Clear Crystal Icon Set
June 2011
Last Update: 07.30.12

These icons can be used to replace the default "system" icons for folders, devices, toolbar items, Finder sidebar items, and others. I designed the icons for use with Crystal Black, but tried to make them compatible with the default Aqua theme. They'll look best with dark backgrounds, but light backgrounds will work too.

The November 2011 release includes a small application for installing and uninstalling the Clear Crystal icons for users who don’t have icon-management software such as CandyBar. The application also manages a substantial set of system icons that CandyBar doesn’t, most of which are new to the set. the July 2012 update adds five more sidebar icons for Lion/Mountain Lion.

The disk image download includes the application, a Read Me file, an iContainer for Candybar users, and a browsable set of folders containing all the icon files.

For more information about the Clear Crystal icons, have a look at the article that introduced them: "Introducing “Clear Crystal” System Icons for Mac OS X"

Crystal Docs
January 2010
Last Update: v.1.0, 01.22.10

This is a set of 74 document icons intended to complement CrystalClear Interface and the set of Crystal Albook system and application icons I released in 2007. The set covers most of the document types used by Apple's applications as well as a limited set of document types for third-party applications.

These icons are included as part of CrystalClear Interface and can be installed/uninstalled within that application. Here, you can download them separately and install using CandyBar.

A brief article with more images is available on my blog.

Crystal Albook Icons
April 2007
Last Update: v.1.0, 04.29.07

The Crystal Albook icons were designed to match the look of the Crystal Clear ShapeShifter theme. The set includes all the Mac system icons, as well as 49 application icons.

Crystal Albook is based on Laurent Baumann's excellent Albook icons, which is generously released under the Creative Commons license. The Crystal Albook series incorporates transparency to accompany the Crystal Clear theme and its variants. It is available as iContainers for Candybar and as individual icon files for Mac OS X (in ICNS and PNG formats).

DeStyl Icon Set
May 2005

In early 2005, I fell in love with Gerrit Vanoppen's deSTYL icons (which don't seem to be available to download anywhere now). (Note: Vanoppen's icons were themselves inspired by the beautiful Box series by Grayhouse.) I wasn't craxy about the deSTYL application icons, however, so decided to put together a set that would complement Vanoppen's system icons. I never got as far with these icons as I would have liked, but in the end there were a dozen or so fully realized icons for the basic Apple apps, plus a score of others based on an earlier design and not fully built out. (These icons were released as part of the DeStyl Ruler theme for ShapeShifter, described on the Themes page.)

The download includes all of my application icons for DeStyl, as well as Vanoppen's original set of system icons. I still love the DeStyl design, and very much hope I'll have the time someday to continue fleshing the set out.

Embossed Nickel
September 2012
Last Update: v.1.0, 09.13.12

Embossed Nickel is a port of the classic "Nickel-Cobalt" theme for ShapeShifter. It is only available for Snow Leopard, and I have no plans to tackle the arduous task of porting this to Lion. However, if anyone out there is up for a challenge, having the Snow Leopard art files will give you a good head-start.

This theme will be incorporated into the next release of CrystalClear Interface as one of the button theme options.

Crystal Clear
February 2007
Last Update: v.1.5, 12.11.07

Transparency in this theme is literally crystal clear, partly to demonstrate feasibility rather than ultimate usability. Besides ShapeShifter, Crystal Clear also requires the Cocoa plugin CrystalClear Interface, a version of which is included in the download package.

The "Complete" version includes both Lite and Dark variants of Crystal Clear (the difference is explained in the download's Welcome file) and the following theme components:

• CrystalClear Interface 1.0 (with its own Installer)
• An updated version of the Crystal Albook icon set (for ShapeShifter and CandyBar)
• A set of space-themed desktop pictures
• The Crystal Menubar, which has evolved from a desktop-picture-with-graphic to a standalone application, is now bundled as part of CrystalClear Interface. (For background on why the Menubar was developed, check out this article, as well as this earlier one.)
• A variety of other goodies, including a Growl Style, menu extras graphics, and complementary desktop pictures.

Crystal Clear is described in depth in several Mars articles:

• Crystal Clear: Pushing Mac OS X Windows Beyond Translucent, 02.13.07
• Crystal Clear 1.2: The Transparent Revolution Cleans Up Another Opaque Holdout, 06.06.07
• CrystalClear Interface: The Transparent Experiment Resumes, 12.11.07

Quicksilver Tunes
October 2005

Quicksilver Tunes incorporates the silvery gradiants from Quicksilver (its default Primer theme) with the cool beveled toolbar and LCD window of the new iTunes.

Quicksilver Tunes was my first original theme, and built on some mods I had done earlier in 2005--deStyl Ruler and deStyl Grey. Those themes began my modification of Gerrit Vanoppen's deStyl icons, which continued into Quicksilver Tunes.

The theme includes skins for Safari, Mail, iCal, iChat, Address Book, Camino, and iTunes. Also available is a new desktop picture designed for the theme. (More information about the desktop pictures for Quicksilver Tunes are in the "Desktops" section of MarsThemes.)

DeStyl Ruler
July 2005

DeStyl Ruler was my second theme for ShapeShifter. The first, DeStyl Grey, was finished in May 2005, and I pretty quickly jumped into DeStyl Ruler as a followup. Ruler was a theme designed by Susumu Yoshida, and my theme was based on an early version of Ruler. Like Quicksilver Tunes, DeStyl Ruler was took design cues from Gerrit Gerrit Vanoppen's deStyl icons, a version of which I included in the ShapeShifter .guiKit. (For more about the icons, check out the "Icons" section of MarsThemes.

The theme also included an early version of the Schroder House desktop picture, which was greatly refined for Quicksilver Tunes.

Classic 45s Jukebox
November 2008
Last Update: v. 1.1, May 2012

The Classic 45s Jukebox gives you Dashboard access to the Classic 45s podcast of great music from the archives of rock'n'roll and soul history. The podcast is updated every time the online jukebox at Classic 45s.com gets updated.

The musical snippets sent out in this podcast represent the very best in all Rock'n'Roll and Soul genres, hopefully introducing listeners to nuggets they may not have heard before. Each description includes chart, songwriter, label, and other descriptive information, along with an image of the 45 record label.

xCuts
April 2006
Last Update: v. 1.2g, October 2008

xCuts is a utility for looking up Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts. Besides its comprehensive set of Mac OS X shortcuts, xCuts also covers some other applications, such as Quicksilver.

For more information about xCuts, refer to the April 2006 Mars article, "xCuts Dashboard Widget: Tripping The Light Script.aculo.us."

National Science Foundation Information
March 2007

The NSF Information widget for Dashboard presents the latest News, Funding Opportunities, Scientific Discoveries, and Publications from the U.S. National Science Foundation in a convenient tabbed interface. The widget is resizable and lets you define how much of each item to view at a time. For the full details, each Item is linked to the appropriate page on the NSF website.

Sizzling Classic 45s
July 2005
Last Update: October 2008

This widget lets Mac OS X customers of Classic 45s stay current with the daily changes in its inventory of classic 45 rpm records. It presents the website's RSS feed in an engaging interface that's even easier to use than RSS itself!

For more information about this widget, see the July 2005 Mars article, "Anyone Can Develop A Dashboard Widget (And They Probably Will)."

Deco Bubbles
January 2012

This set of 10 deskop pictures is part of CrystalClear Interface 2.6. The set is based on a Frank Lloyd Wright-ish design, with 6 dark variations and 4 light ones. All 10 images are jpeg files at a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. Some of the black desktops are designed to complement the new Black Gloss window style, and others the new Smooth Black style.

To download this set, click the button below the preview image.

Frosted Crystals
August 2009

With CrystalClear Interface 2.2, I introduced a set of "frosted crystals" — desktop pictures designed to complement the eight new preset themes in CCI. These Crystals are still a part of the CCI download, but you can also download them here if you like. The look of frosted glass looks terrific when viewed through CrystalClear windows! I hope you enjoy using them as much as I have.

To download this set, click the button below the preview image.

Schroder House
July - November, 2005

My fascination with Schroder House started after seeing a print of it on Gerrit Vanoppen's website. I proceeded to meticulously translate that drawing into pixels, and then manipulated the elements in various ways. The original design was released with DeStyl Ruler, and the later designs were part of Quicksilver Tunes. Schroder House was designed in 1924 by Gerrit Rietveld in the Netherlands.

To download this set, click the button below the preview images.

AppMenu Magic
June 2012
Last Update: v. 1.3, 11.12.12

AppMenu Magic is a small, simple application with only one cool trick: It replaces the application’s name with its icon in the system menubar. The functionality of AppMenu Magic has been part of CrystalClear Interface (CCI) and Crystal Black (CB) since those applications were first released. I am releasing the app separately because of continued requests for it. This app lets users take advantage of the improved appearance and reduced “screen real estate” of their menubar that AppMenu Magic offers, without having to use either CCI or CB.

This application could hardly be simpler to use. Simply run the installer, and voila! No more long application titles consuming precious space in your menubar. In its place, you’ll see the application’s icon — which is usually much prettier than its title in any case.

Version 1.3 slightly reduces the app icon size and fixes a problem that could prevent AMM from loading; version 1.2 fixed a permissions problem on one component, which was keeping some apps (e.g., Finder on Lion) from loading AMM; version 1.1 fixed installer to add a missing component, and to require logout after installation. For the full documentation on AppMenu Magic, refer to the User's Guide file that comes in the download, or the June 2012 Mars article, "AppMenu Magic Conjures A Simpler, More Elegant Menubar."

Mars Text Tools
January 2012
Last Update: v. 1.2.2, 06.21.12

As a writer, I need ready access to a range of text functions, and I need them in whatever application in which I happen to be writing. In most of the rich text editors I use, those functions are available somewhere in the app’s menus, but typically they're in different places within each app. Some apps don’t include one or two key functions at all.

Mac OS X has a rich text framework that provides just the set of editing tools I require, and it would be extremely handy to be able to access those tools consistently across apps. This is precisely what the MarsThemes Text Tools do: Grant easy access to the key Cocoa text tools that writers and editors need but can’t find.

The latest release — version 1.2.2 — is a maintenance update for compatibility with other MarsThemes plugins; 1.2.1 fixes a bug in the uninstaller; 1.2 fixed a bug and added an option related to hyperlinks. Version 1.1 added localizations for 13 languages plus English, and it filtered out a multitude of console messages that were set up during development.

For the full scoop on the Mars Text Tools, refer to the Read Me file that comes in the download, or the January 2012 Mars article, " Text Tools for Mac OS X: Free At Last!"

VacuumMail
March 2007
Last Update: v. 0.9.6, 04.18.07

VacuumMail is an AppleScript application that performs an SQLite "vacuum" job on Apple Mail's database, thereby optimizing it and boosting the performance of Mail as it fetches and stores your email. VacuumMail is designed to be incorporated into an automated maintenance routine and run at regular intervals, although you can also launch the software interactively if you need to do a manual run.

To enable automated operation, the VacuumMail installer includes a LaunchAgent that utilizes Mac OS X Tiger’s new launchd service. By default, the agent will run VacuumMail once a week, and the package includes the terrific open-source Launchd editor Lingon in case you’d like to customize that behavior.

For more information about VacuumMail, refer to the ReadMe in the download, or the March 2007 Mars article, " Apple Mail Slowing Down? VacuumMail Can Probably Help."

Crystal Black for iTunes
February 2011
Last Update: 12.15.12

This little application installs the Crystal Black theme for iTunes. Separate downloads are available for iTunes 10 and iTunes 11. (The iTunes 11 implementation is very bare-bones.) To install, simply double-click the application and select “Install.” You'll need to authenticate as the admin user to proceed. You can use the app to uninstall the CrystalBlack theme as well. To uninstall, double-click the app and select “Uninstall.” The software can be used on Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion. Be sure to use the correct download for your version of iTunes.

For more information, have a look at the article on my blog, "Crystal Black for iTunes."

Crystal NIBs for SecurityAgent
June 2012
Last Update: v. 1.0, 06.09.12

This little application provides two alternative styles for the “Authenticate” panel that appears whenever you’re required to enter a password on your Mac. It works by substituting different “NIB” files — the files that define the window’s interface — for the default system versions. (Jargon Alert: NIB stands for “NeXT InterfaceBuilder,” which was the original IB app developed on the NeXT operating system — the predecessor of Mac OS X.)

The application lets you switch among three different styles:

• HUD (Heads-Up Display) style,
• Metal (Textured) style, and
• Default system style.

For more information, see my blog article, "Dress Up Your Mac's Authentication Panel With Crystal NIBs".

Crystal Black for CoverSutra
February 2011
Last Update: v. 1.0, 04.12.11

This download contains a little application that installs the Crystal Black theme for CoverSutra, a popular and wonderful iTunes controller. To install, simply double-click the application and select "Install." You can also use the app to restore the default CoverSutra theme. After installing or uninstalling the theme, you'll need to quit and restart CoverSutra for theme theme to take effect. Also included in the download is a folder containing CoverSutra's default (black) menubar icon, as well as a white alternative for those who use a dark menubar.

Crystal Black for WebInspector
March 2011
Last Update: v. 1.0, 04.12.11

This application adds a Crystal Black skin to Safari’s built-in Web Inspector tool. To install, simply double-click the application and select “Install.” You'll need to authenticate as the admin user to proceed. After installing or uninstalling, you’ll need to restart Safari.

For more information about this skin, which is composed mostly of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) styles, have a look at the in-depth article on my blog, "Theming A Web Page With Crystal Black: A CSS Design for Web Inspector."

Note: This skin has not been updated for Safari 5.x.

Growl Styles

Glass Candy
November 2006

This was my first investigation into making Growl themes, an experience I wrote up in the Mars article, "What If Growl Displays Were Just Little Web Pages?."

Crystal Clear
February 2007
Last Update: 12.15.07

I made this Growl style to go with the ShapeShifter theme of the same name. It is now included with the Crystal Clear install program, but you can download it here separately. Note: The download is an updated version of the Crystal Clear growl style from December 2007, courtesy of Michael Tughan. The update has several improvements--most notably, the ability to handle Growls of more than 2 lines.