just rename the .zip to .bootskin and double-click it. The .bootskin file
will auto-install to your bootskin directory.
F. Special Notes:
1. The Progress Bar image must always roll on the first color of the Screen image’s color palette.
Usually that color is black, so in full color images you might need to create a small tray for your
progress bar to roll on. Suggested tray sizes are the following: 112x11, 134x11, 156x11, 112x13,
134x13 and 156x13. The general rule goes: (Progress Bar Width + 2) x (Progress Bar Height + 2
or 4).
2. A very useful DX Widget for Bootskin is Bootskin Buddy by RabitRobot found at: Link
3. Thank you all. For any more info or inquiries post comments or send e-mail to: Link