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Art Book Next for EmulationStation

A simple theme for the version of EmulationStation used in Batocera (v40 and above). Based on the style of a coffee table book.

This version of the theme only works with distributions that use the latest Batocera (v40 and above) fork of EmulationStation. Specifically Batocera, Knulli, RockNIX and RetroBat

Preview

system view menu
gamelist-view-1 gamelist-view-2

Theme Configuration

The following options can be changed directly from the main menu under User Interface Settings > Theme Configuration

Setting Description Options
Distribution Used to define which folder to look in for Theme Customization files. Batocera/Knulli, RockNIX, RetroBat
Aspect Ratio Enables you to select the correct aspect ratio for your screen. This will automatically set itself so you should not need to change it but if the theme layout looks odd or spacing looks incorrect you can use this setting to make sure the aspect ratio matches your screen. 16:9, 16:10, 4:3, 3:2, 1:1
System Artwork Defines the set of artwork that is displayed on the system view Default, Noir, Custom, Custom (Fullscreen)
System Logos Defines the logo set used on all views Default, Custom
Game Artwork Defines the type of artwork used to represent a game. These are sourced from the the selections you make in the scraper menu. Image will display the image you selected to scrape for Image Source. Image (Cropped) will display that same image zoomed in to fill the screen. Boxart will display the image you selected to scrape for Box Source Image, Image (Cropped), Boxart, Logo
Game Metadata Sets if metadata (e.g. description, release date, etc...) should be displayed for a game On, Off
Fonts Define the fonts used throughout the theme. Default, Custom
Font Size Set the size for text elements throughout the theme. Default, Small, Large, Extra Large
Color Scheme Sets the color scheme that is used for the theme. There is a set of prebuilt color schemes that you can select and an option to supply your custom color scheme (selected by choosing custom). You can see details on customizations below under Theme Customizations. Default, Light, Steam OS, SNES, Famicom, OLED, Custom
Splash Screen Toggles an optional custom splash screen which will be displayed when EmulationStation is loading and/or scanning for ROMs. Default, Custom

Additional UI Settings

The following EmulationStation settings can also be changed and will update the look of the theme accordingly:

  • User Interface Settings > Show Clock - This will allow you to turn the system clock on or off
  • User Interface Settings > On-Screen Help - This will turn the display of EmulationStation's help system on or off (the theme's layout will automatically adapt to the available space)
  • User Interface Settings > Show Battery Status - This will allow you to change what is displayed for the battery status.

Theme Customizations

Art Book Next allows customizations to system artwork and color schemes without the need to edit the source XML. This enables you to change the look of the theme and still retain your changes when the theme is updated.

Start Here

  • Make sure the Distribution setting is set to the correct value for your current OS (e.g. Batocera/Knulli or RetroBat)
  • This value determines the folder where you will add your customizations
    • Batocera/Knulli = /userdata/theme-customizations/art-book-next/
    • RockNIX = /roms/_userdata/theme-customizations/art-book-next/
    • Retrobat = C:\RetroBat\emulationstation\.emulationstation\theme-customizations\art-book-next\
  • Create the folders that match your distribution and then move on to the options below...

Background Art

The artwork used on the system view can be customized with your own images.

For angled artwork:

  • Create your custom artwork using one of the masks i've supplied in this theme's resources directory here. I've included a set of masks that should work in all major image editing programs.
  • Export your final images as transparent pngs
  • Create a folder in the path you created above called artwork
  • Upload your images to that folder
  • They can be named:
    • _default.png
    • ${system.theme}.png
    • The theme will look them them up in that order. If a given image is not found in your folder then the the images from the theme will be used as a fallback. This allows you to customize only the images you want and still have images displayed for all systems.
    • _default.png can be used for creating a single image that is used for all systems OR a fallback for systems that you did not create a custom image for (if you don't want to use the fallback that already exists in the theme)
    • ${system.theme}.png should be named for the system you are looking to override. For example if you wanted to override the artwork for snes you would create an image called snes.png in the artwork folder.
  • Once your images are in place you turn on custom images by changing the System Artwork setting to Custom

For fullscreen artwork:

  • Create a folder in the path you created above called artwork-fullscreen
  • Upload your images to that folder
  • They can be named:
    • _default.png
    • _default.jpg
    • ${system.theme}.png
    • ${system.theme}.jpg
    • The theme will look them them up in that order.
    • _default.png/jpg can be used for creating a single image that is used for all systems OR a fallback for systems that you did not create a custom image for (if you don't want to use the fallback that already exists in the theme)
    • ${system.theme}.png/jpg should be named for the system you are looking to override. For example if you wanted to override the artwork for snes you would create an image called snes.png or snes.jpg in the artwork folder.
  • Once your images are in place you turn on custom images by changing the System Artwork setting to Custom (Fullscreen)

If you create a set of images that you would like to share with the community please let me know about it here

Splash Screen

  • Upload your image to the folder you created above
  • It can be named:
    • splash.png
    • splash.jpg
  • One your image is in place you turn on your splash screen by changing Splash Screen to Custom

Color Schemes

You can create your own custom color scheme to use for the theme

  • Download this template: https://github.com/anthonycaccese/art-book-next-es/blob/main/resources/customizations/colors.xml
  • Upload it in the path you created above and make sure its called colors.xml
  • Change any values in the template to the colors you prefer.
  • I tried to make the values as self explanatory as possible but if you have questions regarding which property does what please don't hesitate to ask.
  • After your colors are defined; in theme configuration change Color Scheme to Custom

Logos

System logos can be customized by adding your own images

  • Create a folder in the path you created above called logos
  • Upload your images to that folder
  • They can be named:
    • ${system.theme}.svg
    • ${system.theme}.png
    • The theme will look them them up in that order. If a given image is not found in your folder then the the images from the theme will be used as a fallback. This allows you to customize only the images you want and still have images displayed for all systems.
    • ${system.theme}.svg/png should be named for the system you are looking to override. For example if you wanted to override the logo for snes you would create an image called snes.svg or snes.png in the logos folder.
  • Once your images are in place you turn on custom images by changing the System Logos setting to Custom

Fonts

You can supply your own fonts for each of the font types defined in the theme

  • There are 4 font types:
    • Bold: Used for the Clock, Battery, Gamelist, Game Count, Game Release Date, Game Play Time, Game Playcount, Menu Items
    • Regular: Used for Game Description, Menu Groups
    • Light: Used for Menu Footer
    • Logo: Used for System Names if a logo image does not exist
  • Download this template: https://github.com/anthonycaccese/art-book-next-es/blob/main/resources/customizations/fonts.xml
  • Upload it in the path you created above and make sure its called fonts.xml
  • Create a sub folder in that same path called /fonts and upload your custom font for each type into it
  • Add the filename for each font into the fonts.xml file
  • Once your fonts are in place you turn on custom fonts by changing the Fonts setting to Custom

Additional Notes

Media Scraping:

  • To make game artwork look as good as possible the recommneded settings for the built-in scraper are:
    • Image Source = Screenshot
    • Box Source = Box 2D
    • Logo Source = Wheel

Versions for other ES forks:

  • If you use ES-DE... then the ES-DE version here will work out of the box with that distribution. When used with ES-DE the theme comes with additional support for navigation sound sets.

Acknowledgments

  • Most system logos were sourced and modified from the excellent work done by Dan Patrick here. I modified each to be compatible with EmulationStation's current SVG support.
  • ChangaOne font is by Eduardo Tunni
  • Auto-Collection Genre background art created by @nautipuss
  • Metadata Icons sourced from FontAwesome
  • The Noir System Artwork set was created and provided by tenlevels with help from f8less and inspired by the artwork from the Epic Noir theme by chicuelo
  • Thank you to GenoCL for the idea of the multi-artwork system view. It got me to think about ES themes in a different way when building it out and it came out awesome.

License

Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ You are free to share and adapt this theme as long as you provide attribution back to me (and the above credits) as well share any updates you make under the same license terms.

Thank you for taking a look at this 😄