Theme Review: Rhino
Rhino is the latest theme from artist Toner. The theme is slick, combining rounded inset buttons with a nice array of grays, the result of which is a very solid and usable theme that I could use for… well, forever.
Aesthetics
Rhino is easily recognizable as the work of Toner. It’s got everything you’d expect from him- sleek buttons, a striped progress bar like neon, and smooth gray title bars. Sure it’s almost a bit on the bland side, but is that any reason not to use it? I say nay.Windows in this theme are simple, smooth and uncluttered by patterns. The edges are all beveled just a tiny bit, reminiscent of a credit card. This is topped off by a signature Toner smooth gray gradient. The buttons are all inset charcoal lozenges that compliment other UI elements such as tabs and dropdown menus very well. The darkness of the UI elements provides interest for the user, as well makes it easier to use as well as more welcoming than Toner previous works neon and canum.
Rhino really shines when using Safari. The toolbar buttons seamlessly flow with the UI of other applications, so much that I have found myself surprised when I’m in Finder and can’t find the address bar (true story). I love the visual feedback when rolling over bookmark buttons, a simple yet elegant darkened oval around the link with inversion of text color, similar to the effect of highlighting an option in the menu bar.
Despite being very easy on the eyes as a whole, there were a few things I feel didn’t work out aesthetically in rhino. First, the window close/resize buttons don’t exactly match the others, especially in their rollover states, as these are the only UI elements in the entire theme that get lighter when interacting with them. Also, the menu bar item selection state again doesn’t go very well with the rest of theme. Instead, I would expect something more along the lines of Toner’s buttons once again. My last visual gripe with Rhino is the iTunes skin. I understand it’s a pain to skin apps, but I feel the most apparent change is that all of the icons are grayscale, which almost makes it seem like my screen can’t display color.
Usability
Despite some minor aesthetic flaws, rhino is very easy to use. Clicking every button is satisfying to some extent with the level of visual feedback from each UI element. As mentioned before, the button design that ties many of the UI elements together makes each application included in the theme feel very similar and easy to use. The contrast of the buttons makes them easy to locate in any application. The smooth gray of Rhino is very easy to look at for long periods of time, and I was able to use it for a week or two and totally forget I was using a theme.
Extras
Built in to the theme is a fairly standard set of extras, including 10 application skins (DVD Player, iChat, iTunes, Mail, Pixadex, Quicktime, Safari, System Preferences, Transmit, VLC Player) some fairly standard, some not so much (I can’t think of another theme that has a Pixadex theme.) A second variant with a black menu bar is available for those who like that sort of thing (I think black menu bars are for dark themes, which this isn’t, so I prefer the standard variant.) However, rhino also comes with wallpaper and even an icon set, both of which go well with the theme. These also make up for the few application skins included in the theme.
Conclusion
Despite minor aesthetic shortcomings, rhino by Toner proves to be a very solid and usable theme, even with few application skins, and I can use it for very long periods of time without getting tired of it, which doesn’t happen much for me. This theme deserves the Daily Deviation it received on Deviantart (Congrats, by the way.) But that’s just my opinion, go see for yourself here.
Download
October 15th, 2007 at 6:31 am
I like the way this theme looks, but I’ve never been big on the “tiny-looking buttons” thing. They might technically be the same size, but they look a lot smaller, and that means it takes longer to click them, especially when they’re those menubar buttons. A lot of custom Mac themes seem to do this. Fitt’s Law, people. It’s not always about the shininess.
October 15th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
So true, so true. In his defense though, shiny things are pretty cool.
October 15th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Well it’s nice to see a theme review on the front page that I haven’t seen yet.
Great stuff. But, the inverse-colored lozenge on the bookmarks is standard Aqua, I believe.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
[…] Mason Sklar wrote a fantastic post today on “Theme Review: Rhino”Here’s ONLY a quick extractThe edges are all beveled just a tiny bit, reminiscent of a credit card. This is topped off by a signature Toner smooth gray gradient. The buttons are all inset charcoal lozenges that compliment other UI elements such as tabs and … […]
October 15th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
My only gripe with this theme is the blurry shadow on the active tab in Safari, but maybe that’s a Safari 3 issue?
Anyway, I’m a little surprised that out of the last 5 theme reviews that I’ve read, only one has received a score below 9.2. Some of these are great themes, but are they all that exceptional? Just food for thought, maybe I’m just weird.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:51 am
^ Yeah I agree that all of these themes are a little overrated. I have yet to find a theme, other than aqua, that I would find myself constantly using because they all turn out to be boring or distracting.
In this case, Rhino is very well made and it is apparent that the artist has skill, but the theme is also very bland and simple. There are only two main tones, black and grey. The lack of variability in the theme quickly makes it boring to use. The sharp contrast between the dark greys and blacks also make the theme distracting.
Personally I think that an additional category should be added that discusses how the theme affects productivity. This is similar to usability, but it focuses more on how the theme affects the general work environment. For example, I personally find aqua nice because it isn’t distracting. None of the aqua elements are ‘in-your-face’. Instead they are toned down but provide good feedback. Overall I like to think of aqua as a hot girl that doesn’t dress like a slut. She has inner beauty. On the other hand most themes that I encounter are like hot girls that wear slutty dresses. While they are hot they become really distracting and take productivity away.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:52 am
The reason I rated it actually below 9.2 was that I recognized some scores on the theme reviews are a bit on the high side, and I wanna bring it down bits at a time.
I love the hot girl analogy, Joem, and agree to some extent.
October 16th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
it’s ‘Definitely’
October 16th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
…oops.
October 17th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Mason, it’s good to hear that there is an effort to de-inflate the scores. I’m just happy that there’s content on the front page
November 13th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
good
November 18th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Wonderful, will there be an update for Safari 3?
November 21st, 2007 at 3:26 pm
IT sounds rally good, and i like the amount of positive feedback. I was caught off guard attempting to find out how to link to it unitl i did a very close, slow readover and spotted the link in the last sentance of the conclusion.
November 24th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Thankyou Zenrhe i was going mad looking for that….
now if only safari wasnt so buggy :sigh:
February 7th, 2008 at 9:45 am
how do i instal
August 20th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Hey, is it compatible for leopard OS X 10.5 or more..?