A few months ago I started to work on a new project called Delphi IDE Colorizer. In the past weeks a beta version was tested for a dozen of Delphi developers on a closed beta. Now it’s time to move forward and a open beta version of the plugin is available. Check the next images and videos which provide a description of the Wizard.
Introduction
The Delphi IDE Colorizer (DIC) is a Wizard which allows to customize the look and feel of the workspace of the RAD Studio IDE.
Some of the features of the plugin are
- DIC is compatible with RAD Studio XE, XE2, XE3, XE4, XE5, X6.
- Transparent menus
- Allow to change the icons, set the colors, and gradient direction of the title bar of the docked windows
- Set the colors, and gradient direction of the toolbars.
- Improve the drawing of the disabled icons used in menus and toolbars
- Compatible with CnWizards and GExperts
- Replace the icons used in the gutter and the debugger.
- Includes 90+ themes.
Download
Before to download please read the FAQ of the plugin.
For download the wizard check the page of the project.
Check the next sample images
The Road to Delphi 
June 11, 2014 at 7:45 pm
My eyes! Make it stop! The blinking was just too much for me. ;-)
Nice new wizard!
June 11, 2014 at 9:45 pm
Very Nice!!
Is there any plans to combine this with the IDE Theme Editor at some stage?
June 12, 2014 at 3:38 am
Awesome
June 12, 2014 at 7:43 am
Amazing. DarkSlateGray is my favorite!
June 12, 2014 at 8:10 am
PERFECT!!!
embarcadero, look fondly this project …
June 12, 2014 at 9:12 am
hot hot hot
June 12, 2014 at 7:49 pm
Nice, I like the twilight green theme.
Is there anyway to make it work with other third party addins. I use Model Maker Code Explorer (MMX) so those toolbars and panes now clash with the new colour scheme.
June 12, 2014 at 7:53 pm
You can add support for additional forms types editing the file HookedWindows.dat located in the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\The Road To Delphi\DIC\XE
June 13, 2014 at 4:54 am
some feedback about what to add/improve:
1. add font color for inactive ide tabs
2. spread ide tabs style to dock tabs (like for ProjectManager/ModelView/DataExplorer etc) and for Code/Design/History
3. split menu color to menu color and window color. it is not clear that this color colors both when it is called menu color
4. in color selection dialog adjust tab order to be logical. also put Red edit as default focused control
5. make Apply changes button default (and Apply button in color selection dialog)
6. hard to say what does base color does – need some clarification
7. among with Save and Delete buttons i would appreciate Export button – to easily store my custom theme to file and share it with colleges
8. it would be extremely good if there would be ability to create custom color alias (or whatever you call it) and link color settings to that alias rather than to direct color value. you know, each theme usually would consist of 6-7 colors so it is boring to change colors again and again to make everything look consistent when you want to basically change only one color. in proposed feature i could have set of settings linked to single color alias so i would only need to change color assosiated with that alias and press Apply.
9. it is not clear that Highlight color is the one that is used as a second color in gradient in project manager’s tree. i could find that only experimentally
10. attaching source colors editing to this tool would be very nice indeed
June 13, 2014 at 9:32 am
Thanks Michael for your suggestions (many of them will be included in the next version), please use the issue page (https://code.google.com/p/delphi-ide-theme-editor/issues/list) of the project to report these (the instructions are here https://code.google.com/p/delphi-ide-theme-editor/wiki/DIC) in that way you can track when the features suggested are implemented.
June 13, 2014 at 5:17 am
11. i would also appreciate very much if you clarified how to change frame colors for docked toolbars (like Debug and so on). i can see some gradient frame there but have to idea how to set those two colors
June 13, 2014 at 9:35 am
This was a pending task, the next version will remove the edge of the toolbars or use the proper colors to maintain the flat look and feel.
June 13, 2014 at 6:31 am
So much colors in such a slow and buggy IDE.
June 13, 2014 at 12:40 pm
Out of curiosity, how does your wizard differ from the similar one found in CNPack?
June 13, 2014 at 12:54 pm
The CNPack/CnWizards wizard does not provide look and feel customization for the RAD Studio IDE also both plugins have different aims
June 14, 2014 at 7:12 am
when i have cnPack installed, does the colorizer collide with the cnPack? will it in following versions?
June 14, 2014 at 1:00 pm
DIC is compatible with CnPack. but if you found a issue you can report this using the page of the project https://code.google.com/p/delphi-ide-theme-editor/issues/list
June 15, 2014 at 10:01 pm
I got an AV in the IDE today, here’s the call stack. Hope it helps in debugging.
[1D096C68]{tmsdXE5.bpl } Advgrid. + $0
[50467669]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TWinControl.WndProc (Line 10039, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 153) + $6
[50466CAC]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TWinControl.MainWndProc (Line 9751, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 3) + $6
[501749C4]{rtl190.bpl } System.Classes.StdWndProc (Line 17010, “System.Classes.pas” + 5) + $0
[5046777A]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TWinControl.DefaultHandler (Line 10080, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 30) + $19
[0D39DE2A]{DelphiIDEColorizer_XE5.dll} Colorizer.Hooks.Hooks.Detour_TWinControl_DefaultHandler$qqrp24Vcl.Controls.TWinControlpv (Line 464, “Colorizer.Hooks.pas” + 38) + $6
[50589A6E]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Forms.TCustomForm.DefaultHandler (Line 5665, “Vcl.Forms.pas” + 11) + $4
[50462B49]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TControl.WndProc (Line 7224, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 91) + $6
[50066917]{rtl190.bpl } System.UnicodeFromLocaleChars (Line 37611, “System.pas” + 1) + $F
[50467669]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TWinControl.WndProc (Line 10039, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 153) + $6
[50059991]{rtl190.bpl } System.@ReallocMem (Line 4438, “System.pas” + 21) + $0
[50062348]{rtl190.bpl } System.@UStrSetLength (Line 28885, “System.pas” + 27) + $0
[500665EB]{rtl190.bpl } System.UTF8ToUnicodeString (Line 36536, “System.pas” + 11) + $5
[505876F5]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Forms.TCustomForm.WndProc (Line 4388, “Vcl.Forms.pas” + 201) + $5
[50093F50]{rtl190.bpl } System.SysUtils.SameText (Line 6385, “System.SysUtils.pas” + 4) + $1
[0D39DA11]{DelphiIDEColorizer_XE5.dll} Colorizer.Hooks.Hooks.Detour_TCustomForm_WndProc$qqrp21Vcl.Forms.TCustomFormr24Winapi.Messages.TMessage (Line 263, “Colorizer.Hooks.pas” + 12) + $6
[50466CAC]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TWinControl.MainWndProc (Line 9751, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 3) + $6
[501749C4]{rtl190.bpl } System.Classes.StdWndProc (Line 17010, “System.Classes.pas” + 5) + $0
[50590CE4]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Forms.TApplication.ProcessMessage (Line 10267, “Vcl.Forms.pas” + 2) + $9
[50590E06]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Forms.TApplication.HandleMessage (Line 10318, “Vcl.Forms.pas” + 1) + $4
[50591141]{vcl190.bpl } Vcl.Forms.TApplication.Run (Line 10456, “Vcl.Forms.pas” + 26) + $3
June 15, 2014 at 10:48 pm
Hi, please use the issue page to report this also be sure which you are using the last version using the “Check for updates” option of the plugin.
June 17, 2014 at 2:17 am
The latest version of this IDE plugin (0.3.1.7, just intalled) sadly crashes each time I try to do a search with the following call stack :
[5006B04D]{rtl160.bpl } System.SysUtils.StrIComp (Line 9713, “System.SysUtils.pas” + 6) + $0
[5033A3EB]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TWinControl.GetClientRect (Line 12081, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 1) + $9
[503E851C]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.ExtCtrls.TCustomPanel.AdjustClientRect (Line 3307, “Vcl.ExtCtrls.pas” + 6) + $A
[5033D35D]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TDockZone.GetTopLeft (Line 13863, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 14) + $C
[5033DB96]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TDockTree.GetControlBounds (Line 14217, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 10) + $3A
[504BA8D1]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.CaptionedDockTree.TCaptionedDockTree.InvalidateDockSite (Line 192, “Vcl.CaptionedDockTree.pas” + 10) + $B
[504BA9BA]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.CaptionedDockTree.TCaptionedDockTree.WndProc (Line 248, “Vcl.CaptionedDockTree.pas” + 20) + $A
[5033F6F8]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TDockTree.WindowProc (Line 15216, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 1) + $6
[503325D0]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TControl.Perform (Line 6982, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 10) + $8
[2075C771]{coreide160.bpl} VClient.KbdFree (Line 243, “VClient.pas” + 3) + $2
[204747E1]{coreide160.bpl} IDEKbd… (Line 215, “kbpublic.cpp” + 171) + $C
[5033F6F8]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TDockTree.WindowProc (Line 15216, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 1) + $6
[20769FD8]{coreide160.bpl} KbClient.TIDEKBDChildAPI.KBDClearPrimFocus (Line 1315, “KbClient.pas” + 5) + $1
[20758878]{coreide160.bpl} EditorControl.TCustomEditControl.WMKillFocus (Line 7349, “EditorControl.pas” + 16) + $1
[50332995]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TControl.WndProc (Line 7204, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 91) + $6
[503372F3]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TWinControl.WndProc (Line 9976, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 152) + $6
[50336948]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Controls.TWinControl.MainWndProc (Line 9689, “Vcl.Controls.pas” + 3) + $6
[500B6890]{rtl160.bpl } System.Classes.StdWndProc (Line 13878, “System.Classes.pas” + 8) + $0
[50453134]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Forms.TApplication.ProcessMessage (Line 10143, “Vcl.Forms.pas” + 2) + $9
[50453256]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Forms.TApplication.HandleMessage (Line 10194, “Vcl.Forms.pas” + 1) + $4
[50453595]{vcl160.bpl } Vcl.Forms.TApplication.Run (Line 10332, “Vcl.Forms.pas” + 26) + $3
As soon as I disable it, search works fine again. I’m using a modal search window plugin (afair the one from Uwe Raabe) with XE2.
June 17, 2014 at 2:24 am
Please report this using the issue page of the project.
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July 5, 2014 at 12:59 am
I think captions of tool windows should follow the theme – they are always gray despite of theme change. I know they can be set in the custom tab, but that way you have to fine tune them on each theme change. I have no google account so I’ll not report this in issue system, sorry.
July 7, 2014 at 12:42 pm
This improvement will be included in the next version of the plugin.
Pingback: DIC now supports VCL Styles | The Road to Delphi - a Blog about programming
July 8, 2014 at 2:31 pm
Very cool — my IDE looks great! Thanks, and keep up the good work!
July 8, 2014 at 2:34 pm
Thanks Nick :)
July 8, 2014 at 6:15 pm
My employer’s proxy server blocks your updater and I get “Error running context: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host” when trying to do a svn checkout. Can you post the lastest exe somewhere pls.
July 8, 2014 at 10:04 pm
Hi David, the installer link (https://goo.gl/qtOSmK) is located in the wiki page of the project https://code.google.com/p/delphi-ide-theme-editor/wiki/DICFeatures
July 9, 2014 at 9:55 am
Nice work, but really – what is it for?
A bit like the early days or “home hobbyists” with Windows – they’d customise and tweak and tune everything until when they came to upgrade to a new computer, or went onto someone else’s, they would be lost because it was so different!
As a professional developer i appreciate being able to hop onto any one of my colleague’s PCs and assist them. With this, it’d take ages just to work out what was what in the IDE.
A bit of fun perhaps but there are good reasons for standardizing your IDE and leaving it as it comes out of the box.
July 9, 2014 at 12:43 pm
Hi Joe, Thanks for your comments, most of the modern IDEs (VS, Intellij IDEA, Eclipse) includes options to customize the look and feel of the workspace and this plugin pretends fill this gap in the RAD Studio IDE. I now which many developers are not very comfortably using skins and custom colors, but others want to customize the IDE look and feel creating a more personal experience, I spend between 10 and 12 hours every day coding on my laptop and I really prefer use a tool with my own colors.
October 21, 2014 at 2:18 pm
How do to uninstall?
October 21, 2014 at 10:31 pm
Go to the https://code.google.com/p/delphi-ide-theme-editor/wiki/DIC page and read the instructions.
November 13, 2014 at 12:00 pm
is it compatible with XE7 ?
November 14, 2014 at 10:12 am
Yes, the plugin is compatible with RAD Studio XE7, for more info check the page of the project https://code.google.com/p/delphi-ide-theme-editor/wiki/DICFeatures
November 15, 2014 at 7:55 am
thanks for the answer (and the program)
November 19, 2014 at 3:08 pm
I did not yet install it, but does DIC also allow to change the font back to the one which was used w/o moderntheme*.bpl ?
November 20, 2014 at 11:30 am
Can you give a sample image of do you want accomplish?
November 20, 2014 at 4:03 am
Does DIC also allow to change Fonts?
November 20, 2014 at 11:28 am
No for the moment, but you can request this feature using the issue page of the project
March 12, 2015 at 3:06 pm
Can you make one for Delphi 7 ?
March 13, 2015 at 1:07 am
Sorry but the plugin was designed to work only in the newer Delphi versions. Make a version compatible with the old Delphi versions would require a lot of effort.
July 14, 2015 at 4:09 pm
After installing Delphi XE2 does not open , the message , ” Embarcadero RAD Studio for Windows has stopped working .”
I had to uninstall IDEColorizer
July 14, 2015 at 4:14 pm
Which version of the plugin are you using?
July 14, 2015 at 4:35 pm
0.7.9.1
July 14, 2015 at 5:01 pm
Ok, then you can use the issue page of the project to report any issue https://github.com/RRUZ/Delphi-IDE-Colorizer/issues
January 21, 2016 at 9:15 am
Great goodies! I really like the theme you used here: https://theroadtodelphi.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/dic_vclstyles_menus.png but I can’t replicate it. How do I set it up so that it would look like that? Thanks!
January 21, 2016 at 4:19 pm
The Style used on that image is called Cobalt XEMedia
May 17, 2016 at 12:47 pm
When u guys will release for Delphi XE10 Berlin?
May 17, 2016 at 12:50 pm
Hi Charles, you must be patient with this, because the class helper limitation introduced in Berlin, causes several issues to compile the code, and fix all these will take some time.
Regards
Rodrigo.