Themes, Arch R

The default theme is Art Book Next by Anthony Caccese. It handles several aspect ratios (16:9, 16:10, 4:3, 3:2 and 1:1), which is why it works on a 4:3 handheld without looking stretched.

It is installed at /usr/share/themes/es-theme-art-book-next and linked into the user theme folder as /storage/.config/emulationstation/themes/system-theme, which is the name EmulationStation selects by default. ArchR removes five artwork variants from the install (circuit, classic, nintendont, noir and outline) to keep the image smaller.

Configure the default theme

ES → UI Settings → Theme Set → Theme Configuration. Art Book Next exposes these:

Option	What it does
Distribution	Which folder the theme reads customizations from. Leave it on `RockNIX`: that preset points at `~/roms/_userdata/`, which is the layout ArchR uses.
Aspect Ratio	`16:9`, `16:10`, `4:3`, `3:2` or `1:1`. The R36S panel is 4:3.
System Artwork	`Default`, `Custom` or `Custom (Fullscreen)`.
System Count	Show or hide the game count per system.
System Logos	`Default` or `Custom`.
System Logo Animation	Default, Fade In, Zoom Bump, Swoop, Drop, Skid or Spinner.
Game Artwork	`Image`, `Image (Cropped)`, `Boxart` or `Logo`.
Game Metadata	Show or hide the metadata panel in the game list.
Game Video Delay	How long before a preview video starts.
Fonts and Font Size	Default or custom font file, and Small / Default / Large / Extra Large.
Color Scheme	Default, Light, SteamOS, SNES, Famicom, OLED or Custom.
Splash Screen and Network Icon	Default or custom.

Match the scraper to the theme

The theme shows whatever the scraper downloaded, so the two settings have to agree. Which sources you can choose depends on the database you scrape from, see Scraping.

For screenshots in the game list, set Image source to Screenshot and Game Artwork to Image or Image (Cropped).

For a box-art-first look, set Image source to Box 2D and Game Artwork to Boxart. Leave Box source on Box 2D either way, that is what fills the box slot in the detail view.

Logo source feeds the per-game logo. IGDB does not serve logos at all, and ArcadeDB only offers Marquee for arcade systems, so most game lists will show titles as text.

Customizing Art Book Next

Customizations live outside the theme folder, so they survive an update:

/storage/roms/_userdata/theme-customizations/art-book-next/

That path comes from the RockNIX Distribution preset (~/roms/_userdata/). If you switch the Distribution option, the path changes with it.

System artwork

/storage/roms/_userdata/theme-customizations/art-book-next/artwork/
   _default.png          fallback for systems without their own image
   snes.png              per system, the filename is the ES system tag

Set System Artwork to Custom. There is a separate artwork-fullscreen/ folder for the fullscreen variant, which accepts .png and .jpg.

The theme's author publishes masks and templates that match the layout.

System logos

/storage/roms/_userdata/theme-customizations/art-book-next/logos/
   snes.svg              SVG scales cleanly, PNG also works
   psx.png

Set System Logos to Custom.

Colors

Save a modified copy of the colors template as:

/storage/roms/_userdata/theme-customizations/art-book-next/colors.xml

and set Color Scheme to Custom.

Fonts

Same idea with the fonts template:

/storage/roms/_userdata/theme-customizations/art-book-next/fonts.xml

and set Fonts to Custom.

Adding other themes

EmulationStation reads themes from two folders:

/storage/roms/themes/, which is where the built-in installer puts them
/storage/.config/emulationstation/themes/, next to the system theme

Each theme is its own folder inside one of those. To install one without a computer, use ES → Updates & Downloads → Themes. To install by hand, copy the folder in over Samba or SSH and pick it under UI Settings → Theme Set.

ArchR's EmulationStation comes from the Batocera family, so themes written for Batocera and for other forks of the same frontend generally load. Themes designed only for 16:9 screens will look cramped on a 4:3 panel; switching back is a two-click operation, so trying one costs nothing.

Writing your own

That is a topic of its own, and the Batocera theme guide describes the same theming engine ArchR uses.

Themes

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