What’s Sunisoft Skin Solutions v2

Since 2001, we provide skin solutions (SUIPack/SUISkin) for Delphi/C++Builder developers. Since 2005, we extended our skin technique to .NET(Winforms) platform (IrisSkin). Sunisoft Skin Solutions v2 is a full upgrade for all these products. It includes, an upgraded specification for skin description, a brand new SkinBuilder tool which is much easier to use for UI/skin designers, the upgraded components for developers and much more new skins. With it, you can Design freely, Get immediately.

With new SkinBuilder tool which supports to load VisualStyle(*.msstyles) files, you can own thousands of skins now!

We have over 2,000 customers who are using Sunisoft Skin Solutions v2 around world.

Upgraded skin specification

In version 2, we improved the skin description and specification. It provides more flexible in design. E.g. version 2 supports two modes of the title bar definiens for a window: 5 sections mode and 3 sections mode. The 3 secions mode is a traditionary mode which supported by version 1 of skin solutions. It just separates a title bar into 3 sections: left, right and middle. The left section and right section will be painted on the left/right side of the title bar with original size. And the middle section will be stretch(horizontal) painted between left and right section. In version 2, the new 5 sections mode supports to separate a title bar into 5 sections: left, caption, bridge, middle and right. The newly added caption and bridge sections are designed for showing the caption of the window more suitably. It means that the length of the caption section will be adjusted according to the length of the caption automatically. Here is an example of 5 sections mode(DiamondGreen skin):

Full caption:

Decreased the width of the window:

Version 2 also upgraded the format of the skin file. In version 1, we use .sui files as the skin files. In version 2, we use the improved .ssk(Sunisoft Skin) files. All components which supports Skin Solutions v2 use .ssk file. The new format of the skin file decreased its size much. And it supports to be password-protected, it means the skins provider/designer can distribute the skins with password protected and only licensed people can use it.

Version 2 also added more definition and improved the definition for some of controls. More, please refer to the what’s new page.

A brand new SkinBuilder tool

In version 2, the skin components (e.g. SUISkin for Delphi/C++Builder, IrisSkin for .NET/Winforms) conform to an uniform skin specification and use the uniform skin files (*.ssk). SkinBuilder is the tool to help to build skin file from a single bitmap file. It also can decompile the skin file (*.ssk) and version 1 skin file (*.sui) to a single bitmap file. From v1.1 of the SkinBuilder tool, it even supports to load a VisualStyle(*.msstyles) file and then build it into a skin file. This means that you can own thousands of skins.

The newly designed SkinBuilder tool is much easier to use than bofore. For a designer, he just need to prepare a source bitmap file for his design, then open it with SkinBuilder and build it into the skin file. No project management, no any settings. To download the free SkinBuilder tool, please click here…

Upgraded skin components

We also updated our skin components for Skin Solutions v2.
IrisSkin, from 3.0, fully supports Skin Solutions v2.
SUISkin, from 4.0, fully supports Skin Solutions v2.
SUIPack, from 6.0, fully supports Skin Solutions v2.

Please note, all upgraded components only supports new format of the skin file(*.ssk). If you have created some old version skin files(*.sui), you can convert them into the new version with SkinBuilder tool.