I am trying to apply a theme to Pidgin in Windows 7 but cannot find out how. I looked here which tells me to place them in: C:Program FilesCommon FilesGTK2.0sharethemes but that didn't wor.

A set of native Windows notification styles to use with Guifications for Pidgin IM

V1.2 By BoffinbraiN

Medium-sized notifications with avatar on left, statuses and protocol icons at bottom, with detailed two or three-line messages. Supports all notification types, including new e-mail notifications. Source files and images included.

• Windows XP: Classic (Windows 2000), Blue, Silver, Olive, Royale Blue (Media Center), Royale Noir (Zune)
• Windows Vista + 7: Black, Blue, Green, Grey, Ice, Orange, Red, White
• Windows 8 + 10: Black, Blue, Green, Grey, Orange, Purple, Red, Teal, Yellow

Introduction

Thanks for trying these themes. I hope you find them beautiful and massively useful.

I have very high standards, and I'm very proud to use these themes on a daily basis. I would certainly hope you don't find any faults in my work! But, if you do, then I welcome your feedback either on the submission page on DeviantArt, as a comment the SourceForge tracker, or on GitHub.

Installation

Every Guifications theme is located in the Themes directory inside your Pidgin user directory. To get there, browse to:

• Windows XP: C:Documents and Settingsyour-username-hereApplication Data.purpleguificationsthemes
• Windows Vista and up: C:Usersyour-username-hereAppDataRoaming.purpleguificationsthemes

If you've just installed Pidgin or Guifications, make sure it is running and the plugin is enabled, otherwise the directory may not exist yet.

Extract the 'themes' directory from this archive and move all the contents there, so that all the theme names are visible under 'themes'.

Then, just go to the Guifications options window via the Plugins window, to see the list of available themes (refresh if the window is already open). Unless you want to do advanced per-user theming, make sure only one theme is enabled - this will make sure the correct one is used.

One final note: these themes have only been tested on Windows. The Windows 10 themes reference the Segoe UI font, which probably won't exist on Linux distributions.

Customisation

Need to fine-tune your own colour scheme, or add other personal touches? I've given you all the files you need to get started! They're in the source directory.

Every theme file is derived from one of three theme XML files. The layouts for all Windows XP and Windows 7 themes are the same; only the text colours change. Select the most suitable one based upon the average brightness of the background image:

• Light: black headings, dark grey text
• Mid: white headings, black text
• Dark: white headings, light grey text
• Win10: same as dark, but with more padding

All images are made from pages and layers in the source.png file - an Adobe Fireworks CS3 file. If you have Fireworks, you can modify layers and export to make a derivative theme. The Windows 10 images are not provided in the source because they are literally flat colours - you can alter an existing background in Paint or any other program.

Be careful with transparency - it looks like any alpha value that is less than 100% is rendered completely transparent by Windows, and for that reason, none of my themes use translucent backgrounds. If you know why, or better still, have a workaround, let me know!

Version History

• V1.0 2012-02-11 - Initial release with 6 themes for Windows XP and 8 colours for Windows Vista and 7.
• V1.1 2015-08-25 - No changes to existing themes, but added 9 flat colour themes for Windows 8 and 10.
• V1.2 2017-02-08 - Updated Win10 themes to workaround the Guifications slide animation glitch.

Pidgin (formerly named Gaim) is a free and open-sourcemulti-platforminstant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple that has support for many instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to simultaneously log into various services from one application.

The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over three million in 2007.^[3]

Pidgin is widely used for its Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR) plugin, which offers end-to-end encryption. For this reason it is included in the privacy- and anonymity-focused operating system Tails.

• 1History
• 2Features

History[edit]

The program was originally written by Mark Spencer, an Auburn University sophomore, as an emulation of AOL's IM program AOL Instant Messenger on Linux using the GTK+ toolkit.^[4] The earliest archived release was on December 31, 1998.^[5] It was named GAIM (GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger) accordingly. The emulation was not based on reverse engineering, but instead relied on information about the protocol that AOL had published on the web. Development was assisted by some of AOL's technical staff.^[4][6] Support for other IM protocols was added soon thereafter.^[4]

On 6 July 2015, Pidgin scored seven out of seven points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard.^[7] They have received points for having communications encrypted in transit, having communications encrypted with keys the providers don't have access to (end-to-end encryption), making it possible for users to independently verify their correspondent's identities, having past communications secure if the keys are stolen (forward secrecy), having their code open to independent review (open source), having their security designs well-documented, and having recent independent security audits.^[7]

Naming dispute[edit]

In response to pressure from AOL, the program was renamed to the acronymous-but-lowercase gaim. As AOL Instant Messenger gained popularity, AOL trademarked its acronym, 'AIM', leading to a lengthy legal struggle with the creators of GAIM, who kept the matter largely secret.^[8]

On April 6, 2007, the project development team announced the results of their settlement with AOL, which included a series of name changes: Gaim became Pidgin, libgaim became libpurple, and gaim-text became finch. The name Pidgin was chosen in reference to the term 'pidgin', which describes communication between people who do not share a common language.^[9] The name 'purple' refers to 'prpl', the internal libgaim name for an IM protocol plugin.^[10]

Due to the legal issues, version 2.0 of the software was frozen in beta stages. Following the settlement, it was announced that the first official release of Pidgin 2.0.0 was hoped to occur during the two weeks from April 8, 2007.^[11] However, Pidgin 2.0 was not released as scheduled; Pidgin developers announced on April 22, 2007 that the delay was due to the preferences directory '.gaim'.^[12]

Pidgin 2.0.0 was released on May 3, 2007. Other visual changes were made to the interface in this version, including updated icons.^[13]

Features[edit]

Pidgin provides a graphical front-end for libpurple using GTK+.^[14] Libpurple supports many instant-messaging protocols.

Pidgin supports multiple operating systems, including Windows and many Unix-like systems such as Linux, the BSDs, and AmigaOS. It is included by default in the operating systems Tails and Xubuntu.

Pluggability[edit]

The program is designed to be extended with plugins. Plugins are often written by third-party developers. They can be used to add support for protocols, which is useful for those such as Skype which have licensing issues. They can also add other significant features. For example, the 'Off-the-Record Messaging' (OTR) plugin provides end-to-end encryption.

The TLS encryption system is pluggable, allowing different TLS libraries to be easily substituted. GnuTLS is the default, and NSS is also supported. Some operating systems' ports, such as OpenBSD's, choose to use OpenSSL or LibreSSL by default instead.

Contacts[edit]

Contacts with multiple protocols can be grouped into one single contact instead of managing multiple protocols, and contacts can be given aliases or placed into groups.

To reach users as they log on or a status change occurs (such as moving from 'Away' to 'Available'), Pidgin supports on-action automated scripts called Buddy Pounces to automatically reach the user in customizable ways.

File transfer[edit]

Pidgin supports file transfers for many protocols. It lacks some protocol-specific features like the folder sharing available from Yahoo. Direct, peer-to-peer file transfers are supported over protocols such as XMPP and MSN.

Voice and video chat[edit]

As of version 2.6 (released on August 18, 2009), Pidgin supports voice/video calls using Farstream.^[15] As of July 2015, calls can only be initiated through the XMPP protocol.^[16]

Miscellaneous[edit]

Further features include support for themes, emoticons, spell checking, and notification area integration.^[17]

Supported protocols[edit]

The following protocols are officially supported by libpurple 2.12.0, without any extensions or plugins:^[18]

• Bonjour (Apple's implementation of Zeroconf)
• OSCAR (AIM, ICQ, MobileMe, ...)
• XMPP/Jingle (Google Talk, LJ Talk, Gizmo5, ...)

Some XMPP servers provide transports, which allow users to access networks using non-XMPP protocols without having to install plugins or additional software. Pidgin's support for XMPP means that these transports can be used to communicate via otherwise unsupported protocols, including not only instant messaging protocols, but also protocols such as SMS or E-mail.

Additional protocols, supported by third-party plugins, include Microsoft OCS/LCS (extended SIP/SIMPLE),^[19]Telegram,^[20]Facebook Messenger,^[21]QQ,^[22]Skype via skype4pidgin plugin,^[23]WhatsApp^[24] and the Xfire gaming network (requires the Gfire plugin).^[25]

Plugins[edit]

Pidgin Download

Various other features are supported using third-party plugins.^[26] Such features include:

Pidgin Themes Windows 8

• End-to-end encryption, through Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR)
• Notifications (such as showing 'toaster' popups or Snarl notifications, or lighting LEDs on laptops)
• Showing contacts what you are listening to in various media players
• Adding mathematical formulas written in LaTeX to conversations
• Skype text chat via skype4pidgin plugin
• Watching videos directly into your conversation when receiving a video sharing website link (YouTube, Vimeo)

Pidgin Themes Windows

Mascot[edit]

The mascot of Pidgin is a purple pigeon with the name of The Purple Pidgin.^[27]

Criticisms[edit]

Pidgin Themes Windows 11

• Passwords are stored in a plaintext file, readable by any person or program that can access the user's files. Version 3.0 of Pidgin (no announced release date)^[28] will support password storage in system keyrings such as KWallet and the GNOME Keyring.^[29]
• Pidgin does not currently support pausing or reattempting file transfers.^[30][31][32]
• As of version 2.4 and later, the ability to manually resize the text input box of conversations was removed. This led to a fork, Carrier (originally named Funpidgin).^[33][34][35]
• Pidgin does not allow disabling the group sorting on the contact list.^[36]
• As observed by Wired in 2015, the libpurple codebase is 'known for its bountiful security bugs'.^[37]

Other notable software based on libpurple[edit]

• Adium and Proteus (both for macOS)
• Meebo (web-based, no longer available)^[38]
• Telepathy Haze (a Tube^[39] for some of the protocols supported by the Telepathy framework)^[40]
• QuteCom (cross-platform, focused on VoIP and video)
• Instantbird^[41] (cross-platform, based on Mozilla'sGecko engine)

BitlBee and Minbif are IRCd-like gateways to multiple IM networks, and can be compiled with libpurple to increase functionality.

See also[edit]

Pidgin Themes Skins

References[edit]

Pidgin Themes Gaim

1. ^Kramlich, Gary (March 8, 2018). 'Pidgin 2.13.0 has been released!!'. Announce. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
2. ^About Pidgin: Supported languages
3. ^'Luke Schierer discusses Pidgin, Open source and life'Archived February 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. PC World Australia, October 10, 2007.
4. ^ ^abcHerper, Matthew (July 16, 2002). 'Better Instant Messaging Through Linux'Forbes.com.
5. ^Crawford, J. (1999). 'User Guide'. marko.net. Archived from the original on May 8, 1999. Retrieved October 15, 2011. As of now, the most recent sources are here [1](the file date is December 31, 1998)
6. ^Spencer, Mark (1998). 'GAIM: GTK+ America OnLine Instant Messenger'. Original project home page. marko.net. Archived from the original on February 10, 1999.
7. ^ ^ab'Secure Messaging Scorecard. Which apps and tools actually keep your messages safe?'. Electronic Frontier Foundation. November 4, 2014. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
8. ^'Sean Egan's Blog - The Power of Momentum (continued)'Archived June 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. pidgin.im. May 23, 2007.
9. ^'Important and Long Delayed News'. pidgin.im. April 6, 2007. Archived from the original on April 8, 2007. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
10. ^'What's with the name libpurple, anyway?'. pidgin.im. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
11. ^'Important and Long Delayed News'. pidgin.im. April 6, 2007. Archived from the original on April 8, 2007. Retrieved October 15, 2011. Now that the settlement is signed, we hope to have the final Pidgin 2.0.0 release late this week or early next.
12. ^'Working towards 2.0.0'. pidgin.im. April 22, 2007. Archived from the original on April 25, 2007. Retrieved April 22, 2007.
13. ^Egan, Sean (April 30, 2007). 'Identity vs. Account Orientation'. pidgin.im. Archived from the original on May 4, 2007. Retrieved May 1, 2007.
14. ^'What Is Libpurple - Pidgin - Trac'. Pidgin.im. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
15. ^'Changelog'. pidgin.im. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
16. ^'Voice and Video'. pidgin.im. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
17. ^'About Pidgin'. pidgin.im. Retrieved September 22, 2010.
18. ^Pidgin developers. 'Pidgin'. pidgin.im. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
19. ^'SIPE Project'. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
20. ^GitHub - majn/telegram-purple: Adds support for Telegram to Pidgin, Adium, Finch and other Libpurple based messengers
21. ^GitHub - Purple Facebook implements the Facebook Messenger protocol into pidgin, finch, and libpurple.
22. ^'libqq'. code.google.com. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
23. ^'Skype 'API Plugin for Pidgin/libpurple/Adium''. RobbMob.com. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
24. ^'WhatsApp on your computer: Pidgin Plugin'.
25. ^'Third Party Plugins'. pidgin.im. Retrieved March 2, 2009.
26. ^'Pidgin Third-Party Plugins'. pidgin.im. Retrieved September 22, 2009.
27. ^bleeter. '#14764 (Name the Mascot Pidginski!) -- set to wontfix'. developer.pidgin.im. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
28. ^'Milestone 3.0.0--Pidgin'. July 3, 2014.
29. ^'KeyringSupport--Pidgin'. pidgin.im. July 3, 2014.
30. ^'Ticket #5769 (new enhancement) - Resume broken file transfers'. pidgin.im. May 11, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
31. ^'Ticket #7486 (closed enhancement: duplicate) - xdcc download-resuming-support'. November 7, 2008. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
32. ^'Ticket #1425 (new enhancement)- No ability to resume in IRC file transfers'. pidgin.im. May 30, 2007. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
33. ^'Ticket #4986 (closed enhancement: wontfix) - automatic chat input field resizing should be optional, regression from 2.3'. pidgin.im. March 1, 2008. Retrieved March 8, 2008.
34. ^Adams, Paul (April 22, 2008). 'In Response to User Demand, Pidgin Forks'. Wired.com. Archived from the original on May 19, 2008.
35. ^Malda, Rob (April 30, 2008). 'Pidgin Controversy Triggers Fork'. Slashdot.
36. ^'#1325: add option to hide groups'. pidgin.im. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
37. ^Greenberg, Andy (October 31, 2015). 'Tor Just Launched the Easiest App Yet for Anonymous, Encrypted IM'. WIRED. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
38. ^'meebo from the backside'. meebo.com. July 15, 2008. Archived from the original on August 19, 2008. Retrieved October 3, 2008.
39. ^'Tubes'. Telepathy.freedesktop.org. Archived from the original on August 24, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
40. ^'Telepathy Wiki - Components'. Telepathy.freedesktop.org. Retrieved October 11, 2012.
41. ^'Instantbird:FAQ - Instantbird Wiki'. Wiki.instantbird.org. February 10, 2011. Archived from the original on May 28, 2013. Retrieved October 11, 2012.

External links[edit]

Pidgin Themes Windows 10

• Official website