The best way to describe this theme is to imagine a glass full of that white, slightly creamy, opaque liquid that goes well with chocolate chip cookies. Take that analogy a bit further. Milk is a good theme on its own, but requires darker, contrasting elements to make it usable. Does Max Rudberg provide chocolate chip cookies with his Milk? Absolutely.

Aesthetics

Milk comes in 3 variations: Milk, Chrome Milk, and Black Milk, which we industry insiders call Chocolate Milk. Or so I wish. Black Milk’s differences include a black Apple menu icon and black, translucent menus. The chrome variation contains modified window widgets and scrollbars in a celshaded, chrome style (glare on top). As I will explain later, these two variations are an immensely great addition to the Milk theme.

The rest of the theme generally reeks of quality. One of the coolest elements I have ever seen in a theme are the spinning wheel progress indicators, or rather, what was once spinning wheel progress indicators. Max’s interpretation of this classic and often unchanged element is dripping milk; a perfect example of his attention to detail and flawless execution. Every element has been redone in a smoothed, white style that is so successful in recreating the milky look that, well, it becomes too much of a good thing.

Usability
While there is no doubt that Max has completely succeeded in his quest to achieve milk in OS X, one wonders if the quest was flawed. The default “Milk” variation is simply too white and too milky bland that it hurt my eyes to stare at it too long. Perhaps this is because the theme is currently loaded on an iBook, or perhaps not. Though this takes off points from Milk’s usability, Max has luckily provided useful extras to overcome the perils of a cool, but low contrast and blindingly white theme.

Extras
Max’s extras in this theme go beyond most other extras, in that they actually enhance the usability of the theme in addition to its aesthetics. Though the default Milk variation is often disorienting in its purity, the included Chrome and Black “I still think this should be Chocolate” variations help enormously to bring contrast to the interface. Furthermore, one of Max’s included desktops, “Milk Splash”, is a great companion to the theme, for those interested in further contrast and a pleasant desktop. In fact, all of Max’s included desktops are great on their own, but most are unfortunately too bright and white for the author to use with Milk’s default variant.

Finally, Max has gone a step farther than most with his extras by including an entire system icon replacement set (which captures the whole “Milk” theme pretty well) as well as the now standard Safari toolbar replacement set.

Milk is a top notch theme, thanks to its extras. Without its variations and desktops, the theme would’ve been dismissed for its unusable brightness, but the extras pull through and make this one a keeper. Again, the I’d like to stress the high quality work that can be seen throughout the theme, and the quirky and imaginative elements that pop up every once in a while that make me grin in appreciation of Max’s talent.

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