“You personalize your physical workspace to suit your tastes and whims, so why not your Mac?” A persuasive argument made by Unsanity LLC, who released ShapeShifter in November 2003 to address that very need. The company updated the tool to version 1.1 on Wednesday.
ShapeShifter allows you to choose from a variety of themes that change the look of everything on your Mac, from standard icons and buttons to menus and windows. It lets you preview changes before you apply them, use Jaguar themes in Panther, and install different themes for different users. An active community of theme creators also offer a wide variety of downloadable themes to use with ShapeShifter; you can find links to them on Unsanity’s ShapeShifter page.
Version 1.1 introduces a long list of changes, including bug fixes and speed optimization as well as: themed menu colors for the battery and clock; “etched text” in the latest versions of Safari, iChat, iSync, and iPhoto; the ability to use themes with Safari’s tabs and Favorite Bar buttons; customizable Finder and Desktop filename text colors; and more.
The new update is a free download from the Unsanity Web site. A full license is US$20.