Hey Doortech, I just posted the above comment and didn't even see that you'd written again.

I thank you very much for pointing out the start button images that wern't positioned right. I did take it down right away and corrected the problem. I'm quite embarrased that I overlooked that placement when making the skin. My only defense is that those darn inner shape layers were giving me fits because I had no way of painting them so the highlights and shadows didn't stretch. I liked the overall design effect and believe it or not, that whole skin design came from watching a you tube video on creating a company logo. I just fell in love with the inner color layer and decided it had to become a skin.

When i can, I actually use the original graphics as a background layer to line up my images such as taskbar buttons. This start button just happened to be bigger than the original and I completely spaced when it came to checking the spacing using skin studio's painting section. On my previous skin, I got brave and did a 4 frame start button animation but the extra images didn't show up in the painting section and aligning them gave me fits for over an hour.

Thanks again for the input and as far as appologizing to Stardock.... it'll be a cold day after the lack of support I've gotten from them. My conputer just doesn't like Stardock products and I've written tech support many times now due to Skin Studio and DesktopX not getting along with my system and it's (Very Overprotective) Security suite. My Bitdefender seees all stardock programs as intruders and I've had to put in all Stardock directories to be excluded from virus search as well as disabling parts of Bitdefender itself after it wouldn't let me save any new settings on my skins and the DesktopX Multibar I created and posted here.

Good move.  Never alter from the 'standard default' when skinning.  For yourself it is fine...and you can even fudge graphics to compensate for a specific issue.

But when you skin for release to others you do not have that option.

If you skin for default and someone else has settings at 125%, etc....and it messes up on theirs....so be it....it's their problem not yours...

I used to use Bitdefender and had no problems with Stardock apps.... I only switched to Kaspersky because BD was too slow catching up to Win 7.

BD DID deny me access to an 'innocent' Sonique download.....which was annoying. [it's an old media player [skinnable]]...

i AM NOT CHOOSING SIDES, NOT SAFE, BUT THAT DOES SOUND LIKE A PC ISSUE, EVER TRIED ADDING EXCEPTIONS FOR sTARDOCK STUFF, OR MAYBE EDIT YOUR HOST FILE IF sTARDOCK IS IN IT? Sorry, just noticed my caps lock on while hitting shift, duh. Any security can be adjusted to your likes. Just a matter of learning how. With that harsh of a security , your pc probably blocks any free software, even if you have a paid version, still will recognize the site as a free software sight. Just FYI, I guess.

The  shadows and highlights will not stretch funny if you choose the right size image and settings in how it is displayed or painted. IE:  center true size, tile the image horizontally etc.Adjusting the size can also help. Sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller.Or, add some highlights as a glyph and center true size usually works well. Okay sorry to ramble. Good luck

Hmmmm, after reading all this it's odd that I always make my all programs image 30 pixels in height, and don't have any real issues with it at all. Oh well, whatever works!

Yeah! The emoticons issue is fixed!

I believe that the 30 pixel height is the suggested maximum size and works for me as well.

heh another skinning issue solved from us killer skinners....

do we all kick as or what???

I'm glad it's finally sorted out. I was at a loss why it was looking like that on his PC and not mine. The font size setting never even crossed my mind!

(just goes to show ya that there is always something to learn)

Lightstar and Gmc, probably works because of the 125% settings you do not apply to your pc's.Painting compensates.

really was a combination of two problems exaggerating one another. Five pixels is not a lot, but combined with his oversized setting, it made it worse.

And I believe lightstar said he sometimes compensates for that sizing difference, but I wonder, do Lightstars skins not work without that issue of misalignment on DocWilson's pc?

How about it Doc, or anyone using large text settings?Just thoughts anyhow.

I have noticed that on my Multi-layered animated Startmenus it all goes 2 f*k at 125%

The reason I asked specifically about lightstars skins on Docs pc was that if it does not look off at 125%, that would mean that it was not so much the painting or the size of the all programs image height, but rather an issue with the two left parts not equaling the right half in height, thus confirming the five pixel variable in suggested size.

 IE:  3dblues

programs list293height,  all programs list 25height, nothing wrong there. Equals 318

Places list324 height, that's an issue.

 I would venture a guess any skin cut and applied without painting margins during creation would look fine for Doc. anything cut utilizing margins to correct images, would need adjusted for him. Just guessing though.

I have noticed that on my Multi-layered animated Startmenus it all goes 2 f*k at 125%

 What , a multi layered what? To hard to say let alone do!

I wonder seems how you are so ambitious , make a skin at 125% then apply it at 100% to see if that works better. I bet it would make a difference. I would try, but I actually think my head is hurting thinking about all those layers!!!

Plus you are soooooo talented,, ass kiss ass kiss, so I will expect a finished copy by morning, but take your time. Also could you do three substyle so we can compare them, pretty please, with a kitty on top.

No, the 30 pixel height is the max allowed, not sure how overall text size impacts a blind but...

That was my point GMC, that it was not the size of the ap image, but the improper sizing of the left and right side height.Text sizes would more than likely only affect how much text was visible on buttons and search boxes and such.