Create Lightweight Opera Themes With Opera Theme Creator

Opera 12.00 will be released shortly with the first release candidate already posted for evaluation purposes on the Opera website (actually two by the time of writing). One of the new features of Opera 12 is support for so called lightweight themes, which more or less offer what Firefox background themes offer as well. They add a background image to the browser that fills the browser's new tab page and interface elements like the title toolbar.

The Opera Theme Creator extension for the browser adds functionality to the browser that lets you create your own lightweight themes. Keep in mind that it is only compatible with Opera 12 or later. Once you have installed the extension you will notice that it has added a single button to Opera's main toolbar.

Nothing happens though when you press the button on most pages. What you need to do is click on it on pages that display at least one suitable image that can be turned into a theme for the browser. A good way to start is to display an image on its own in the browser. Please note that you can only use Internet images for that, and that you won't be able to create a theme from a local image.

Tip: You can upload the image to the Internet first, for instance to imgur to turn it into a theme.

Once you have an image displayed on the screen, you can click on the button and then hover over the image on the page. Opera Theme Creator picks up the image right away and displays a preview of how it will look like in the browser after a short moment.

If you like what you see you need to fill out a theme name and author's name, and click on the try out your theme button afterwards to have it installed in the Opera browser. You can alternatively download it in zip format to your local system. This option is available to allow the submission of the theme to Opera's Theme gallery.

Advanced options are available that allow you to switch the image display mode from best fit to tiled, and select a tint color.

To uninstall the theme do the following:

• Click on Opera and then Appearance, or use the Shift-F12 shortcut to open the preferences window right away.
• Switch to another theme here, and then back to Opera Standard.
• If you do not have another theme installed install one first, and make the switch then. You can uninstall the theme again afterwards.

Closing Words

The Opera Theme Creator extension makes it easy as pie to add custom background images to Opera. Only the lack of proper uninstallation options raises some concern, considering that the custom Opera theme remains installed even if you uninstall the extension itself. (via Techdows)

Advertisement