Over the weekend I've committed a new highcolor version of the B2 widget engine. B2 is currently the leading contender as the default widget style for KDE2.0.

This version automatically detects if your running on a highcolor display, and if so uses more complex gradients and brushes when drawing application windows. This is different than a theme because all the drawing code is written in C++ and designed to be as fast as possible using the KDE effects engine. It also means it retains all the advantages of hardcoded C++ style engines such as adjusting to your color scheme preferences. I plan to make highcolor versions of not only the B2 widget style, but KStep (Next-like), and PillBox as well.

So far you can configure all the colors, turn on and off a dynamic wallpaper that adjusts to your color scheme, or select a custom wallpaper.

It's not done (most notably I need to do custom Tab bars), but already works pretty well.

Click the thumbnail below to see the B2 highcolor plugin with the "Desert Red" color scheme and dynamic color wallpaper:

And here's a small shot using the "Blue Slate" color scheme and a custom background:

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