Krypton 4.1 Beta

For those interested in the new Office 2010 palettes or maybe the new KryptonGroupBox control you can download the Beta of the upcoming 4.1 release from here…

Download Beta

I can understand why very few Toolkit developers create their own palettes. It’s taken me three weeks to add three new palettes to match the new Office 2010 themes. Actually I’m still not finished and have only made the changes needed to update the ribbon and a few other related controls.

Office 2010 Blue
Here we have the blue theme in active and inactive states…

Notice that the background of the  tabs area also changes with the window activation change. This gives a more consistent feel and makes the ribbon feel part of the window itself because its colour always matches that of the window chrome in the caption area above it. Also note the application button has been replaced with an application tab that is positioned at the start of the tabs area. New properties have been added allowing you to change the default blue colour and default File text.

On the far right of the tabs line you can see a new upwards pointing button. This is used to switch between minimized and full modes and is now present by default for all palettes. There is a new property that allows this to be turned hidden if you prefer to save the space. I think the button is a great idea as most end users are unlikely to discover that double clicking tabs with toggle the minimized mode.

If you look careful you might also have spotted that the cluster buttons no longer show with borders around them. Previously they would have a border around each button but now there is no border unless you actually move the mouse over the button. Instead each cluster has a small separator next to them so they are delineated from other group contents.

Give yourself a pat on the back if you have spotted this final change. Although not obvious the font is half a point smaller than under the Office 2007 themes and this allows more content to fit within the same space.

Office 2010 Silver/Black
Just like Office 2007 there are three themes in total and they are based on the same blue/silver and black base colours…

Aero Glass Support
Under Vista and Windows 7 the ribbon draws a little different to take advantage of the glass look and feel. Here you can see the blue scheme under Windows 7…

The window chrome has been extended downwards over the tabs area. In order to ensure the text for the tabs can still be read the background has a light gradient that extends upwards so that the darker text stands out. I have not managed to draw this exactly the same way as Office 2010 does but it is pretty close.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they do not make any changes between this Beta and the final release. Otherwise I will need to make additional changes. But as they have added all three schemes I expect that any changes are now going to be very minor.

Now onto the task of updating the rest of the controls with new settings.

Now that Windows 7 is available and the Offie 2010 Beta released I wanted to look at the ribbon controls they use to see how the Krypton Ribbon should be updated to match them. More accurately it means adding one or more new palettes that draw according to a new style. The existing palettes will continue to draw the ribbon in the same way so the Office 2007 built in palettes will always draw the ribbon in the Office 2007 manner.

Windows 7
The updated Microsoft Paint uses the Windows 7 ribbon control that is provided with the operating system. You can see straight away that it has done away with the application button as an orb and replaced it with a more traditional style button. The groups have also changed and now use a separator on the right hand side instead of having a box drawn around each one.

Office 2010 Technical Preview
This screenshot was taken from an installation inside a virtual machine and so it does not have any Aero glass for the borders. Ignoring that detail we can see that Office 2010 also has a button instead of an orb for the application button. Also note that the button clusters inside the Font group no longer have a border around the buttons themselves. The border only appears when you move the mouse over them.

Office 2010 Beta
This Beta release is only slightly different from the previous technical preview. The main change has been the application button changing to have the more familiar File as its name. I presume that end users find it easier to relate to the traditional File menu option.

Another change that cannot be seen in the screenshots is that the Beta has three color schemes. These are Silver, Blue and Black of which the above screenshot is the Silver variation. So I think the best approach is to add three new palettes that represent those three new schemes. Although only a Beta I believe the fact they have added all three colors means they are pretty much finished in creating the visuals.

Download  using this direct link…
    Download 4.0

New for Version 4.0
   – VS2010 Style Docking system
   – KryptonWrapLabel
   – KryptonSeparator
   – Workspace persistence
   – Workspace max/restore feature
   – Various bug fixes

Change Lists
  – Toolkit
  – Navigator
  – Workspace
  – Ribbon

Expected Release Date
The release of Krypton Suite 4.0 is looking like being the middle of next week. So expect an announcement on Wednesday 26th if all goes to plan. Obviously this could slip if a major bug appears just before release but I promise it will not be released early!

Reduced Product Line-up
Something like 90% of all sales are for the full Krypton Suite and so I intend to simplify the list of product offerings by selling only the full Suite. Existing customers with the Navigator, Workspace or Ribbon that are still within their 12 month subscription will get a free upgrade to the Suite + Source. So no customers will miss out because of the change in policy.

The Suite will also only be offered with the full source code included so the ability to buy just a license is being removed. Most companies want the source code anyway and so this reduces the number of purchase options making it a simpler decision. So the purchase page is going to have just the Krypton Suite + Source with the only options being the number of licenses you want to buy.

BARGAIN ALERT: Yes, that means you could buy the Navigator at $149 before next Wednesday and get a free upgrade to the full Suite including the source code. Reading my blog means you get the inside track and your reward is a truly once in a lifetime bargain. Or why not get a 4 pack and save even more!

New Pricing
Currently the Suite + Source is priced at $399 (USD) and the new price with the docking system added will be $499 (USD). Looking at other comparable products on the market I still think this is a reasonable price given the extra flexibility and features it offers.

New Licence Options
Last is a change to provide customers with an upper limit on costs. I hope this will tempt more of the larger outfits to consider buying the Suite for the entire development department. I am introducing Site and Enterprise license options.

A Site license will allow an unlimited number of developers within your organization but limited to one geographic location. An Enterprise license allows for an unlimited number of developers at an unlimited number of locations for your organization. Customers with 16 or more licenses at the moment will be offered the chance to convert to either the Site or Enterprise depending on their licenses requirements.