Last week I had a look at Personas, an online theme gallery with which you can easily customize the look and feel of Firefox. But perhaps the most interesting thing about Personas is that you can create your own theme really easily. Let’s see how:
1. First of all, you need to install the Personas Plus extension in Firefox. You can download it from the Personas website. Once it’s running, Personas Plus will display a tiny fox icon in the bottom left corner of Firefox’s interface.
2. Now it’s time to get to work. Open Photoshop and create the header for your theme. There are some conditions you should take into account:
- The image should be 3000 pixels wide and 200 pixels high.
- Save it in PNG or JPG file format.
- Keep the most important area of your image to the right side of the header.
- Try to use soft designs and color gradients – they work best as background images. Bear in mind that highly detailed designs will interfere with buttons and menus on the browser’s interface.
3. the next step is creating the footer for your theme. Again, you should be take into account the following:
- The image should be 3000 pixels wide and 100 pixels high.
- Save it in PNG or JPG file format.
- Follow the same style as for the header: subtle designs and soft color gradients are the best option.
4. Would you like to test the theme on your own browser? Easy: click the Personas Plus icon, select Preferences and then enable the “Show Custom Persona in menu” option. Press OK.
5. Click the Personas Plus icon again and go to Custom Persona > Edit. Select the images you created for the header and footer, and you’ll be able to see them applied as a theme straight away.
6. The last step is uploading your theme to the Personas gallery. Make sure your design doesn’t break any copyright rules, and proceed to share your theme with the world. Another option is keeping the theme for your use only – which you can do from the Personas Plus menu. Unfortunately there’s a bug that prevents this option from working with the most recent versions of Firefox. They’re already working on it, so I hope it’s fixed soon!
