Download Crystal Black for Mac - Snow Leopard theme with glossy interface. MacUpdate.com

Crystal Black 1.3.1

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Snow Leopard theme with glossy interface. Shareware ($8.00)

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MarsThemes

Crystal Black is a theme for Mac OS X that features beautiful, glossy black buttons and widgets, based on the legendary Cathode theme for ShapeShifter. Crystal Black supports white text as needed for proper contrast with black buttons and dark backgrounds. Includes a set of complementary icons, and dozens of custom graphics for popular Apple and third-party applications. Perfect for people who like to work in the dark!

What's New

Version 1.3.1:

Incorporates the latest Lion graphics from CrystalClear Interface 2.7.
Updates graphics for the TimeMachine system preferences pane.
Fixes a bug that could disable older (pre-10.4) versions of iTunes. (Users of older versions who want the Crystal Black skin can download the Crystal Black for iTunes software and use that.)
Fixes a bug that prevented the Airport status icon from being themed on Lion.
Fixes a bug that could allow a window to be moved by dragging a "split view" divider bar.
Fixes a bug that made Crystal Black incompatible with Path Finder 6.0.

Version 1.3.1:

Incorporates the latest Lion graphics from CrystalClear Interface 2.7.
Updates graphics for the TimeMachine system preferences pane.
Fixes a bug that could disable older (pre-10.4) versions of iTunes. (Users of older versions who want the Crystal Black skin can download the Crystal Black for iTunes software and use that.)
Fixes a bug that prevented the Airport more...

Requirements

Intel
Mac OS X 10.6 or later, Mac OS X 10.7.3
64-bit processor
Version 1.3 drops support for Lion version 10.7.2 and doesn't support the forthcoming updates to 10.7.4 or 10.8

CrystalClear I...

+2
Shareware $12.00

Customize aspects of the Mac OS ...
Nocturne

+1
Free

Switches your display to night ...

Crystal Black User Discussion (Write a Review)

ver. 1.x:

(3)

Your rating: Now say why...

Overall:

(3)

sort: smiles | time

-1

Claod reviewed on 25 Feb 2012

C'est de la grosse merde, ça fout le bordel avec les autorisations et le parfeu apres la desinstallation. Le design est foiré, pas de barre transparente, aucun réglage réellement accessible. ZERO

[Version 1.2.4]

+57

Pirx commented on 17 Feb 2012

My sincere thanks for the herculean effort to bring some change to the dull greyness of OS X GUI. I really appreciate it.

Having said that, there is just too much that does not look right when using this theme.

But I thank again for providing a clean uninstall.

[Version 1.2.4]

+92

Mac007 reviewed on 17 Feb 2012

This program has potential but it has some nasty problems with Apple's App Store, My Living Desktop, and Digital Sentry. Apple's App Store launches ok but then begins to flash on and off endlessly making the computer completely unusable. The only solution was to do a shut down which had to be attempted twice before it was successful. The other two apps would not load at all and Digital Sentry even popped up a warning message regarding CCI. Because of this I've had to uninstall CCI on both my laptop and my Mac Pro due to these problems. I'm afraid Apple is dead set on stopping these types of programs and it looks to get worse with Mountain Lion. Maybe that's why most developers have given up and gone on to other things. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news as I really wanted to like this app.

[Version 1.2.4]

1 Reply

Musings From Mars (developer) replied on 03 Apr 2012

FYI, that was a bug that was quickly fixed and updated in a new release.

Llscotts (developer) commented on 07 Nov 2011

In you're trying Crystal Black on Lion, here's a tip to make the install complete:
After restarting when the install program finishes, logout again, and deselect the checkbox that offers to reopen your windows when you log in again.

Doing this will allow Crystal Black to load normally.

For more information and answers to frequently asked questions, refer to the FAQ page on the Crystal Black website.

[Version 1.2.2.2]

+92

Mac007 commented on 02 Nov 2011

Link to developer's website leads to dead end.

[Version 1.2.2.1]

2 Replies

Musings From Mars (developer) replied on 07 Nov 2011

That problem was solved.

+92

Mac007 replied on 15 Feb 2012

Indeed it has! Good job!!

Magrathean commented on 16 Oct 2011

There's a little thing called Crystal Black For iTunes which solves the problem of CB not working on iTunes 10.4. But now iTunes 10.5 is out. Does anyone know whether CB For iTunes works properly on it?

I don't want to download iTunes 10.5 and try it out myself because my past experience with iTunes tells me that downgrading to a previous version of iTunes is a nightmare, especially if you've updated your music library since upgrading.

Thanks in advance.

[Version 1.2.1]

2 Replies

Musings From Mars (developer) replied on 07 Nov 2011

An update for Crystal Black iTunes has been released.

Magrathean replied on 07 Nov 2011

Thank you, MFM. =)

+60

WordWeaver commented on 25 Sep 2011

Even though I am not really a theme person, because I like to keep my system as light and fast as possible, out of curiosity, and because it looked nice in the web screenshots, I went ahead and downloaded Crystal Black.

I should have listened to the warning comments here instead.

Not only was I not impressed by this theme running on Lion -- it looks like something out of the 1990's and has jagged edges around some of the icons, and other issues -- but contrary to the developer's claims, even though I used the uninstaller to remove it from my system, and have since rebooted my iMac, there are STILL remnants of this theme on my machine, such as with the App Store app. Even relaunching the App Store app a few times does not remove Crystal Black from its menu bar.

I am not a happy camper.

[Version 1.2.1]

2 Replies

+60

WordWeaver replied on 25 Sep 2011

I just wanted to update my previous comments. After running the Crystal Black uninstaller a second time last night, and rebooting my machine a second time, the remnants of Crystal Black finally disappeared from the App Store app menubar.

-1

inplainview replied on 27 Sep 2011

I hear you dude. I hope EVERYONE reads this. This is a terrible, terrible app that makes some very bad changes to your OS. I am still finding issues. I am tempted to do a Time Machine restore just to see if I can put my system back before I installed this poorly written app. I can not remember the last time I have even been as disappointed as I am with an app.

-1

inplainview reviewed on 24 Sep 2011

This is the worse application I have used to date. It jacked up my Safari (reset it), changed the way YouControltunes works, and is basically not a very well thought out application. I would not even bother to try it unless you are willing to a chance on your OS being hosed.

[Version 1.2.1]

2 Replies

+14

Culture Of One replied on 24 Sep 2011

Oddly, I've never had any of these problems, and I've been using it for quite a while. CB is designed to alter the way things look, not the way they function, but there is the potential for some programs to be adversely affected. Usually if a program doesn't work well under the new graphics, you can disable CB for that app. It isn't a fix-all solution, but it's a start.

The developer is very responsive to issues, and tries to address any bugs in a timely fashion. I highly recommend contacting him with your concerns, as perhaps he can address any problems in the next update. Or, he may have already experienced this problem and have a work-around for it. Some of these solutions are listed in the documentation.

-1

inplainview replied on 24 Sep 2011

Thanks Culture of One for the reply. While some of the things you say may be true, I still find the fact that my settings on many apps have been changed by CB unacceptable. I would not recommend this app to anyone and I would caution anyone thinking of using it by saying that there are some very unexpected results. I am steering clear of this app for sure.

+98

Zephyris commented on 07 Jul 2011

Why no love for lion?

[Version 1.1]

3 Replies

+12

Ilovemymac replied on 07 Jul 2011

Lion is not even out yet. Give the developers time to create a working version for Lion. You can't expect things like this to just work on new systems. The developers need to make sure it can work safely with out totally screwing up the system.

Good things come to he who waits.

-1

+98

Zephyris replied on 08 Jul 2011

Thanks for the speech but unlike you I visited the developers website which states he won't be releasing a version for lion.

+12

Ilovemymac replied on 08 Jul 2011

No need to be rude. Just making a statement. Why does everyone always have to come back with rude remarks on this site? You could have just said. "Thanks, but I visited the developers website which states he won't be releasing a version for lion." And left "unlike you" out of it. Let's be grown up people here.

+46

Wts commented on 25 Apr 2011

Reminds me of Unsanity's ShapeShifter.

[Version 1.0]

+14

Culture Of One had trouble on 01 Nov 2011

Latest update wiped all my settings and replaced them; had to go back and reconfigure the interface after installing. Also noted some issues with Mail: after adjusting the color settings in CB, whichever message is selected at the time in Mail winds up permanently highlighted (as if it were part of a thread). Even if the message is deleted, the highlighting remains in the Trash. Furthermore, it retains the highlighting color settings; if the settings are changed when it isn't selected, the message will still be highlighted in the old color scheme. Very odd behavior.

[Version 1.2.2]

+14

Culture Of One had trouble on 24 Sep 2011

I'm having trouble upgrading. I currently have v1.2 installed, and see an update to v1.2.1 is available. CB v1.2 doesn't recognise the update as being a newer version, so I can't upgrade through the CB menu. Probably just isn't set up yet to recognise version numbers of x.y.z format. I'll try to download and install via this site instead.

[Version 1.2.1]

1 Reply

+14

Culture Of One replied on 01 Nov 2011

Same issue with upgrade to 1.2.2. My system tells me I have a newer version than is available!

+14

Culture Of One had trouble on 25 Jul 2011

Clearly Apple's iTunes 10.4 update is a little too Lion-ready; CBv1.1 won't work on iTunes 10.4. For those who really want CB to work on iTunes, don't upgrade to v10.4 yet!

[Version 1.1]

1 Reply

Magrathean replied on 13 Sep 2011

Hello.

I'm a huge fan of keyboard shortcuts; I use most of them constantly, especially for window-handling. I'm also a huge fan of tabs in Safari; I open related websites in different tabs in a single window and only create a new window when I want to open a website that's completely unrelated to what's open in existing windows.

I installed Crystal Black, which is absolutely beautiful (Cathode used to be my favourite theme when I used ShapeShifter), but since then Safari's "Close Window" and "Close Tab" keyboard shortcuts are messed up.

If my active Safari window had more than one tab open, command+W would close the active tab and command+shift+W would close the entire multi-tabbed window; if it had only one tab open, command+W would close the window.

When I installed Crystal Black, command+W was removed for tabs; it began closing entire windows regardless of the number of tabs open. I went to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Application Shortcuts and set it so command+W would close the active tab and command+shift+W would close the active window, but this is rather uncomfortable (I hate not being able to close a single-tabbed window with command+W) and, I hope, only a temporary solution. I'd be grateful if you could look into this.

I'm using Snow Leopard, by the way (with the Lion reviews I've read, I have absolutely no intention of going there for the time being).

Thanks in advance. Cheers.

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