03-02-2008, 09:47 PM

Hey everyone.
I'm sorry if this is in the wrong area. (My first two threads were posted in "anything goes", a no-no). I wanted to share with y'all what I've done on my computers running 10.4.11. I created an image in Photoshop that has 1000 by 700 pixels, made a layer over top of the transparent background, then painted the new layer a colour to match the folder colour label of a folder. In this case yellow. I then made the bottom 100 or so pixels of the yellow fade to transparent. Next, I used the text tool to make a text layer, so I could type a brief description at the top of the image, which describes what's in the folder.
I then saved the image in the "save for Web" option, as a .png with 64 colours, resulting in an image approximately 20KB in size.

Next I opened the folder that is labeled yellow and right-clicked (option-clicked) to get a menu of options. I selected the "Show view options" menu. In the view Options menu, I selected "This window only" at the top, and I selected "Picture" in the "Background" area at the bottom. I then selected the picture I just made in Photoshop, and now when I open the yellow-labeled folder in icon view it will display a yellow background and a small text at the top, describing the folders contents.

One thing I had to do is increase the vertical spacing between icons using the "parameters" section in an application called "Onyx". If I didn't do this, the icons would have covered the top of the finder window, making the description in the background image impossible to read.

I proceeded to modify the colour of the original image in photoshop, saving each new colour as a seperate layer. I then made new text layers which described other folders. Then it was a matter of saving new images which had different colours, each with different descriptions. I then told my colour-labeled folders to use these background images.

I also used an application called "Hey Folders" to give the colour-labeled folders coloured icons. Both Onyx and Hey folders are free applications. There is a free photoshop-like application that uses layers, but at the moment I forget the name of it.Folder Description Backround.png

Folder Description Background 2.png

03-06-2008, 02:49 AM

That application with many of the features of Photoshop is called Pixen. It's free. I have a copy but haven't tried it yet, so no news on it's usability.