General Post Guidelines (upd 17Feb2009)

[OtisBee]

Dear CAD Skin Author or Viewer,

this forum section is reserved for skin releases only.
other skin related topics can be posted and discussed here.

here are some general post guidelines.



REGARDING SO CALLED SKIN ISSUES:

from time to time it may occur to you that CAD is showing some error messages.
often this happens when you try to load a new skin.
well, obviously (you might think) this has to be a so called Skin Issue.
let me tell you that in 99 out of a 100 cases it is NOT a Skin Issue.

you see, most of these error messages occur if you made a mistake by coincidence in the skin install procedure.

all skins have been tested before their release and are working properly if you follow these simple steps:

• 1. make sure that you have the most recent build of CAD installed. check out this topic and read carefully.
  
• 2. unzip the skin you've just downloaded.
  
• 3. check the folder whether some font files are included or not.
  
• 4. if there's a font included it is necessary to close CAD and install the font first.
  (if you don't know how to install fonts on your system please click here to get some more info)
  
• 5. if you have installed the font or if there was no font included, you can proceed to copy/paste the skin folder into CAD's skin directory.
  (it doesn't really matter whether CAD is running or not at this point. just make sure that you have closed the Skin Editor)
  
• 6. now start CAD (in case you haven't done yet) and apply the skin either via Skin Editor or via the Skin item in CAD's context menu.

if you're still experiencing issues, error messages or any other trouble with a skin, then please post your help requests in this section:
http://www.cdartdisplay.com/forum/index.php?board=13.0

this way we can keep the skin release topics clean from non-skin-related discussions.



REGARDING OUR SKIN GALLERY:

in the Skin Gallery every skin will be added if...

• -the skin is a compatible skin to CAD 1.0 or CAD 2.0.
• -the skin is really ready to be released (no beta, no under development or anything like that).
• -the skin is providing a nocover.png and at least a searching.png.
• -the skin is providing a preview.png (or -.jpg). a squared one would be best as it would display way more nicely in the SkinEditor's skin browser.
• -the skin has all required fonts included.
• -the skin is not using other skinners material unless a given permission.
  (if you weren't able to get an according permission, please make sure that both the release thread and the skin.ini are stuffed with a whole lot of credits to the original artist) (*)
• -the skin is providing at least an author name in the skin's skin.ini. a mail-adr. is recommended but not mandatory. if the skin is a port or is using other skinners material, the original artist and skin has to be mentioned in the skin.ini (**) and in the skin's forum release topic as well.
• -the skin has been released (or was posted) in this section: Skin Releases.

(*) = an exeption to this would be any skin using CoverSutra graphics. as a matter of fact the cdartdisplay.com staff already got knowledge of the fact that the designers of CoverSutra never gave (and never will give) permission to use their graphics.
so, in this specific case it wouldn't help either if you add any amount of credits for the original artist to your skin.
such skin will never be hosted at cdartdisplay.com.
the same applies to all skins where reports by an original graphics creator would be made that he/she doesn't want his/her graphics to be used in any other skin after a release.
all links will be edited and the according file would be deleted from our servers then.

(**) = open the skin.ini in any text editor (windows' default would also do the job) and make some sort of the following entry:
for CAD1.0

Author=your-nick-or name
Contact=blabla@blabla.bla
Comments=all credits go out to blablabla who gave me permission to use his graphics

for CAD2.0

[Author]
Author=your-nick-or name
Contact=blabla@blabla.bla
Comments=all credits go out to blablabla who gave me permission to use his graphics

please keep in mind that CAD is linked to the Skin Gallery, so as soon as you click on Dowload more Skins in CAD's Skin Editor you will be introduced to the Skin Gallery.
...and there will be other links out there too.

i would like you to do me a favour, please!
check your skin's preview images and exchange rectangled by squared ones, please!
you see the preview.jpg (or preview.png) is the picture i'm going to use to create the skin's gallery preview. it can be any size so don't care about downscaling, but it has to be at least 200x200.
it is necessary to have squared images, because i want the Skin Gallery to look nice and clean with no different formats.

needless to say that the preview is a picture of how you would like to present your skin to the people out there. :wink:
so you might want to dress it out nicely.

you might say: "but some skins don't have a preview image attached to their folder..."
if that's the case, i'll let it depend on my own mood and inspiration to whether create a preview for the Skin Gallery or not.
if you don't like my version then...
...well, then go ahead and create your own. :wink:
but it has to be squared!!!

to put it in other words:
there's a good chance for your skin to be added to the Skin Gallery.
but if i don't get your preview in the skin, it might take very long until i feel keen about creating one.

thx!

best regards....


....OtisBee