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Art Book Next for AmberELEC

A simple theme for the version of EmulationStation used in AmberELEC.
Based on the style of a coffee table book.

If you are using Batocera, ES-DE or Retropie please see the "Versions for other ES forks" section below.

Preview

system view menu
gamelist-view-1 gamelist-view-2

Theme Configuration

The following options can be changed directly from the main menu under UI Settings > Theme Configuration

Setting Description Options
Aspect Ratio Enables you to select the correct aspect ratio for your screen. This will automatically set itself so you should not need to change it but if the theme layout looks odd or spacing looks incorrect you can use this setting to make sure the aspect ratio matches your screen. 16:9, 16:10, 4:3, 3:2, 5:3, 1:1
Color Scheme Sets the color scheme that is used for the theme. There is a set of prebuilt color schemes that you can select and an option to supply your custom color scheme (selected by choosing custom). You can see details on customizations below under Theme Customizations. Art Book Next, Art Book, Steam OS, SNES, Famicom, Black, Grayscale, Custom
Font Size When this is set to custom it allows you to define custom font sizes for the gamelist. You can see details on customizations below under Theme Customizations. Default, Custom
System View Style Defines the layout/design used for the System View Multi Artwork, Centered Artwork (Multiple Logos), Centered Artwork (Single Logo), No Artwork, Custom
Gamelist View Style Defines the layout/design used for the Gamelist View Metadata On, Metadata On (Immersive), Metadata Off, Metadata Off (Immersive)

Theme Customizations

Art Book Next allows customizations to artwork, colors and fonts without the need to edit the source XML. This enables you to change the look of the theme and still retain any changes when your OS is updated.

Start Here

  • Create the following folder and then move on to the options below:
  • storage/roms/amberelec/theme-customizations/art-book-next/

Background Art

The artwork used on the system view can be customized with your own images. You can create either centered or full screen variations.

  • Create a folder in the path you created above called backgrounds
  • Upload your custom background images to that folder
  • They can be named:
    • _default.jpg
    • _default.png
    • ${system.theme}.jpg
    • ${system.theme}.png
  • The theme will look them them up in that order. If a given image is not found in your folder then the the images from the theme will be used as a fallback. This allows you to customize only the images you want and still have images displayed for all systems.
  • _default.jpg/png can be used for creating a single image that is used for all systems OR a fallback for systems that you did not create a custom image for (if you don't want to use the fallback that already exists in the theme)
  • ${system.theme}.jpg/png should be named for the system you are looking to override. For example if you wanted to override the artwork for snes you would create an image called snes.jpg or snes.png in the backgrounds folder
  • once your images are in place you turn on custom images by changing the System View Style to either...
    • Centered Artwork (Custom)
    • Multi Artwork (Custom)
    • Fullscreen Artwork (Custom)
    • I added these options so you could switch off custom artwork without needing to delete your customizations

To create centered artwork that matches the mask used in the theme you can use the system-art-mask files I supply in the theme's resources directory here. I have tried to include a mask that should work in each major editing program.

If you create a set of images that you would like to share with the community please let me know about it here

Color Schemes

You can create your own custom color scheme to use for the theme

  • Download this template: https://github.com/anthonycaccese/art-book-next-es/blob/main/resources/customizations/colors.xml
  • Upload it in the path you created above and make sure its called colors.xml
  • Change any values in the template to the colors you prefer.
  • I tried to make the values as self explanatory as possible but if you have questions regarding which property does what please don't hesitate to ask.
  • After your colors are defined; in theme configuration change Color Scheme to Custom

Logos

The logos used on the system and gamelist views can be customized with your own images.

  • Create a folder in the path you created above called logos
  • Upload your custom logo images to that folder
  • They can be named:
    • ${system.theme}.svg
    • ${system.theme}.png
  • The theme will look them them up in that order. I recommend SVGs as they scale better on different resolutions.
  • ${system.theme}.svg/png should be named for the system you are looking to override. For example if you wanted to override the artwork for snes you would create an image called snes.svg or snes.png in the logos folder
  • Once your images are in place you turn on custom logos by changing the Color Scheme to Custom

Fonts

You can modify the font size used to display gamelists

Additional Notes

Versions for other ES forks:

  • If you use Retropie... then check out the version here. The Retropie version has all the same base features but you have to change them through the XML directly (as Retropie's theme engine does not have a menu for changing theme options)
  • If you use ES-DE... then the ES-DE version here will work out of the box with that distribution. When used with ES-DE the theme comes with additional support for navigation sound sets.
  • If you use Batocera... then the version here will work out of the box with that distribution.

Acknowledgments

  • This theme is based on work by Anthony Caccese. It only contains a few modifications for the AmberELEC distribution.
  • Most system logos were sourced and modified from the excellent work done by Dan Patrick here. I modified each to be compatible with EmulationStation's current SVG support.
  • ChangaOne font is by Eduardo Tunni
  • Oxygen font is by Vernon Adams
  • Auto-Collection Genre background art created by @nautipuss
  • Metadata Icons sourced from FontAwesome
  • Thank you to GenoCL for the idea of the multi-artwork system view. It got me to think about ES themes in a different way when building it out and it came out awesome.

License

Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ You are free to share and adapt this theme as long as you provide attribution back to me (and the above credits) as well share any updates you make under the same license terms.

Thank you for taking a look at this 😄