Classic theme?

[TarryDan]

How easy would it be for the details of the original Jabref design to be recreated as a theme for the new version?

Not to be that one guy, but the 'old-fashioned' UI of Jabref was the reason I chose it over alternatives - something about that 90s brutalist web design reads to me as tool-like, focused, robust and serious, whereas whatever this contemporary trend is called, seems a lot less usable

(I think it prompts my brain starts drifting into passive, Facebook-using mode, rather like the trend identified in this talk by Maciej Cegłowski when he's discussing the update to Paypal's interface. Like you're now using Duplo rather than Technic Lego; or reminding one of the way WIndows 10 has been dumbed down for end users compared to Windows 97, visually and in terms of accessible functionality).

It's a big dealbreaker (I think it's particularly the change of font, and the increased padding around text). Plus the inconvenience of having to relearn a tool/create a custom theme for an existing tool to continue in use.

I can potter around with the CSS, but perhaps developers who are more involved with the original design would be in a better position to recreate it as a theme option.

(& I also wanted to raise it to note that this is a demographic that exists - this kind of old school design isn't 'old fashioned' like an avocado bathroom that everybody hates, it's more like a timeless design trend like a classic car)

[ghost]

I don't think it's possible because they changed the UI from Swing to JavaFX, which looks completely different.
So even if you change the colors, the widgets will not have the classic look.
I'm not a developer so I could be wrong.

You mean this ?

https://jabref.soft32.com/

Please make a PR if you created a theme!

[ThiloteE]

This was before my time, so I am not sure about all the details.

What I know:

1. JabRef currently uses JavaFX and for the near future this is unlikely to change.
2. Swing is not developed anymore and only in low maintenance mode, while JavaFX instead has an active community and experiences continued development, bug fixing and support. If there is a bug in JavaFX, we can have hope it will get fixed in future, whereas with Swing, there is no hope.

If you want to dive deep into it, the following links are a good start:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3167327/swing-removed-from-jdk
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5828625/if-swing-is-deprecated-what-is-the-alternative?rq=3
https://stackoverflow.com/a/62976209

It is probably not worth the time and effort to go back to swing, when we could improve JabRef in various other ways.
As long as functionality is not infringed upon, it is "only" a question of beauty and aesthetics, which often boils down to everybodys subjectivity. I sincerely appeal to your ability to get used to new things. We all have to compromise from time to time.

About a theme: Since JabRef is open source, you or anybody else can propose a pull-request.