Revised: 30/7/11 - Removed repeating gradient from sidebars in AddressBook skin & revised some images.
I am not a fan of the new leather title bar in iCal on Lion... what were they thinking? Now all we need is a wood-effect dashboard for our cars and rotary-dial iPhones...
I created new images files to go inside iCal.app and AddressBook.app to give them an aluminium look like previous versions of OS X.
This is a simplified version of my previous post which uses a package installer to apply the skins automatically without you having to manually modify the iCal.app and Address Book.app files. The original manual process is still available for those that prefer to see whats actually being modified, but both methods effectively do exactly the same thing.
Click here to go to the manual installation instructions.
For the simplified installer based method, continue reading...
DMG files for Automatic Installation (Last updated 30/07/11)
Address Book Skin - 10.7_Address_Book_Skin_Installer.dmg
iCal Skin - 10.7_iCal_Skin_Installer.dmg
These skins are provided free of charge but please make a donation if you use them regularly :)
IMPORTANT NOTE
Make a copy of iCal.app / AddressBook.app before you start (Copy / Paste them somewhere safe).
If you don't make a backup you will need to reinstall to revert back to the original look.
They look like this: -
If you decide you want to go back to the original Lion versions and you made a backup before you started, do the following: -
1 - Delete iCal.app or Address Book.app - This can be done in Finder by dragging the application from the Applications folder to the trash can.
If you receive the error 'iCal can't be moved or deleted because it is requires be Mac OS X', go to Utilities > Terminal.app and enter the following command: -
sudo rm -rf /Applications/iCal.app
or
sudo rm -rf /Applications/Address\ Book.app
2 - Copy back the backup of iCal / Address Book you made earlier in to the Applications folder.
42 comments:
Works like a charm, but your Donate button does not!
thank you - works great. The 'leather' look was distasteful on many levels - threw something in your tip jar!
Thanks very much! Glad others find it useful. So far I am really liking Lion, apart from the odd choice of style on these two apps, I think apple did a bang up job.
I guess someon at Apple is a big of Microsoft Bob.
Thanks for saving the rest of us from their bad taste!
Sweet. Thanks man.
Follow up - I used the Donate button on the right side panel and made a payment. The button embedded in the blog post did not work for me (Lion, Firefox)
Keep up the good work!
Thank you :) I think the donate button is fixed now :D
Awesome, thanks so much for putting these together... I hated that leather!
Thank you; that leather... I couldn't believe Apple would do something as crass as that...
Hi! Thanks I just installed your skin! What was apple thinking. I don't understand the new iCloud logo either.
There's one more 'problem' though. In iCal, the font of 'Day Week Month Year' 'Timezone' and 'iCal' are still kinda brown/ yellowish.
Do you know a way to change this?
Unfortunately not.
I have looked through all the non-binaries in iCal.app and there is nothing useful there.
My guess is the colour is set in one of the .nib files, unfortunately, without the source-code, it is very difficult to decompile these.
Would be great if anyone finds away though.
it would be good to provide the backup file just in case in the zip file for example...
I second what Kevin said, I forgot to back up my files
Those files would be copyright to Apple which is why they are not provided here.
You shoulda backed up :)
Thanks much man - this fixes one of four of my major complaints with the new iCal. I can deal with the brown text (for now, until it's decompiled), but any luck on:
1) Turn off that damn page turn animation! Seriously, that is just terrible, especially when you have a few months forward and backward to flip.
2) Turn off new events setting to "all-day" events by default.
3) The weird location of the "today" button - can we get that centered?
Also, my long standing complaint with iCal is its inability to keep a text field active when switching between app, such as tabbing to Mail to retrieve more info. Every time I tab back to iCal in a field I was typing, I have to re-click to enter data again.
Don't get me wrong - I love iCal's syncing ability and wouldn't change it for the world. But these issues are a serious hindrance on getting work done.
Thanks for the good work.
Found a small improvement for the Address Book.
The left and right sides have a repeating gradient. This can be changed by removing the vertical gradient in the leatherTile.png in Photoshop eg.
If I copy from my other computer I should be able to restore...right?
Fan fuggin' tastic... Lion really has pushed the boat out in terms of polish and finish... All the little niggles I had with OS X's gradually added hodgepodge of functions have been cleared... And I feel that I'm using a dream OS, as near to perfect as is currently possible.... And then they wake me from my slumber with a slap in the face that is these two UI ABOMINATIONS (there is no other word for the monstrosity of egregious UI design displayed here!) and I realise OS X still has some jaggies to smooth.
Nice work, mate!
worked perfectly, thanks! It also fixed the issue I was having with the right window of the to-dos!
I will send $$! c
Very well done - works great! Will donate now...
Thank you, what a relief! I cannot understand, how Apple developed such a bad taste.
I Dont mind the leather of Lion, but Black leather please!! Not that horrible brown.. So to your Alloy mod for now. Will Donate, many thanks.
R.
in the day view, the text on the left side seems to have a display problem. can you fix this? (date on the top to large, entries for next days half readable). i can send you a screenshot if helpful.
marcel.bernet(at)gmail.com
That ugly "western theme" had been making me itch every time I looked at it. Thank you SO much for this patch!
(What WERE they thinking?)
Awesome! Just donated.
If you can ever bring back iCal's Calendar list so that it shows ALL the time (like in all previous OS versions), I'll donate again!
Love it :) I have happliy donated. Thanks dude.
FYI Time Machine will have the original iCal and Address Book. You do use Time Machine, don't you?
THANK YOU! that was hideous and i'm so glad i don't have to suffer it anymore. i will donate as soon as i can afford to, just waiting for some checks to clear :D
Thanks! What a relief!
This didn't work on my Mac. I did exactly what was outlined and my calendar and address book are still the same ugly skin that came with Lion. Someone help me please!
Sorry---I did the installation one more time and it worked. I have no idea why it didn't work the first time.
It worked just fine. I have already made my donation. Thank you!
Thanks.....will follow your blog for more updates! One thing I have been looking for is the ability to change timezones for events on my iPhone calendar. We can do this on iCal but not the iPhone calendar. Have you come across anything that enables this?
I customize my Ical to carbon fiber instead of the plain silver.
and my address book to an Aqua Blue...looks Awesome!!!!
screen shots here:http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q296/spoonciv/TO%20show/ScreenShot2011-08-23at91451AM.pnghttp://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q296/spoonciv/TO%20show/ScreenShot2011-08-23at91434AM.png
I customize my Ical to carbon fiber instead of the plain silver.
and my address book to an Aqua Blue...looks Awesome!!!!
screen shots here: http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q296/spoonciv/TO%20show/ScreenShot2011-08-23at91451AM.png AND HERE: http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q296/spoonciv/TO%20show/ScreenShot2011-08-23at91434AM.png
This rocks! Thanks so much!!
Thanks - works like a dream. Donation made with pleasure
Now, can you (or anybody) fix another major gripe I have with iCal Lion?
In Snow Leopard iCal I could add line breaks to an entry by pressing “alt-Enter” and the lines would be separated in the entry:
Item one
Item two
Item three etc
iCal Lion still allows you to press “alt-Enter” during editing an item, but when you view the calendar later it looks like this:
Item one Item two Item three etc.
Not a big deal for some, but I am a surgeon and use iCal to plan my operating lists … each patient had a separate line in a single entry (my operating list) … now each entry is just a confusing block of text.
I contacted Apple and the answer was a polite but frustrating “that’s the new interface …” This is really frustrating. WYSIWYG was a basic tenant of computing decades ago … why the step backwards with Lion?
Thanks a lot this – this was a disgrace.
Thanks a million, the esthetics of simplicity reign once more on my MacBook!
thank you! that was so ugly! i was almost in tears today when my lion arrived.
I didn't only like the information on the site but I also liked that you have provided the way to revert the changes made in the system as if in case some one didn't like it he or she can make changes accordingly
Merci!!!!! This leather look WAS a disaster
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