Themes for WPF

Just like Josh Smith I was looking around for some pre-rolled themes for WPF, and wondered why there was so little activity in this area. I would have thought the ability to take a professional looking UI (adjusted to match an organization's in-house style) would be a popular approach for building new business applications.

Although there's quite a bit of work involved in creating a complete set of control templates (for all the required controls; textboxes, dropdowns, checkboxes, tab controls, lists, splitters, scrollers etc.) it can  be done (and it's a great way to learn WPF - even if you only override a few). Included here is a screen shot from my 'learning' WPF application in which I created a nearly complete control template set from scratch - including a custom toolbar strip, and dropdown/context menu system. What's more I give the user some options on basic color themes and backgrounds - just like Windows Live Writer does. Commercially available themes must surely be on the way. Maybe they're just waiting for WPF adoption to reach higher levels, or perhaps visual designer support to improve. I'd estimate that it would take about 20 person days to complete a full theme set - and that's with a good graphic designer working with a good WPF developer together to assemble the theme.

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Hi I work for a software company that creates rich UI's. In our Aurora for Architects we have an option that is called a doucument theme. When this is applied any WPF control with a default background with take on the color specified in the theme. The user can also make thier own themes by going into the folder where the themes are held copying a file renaming it and changing the color. If you are interested thier is a free 30 day trial on the web site at mobiform.com.

Hi,

You're WPF theme shown above looks really nice. Is there any chance that you would be willing to share / sell your work?

Also, do you know any other WPF themes out there. I know of some (codeplex, nukeation, reuxables), but I haven't really found many nice, professional grade options.

Thanks.

- Nathan

Hi Nathan - thanks for the comment - I'd love to share or sell my theme - which looks a bit different from the one above now. I ended up hand-rolling my own because I also found it hard to find good quality themes - although the nukeation stuff looks pretty good. You can download the working app for my latest theme at http://www.58bits.com/blog/2009/09/01/Projects.aspx

Best,

Tony