Classic Shell: Forum

My browsing so far suggests I am looking for something unusual. On my laptop in 1920x1080, Classic Start Menu makes the font too large. It seems that many of the default skins offer a font enlargement option, but not a shrinking option.

I might be able to figure out how to edit a skin to make the font smaller, but unfortunately I want no skin, mostly because I want the lines in the menu close together, and skins seem to introduce icons and extra space.

I downloaded the skins compilation and paged through some, but that only reinforced the impression that I may be on the wrong track somehow.

So my question is, where can I find a skin, or how can I go about revising one (or is there some better approach), to produce a condensed menu with small (preferably adjustable) print?

Here is a modified Classic style Classic skin.

I added the text size option and icon padding option to the skin file.
Anything below 10 text size gets blurry on my monitor.

I tried 0 pixel icon padding, but the icons touch each other.
So there are just the 2 and 1 pixel options.



EDIT:
Also if you want to take it further and tweak it more, here is the skinning tutorial page:

http://classicshell.net/tutorials/skintutorial.html

Make a copy of any .skin or .skin7 and put it on the desktop, and rename it to some other name.
Download and install a copy of Resource Hacker so you can open the skin file and make more text/numbers adjustments. Most of what I added is at the bottom of the text file like:

[1P_ICON_PADDING]
Main_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Main2_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Submenu_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Submenu_separator_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Submenu_separator_split_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%



You can squeeze up the padding between the icons a little more without them touching,
by changing the bottom padding like below. The selector button will look offset though.
I actually did not try it on this skin, but it should work.

Main_icon_padding=1,1,1,0,100%
Main2_icon_padding=1,1,1,0,100%
Submenu_icon_padding=1,1,1,0,100%
Submenu_separator_icon_padding=1,1,1,0,100%
Submenu_separator_split_icon_padding=1,1,1,0,100%


If you don't want to use icons at all and squeeze up the text padding,
then you would need to add reduced text padding text/numbers.
I may be wrong, but I think the default text padding is an example Main_text_padding=1,2,8,2,100%.
(Main_text_padding - extra padding on the left/top/right/bottom of the text in the main menu).


You could add this under the icon padding text like:


[1P_ICON_PADDING]
Main_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Main2_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Submenu_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Submenu_separator_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Submenu_separator_split_icon_padding=1,1,1,1,100%

Main_text_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Main2_text_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Submenu_text_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Submenu_separator_text_padding=1,1,1,1,100%
Submenu_separator_split_text_padding=1,1,1,1,100%


If you don't want the padding to increase automatically with higher DPI display sizes,
remove the ",100%" at the end of each padding line, or change the "100% to "0%".

Also, lets say you want small top and bottom text padding to always be "0" even with hdpi
but the left and right padding to stay unchanged so it scales with hidpi,
you could use something like this example:

Main_text_padding=1,0,8,0,100%,0%,100%,0%

Once you make the changes, click the "Compile Script" button at the top of "Resource Hacker",
Save the file by directing it to your skin on the desktop. On the "Save File As" popup window,
you may have to set the "Save as type" to "All files" in order to see your renamed skin file.
Then copy and paste your modded skin file into the Skins folder.


AS you can see in the skin tutorial, there are many different types of paddings that can be reduced.
Even the separators can have reduced padding, but that requires modifying the separator's image.

I didn't get a chance to thank you for this. Computus interruptus. But thank you. I've saved a copy of this for future reference.

I had to put these two similar skins here separately due to an option that is not compatible with Classic Shell 4.3.1
It seems to be working correctly for me on Win10.

Added option for different icon sizes on Main column 1 and 2 of the Classic with two columns type skin.
It used to work on Classic Shell 4.3.0, but not on 4.3.1
Coders over on Github got it to work again on Open-Shell.
These skins require Open-Shell 4.4.171 or higher for that option to work.
The 7-style skin of course is not going to work. It only has an added "No icon" option for the first column.

Well, it's difficult to figure out what type of padding most users want exactly, as new sign-ups are closed on the forum.
I still never added an option where the top and bottom values are 0 paddings. When I tried that, the text and icons don't look good to me.
The lowest I went is on the "Minimal padding" option which text padding uses 0 for top and 1 for bottom padding.


One skin version I had tried (not included) was a custom text padding option for the numbers and scale% data that a user could enter into the box,
for example, "2,0,3,0,50%". The two problems were it occasionally hiccuped by not responding which required a skin reset,
and the other was it had to use the same input data for all 6 or more menu locations. So, I gave up on that idea.
In my opinion, I think it's better if a user edits a skin by themselves to be the way they want it.


Other.
I never noticed this before as I don't use Classic skins.
If the system is set to 96 DPI (100%) Windows display setting, and the Open-Shell 4.4.171 is set to 144 DPI (150%) override,
the Classic skins don't increase the font size because a font was not defined in the Classic skin file,
whereas skins with named fonts increase in size. I knew about the scroll bar not enlarging though even if there is text and images in a .skin7


Edit: About that "Minimal padding" option.
Works ok with High DPI display settings cutting away the extra padding as it's 0% scaling, not the normal 100% scaling.
The other feature of it is when setting icon sizes set to 0 in the Menu Look tab sort of works ok.
The problem is it's too hard to tell the difference between a folder and a .exe in the programs menu of 7 Style
unless one has a very good memory or the shortcut is renamed with an additional "exe",
it's probably better to switch to "Cascading sub-menu" so the folder opens automatically.

I like Ivo's "No icons" option better as the programs, list, and sub menus still have icons to tell the difference.

Oh, by the way, the purple menu is because I was trying it out with Windows old classic Lilac theme.
Just wanted to make sure it still works. Without a theme, it goes back to the usual light grey menu.