Wallpaper and Screensaver by Chameleon Clock
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Wallpaper Clock skin file, basically, is a set of PNG, JPEG, GIF images and one INI-file, packed as a ZIP archive with .wcz extension. Every minute the program compiles a background image, as well as month, day, hour and minutes images to a single image. The result is set as wallpaper or displayed as screensaver. Optionally, you can add zodiac and moon images, as well as screensaver animation. Wallpaper Clock skins do not display seconds as they are refreshed once in a minute.

All images in the set should be the same size as a background image. Thus, each .wcz file contains a wallpaper for one specific screen size.

Download Wallpaper Clock Tester - a piece of software which helps to test your wallpaper image and create previews.

How to make a wallpaper clock

1. Create a background image.

We recommend to create separate WCZ package for each of the following common PC screen sizes:

• 800x600 pixels
• 1024x768 pixels
• 1152x864 pixels
• 1280x800 pixels
• 1280x1024 pixels
• 1440x900 pixels
• 1600x1200 pixels
• 1680x1050 pixels
• 1920x1200 pixels
• 2560x1600 pixels

Save background image in JPEG format as bg.jpg (required name).

2. Create time and date images.

Create separate image for each month, day, hour, and minute. Save them in PNG format with transparency as (required names):

• month1.png, ..., month12.png
• day1.png, ..., day31.png
• hour0.png, hour1.png, ......
• minute0.png, ...., minute59.png

Concerning hour images, you're free to choose how many hour images you need. Digital clocks usually have 24 images. Analog clock may have from 12 to 60 images, the more images it has, the smoother an hour hand moves. Number of the hour images is set in the INI file (see below).

3. Create day of the week, moon, zodiac, and am/pm images.

These images are optional. Save the images in PNG format with transparency as (required names):

• weekday1.png, ..., weekday7.png
• moonphase1.png, ..., moonphase30.png
• zodiacAquarius.png, zodiacAries.png, zodiacCancer.png, zodiacCapricorn.png, zodiacGemini.png, zodiacLeo.png, zodiacLibra.png, zodiacPisces.png, zodiacSagittarius.png, zodiacScorpio.png, zodiacTaurus.png, zodiacVirgo.png
• am.png, pm.png

The final wallpaper image will be compiled from all the described parts drawing one by one in the following order:

1. bg.jpg
2. zodiac
3. moonphase
4. month
5. weekday
6. day
7. hour
8. am/pm
9. minute

4. Create preview images.

Save preview of your wallpaper as 3 files:

• JPEG 200x150 pixels: preview200x150.jpg (required name)
• JPEG 400x300 pixels: preview400x300_1.jpg and preview400x300_2.jpg (required names)

Save two different shapshots as preview400x300_1.jpg and preview400x300_2.jpg to make a pseudo-animation on preview (handled by gallery scripts, see example).

5. Create INI file.

The file clock.ini (required name) contains your wallpaper settings; for example:

[Settings]
name=Time Flow
width=800
height=600
author=Vlad Gerasimov
email=vladstudio@gmail.com
description=Time Flies and Flows
homepageURL=http://www.vladstudio.com
downloadURL=http://www.vladstudio.powweb.com/wcz/timeflow.wcz
backColor=#555
refreshhourinterval=60
hourimages=24

[Animation]
animationFile1Name=anim.gif
animationFile1X=0
animationFile1Y=0
soundFile=anim.mp3

[WallpaperClock]
specVersion=1.0
specDescription=http://www.wallpaperclock.com/spec.html

name, width, height, refreshhourinterval, and hourimages are mandatory fields, the rest ones are optional.

refreshhourinterval sets an interval (in minutes) of hour images changes. Recommended interval for digital clock is 60, and 12 - for analog clock.

hourimages sets a number of hour images. For digital clock the number is usually 24 (from hour0.png to hour23.png), for analog clock it is 60 (from hour0.png to hour59.png) or less depening on how smooth you want an hour hand to move.

backColor is a HTML color value for filling the background below the image in the centered mode in case if the image size is less than the screen size.

animationFile1Name, animationFile2Name, etc (up to 7 files) are GIF animations. They are not used for wallpaper, but placed over the image when it is displayed as screensaver. animationFile1X and animationFile1Y are coordinates of animationFile1Name image, with the left top wallpaper corner as a zero point (0,0).

soundFile is continuously played when the image is displayed as screensaver.

6. Test your wallpaper.

Download Wallpaper Clock Tester which will help you to check how your wallpaper displays different date, time, and animation. Open your clock.ini in the program and see if everything is correct.

7. Publish it!

Zip all the files and save the file with .WCZ extension.

If you'd like to publish your work on softshape.com website, email us !