Skin structure

Skin Structure


XBMC skins once installed are located in userdata addons folder. This is the folder where all skins are placed and listed.

Any additional skins you create, or download from or be installed via zip XBMC will load and ask you if you would like to load the skin and also allow you to load them up from within the Appearance Settings. It is suggested that if you want to make your own skin, then starting by copying an existing skins files over into a new folder (let's say skin/myskin) is a good place to start. You can then edit each of the files as you become more familiar with the skinning system.

Each skin folder contains several subdirectorys, and one file:
 * myskin/720p
 * This is a resolution-specific directory. XBMC can run in multiple resolutions, and thus can use different files for some resolutions (as there is a big difference between NTSC at 720x480 pixels and 1080i at 1920x1080 pixels!)


 * myskin/backgrounds
 * optional folder containing the background images used in the skin


 * myskin/colors
 * contains a defaults.xml file which is used to define the colours used in the skin


 * myskin/font
 * This subdirectory contains all fonts used by the skin. you can add/replace fonts here


 * myskin/language
 * contains several subfolders for each language (English/strings.po). you can define strings used in your skin in this file.


 * myskin/media
 * This subdirectory contains all the media files (.png/.gif/.jpg...) You can replace/edit these as you like.


 * myskin/_screenshots
 * place 10 jpeg screenshots (1280x720) of your skin in here. Name them screenshot01.jpg, screenshot02.jpg ect.


 * myskin/sounds
 * put the sounds (.wav files) you're using in the skin in this folder as well as a sounds.xml file which defines what sounds are used where.


 * myskin/addon.xml
 * This contains the information that XBMC uses to find the other files that XBMC requires to describe it's skin. It also contains credits information, and versioning information.


 * myskin/changelog.txt
 * a textfile detailing what has changed in every version of the skin


 * myskin/fanart.jpg
 * a 1280x720 or 1920x1080 jpeg fanart image for your skin


 * myskin/icon.png
 * a 256x256 png image for your skin


 * myskin/LICENSE.txt
 * we recommend to include a Creative Commons license file in your skin: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

See here for the order in which it looks for skin files.