Kaleidoscope

Shared by: MR
On: 2014-04-14 22:56:58
Updated by: that-ben
On: 2024-09-12 13:02:16
Other contributors: Blaise , InkBlot , Aon , Mac9teen90nine
Rating: 9.00 Clarus out of 10 (10 votes)
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  • Kaleidoscope 2.3.1 
  •  

What is Kaleidoscope?

Kaleidescope was a program designed for the Mac operating system that allowed you to customize your Macintosh's interface using "Schemes" (themes).  Some Schemes came bundled with Kaleidescope while others created by Kaleidoscope users were available to download on various websites throughout the internet.

Note that Schemes are not compatible with the Macintosh's built in theme manager.

Kaleidescope stopped development after version 2.3.1 and was eventually discontinued in 2001 due to OS 10 being released.

NOTE: You will need the Kaleidoscope application AND Schemes. All the Schemes published for Kaleidoscope are available here in the 2 zip files: kaleidoscope_schemes.zip and kaleidoscope_banned.zip


As the joke goes around here, Greg Landweber could have delivered Copland’s Appearance Manager before Apple could have. He proves his programming prowess with Kaleidoscope. Open the control panel, and you can change how scroll bars appear and what colors windows are, choose a different system font or a different accent color, and add a color to Finder windows. Although Kaleidoscope comes with a decent selection of schemes, you can download a plethora of new third-party color schemes.

Echler, Nikki, Reynolds, David, & Turner, Daniel Drew. (October 1997). The Top 50 Shareware Programs. MacAddict. (pg. 39).

At the end of the downloads list here, more than 4000 Kaleidoscope schemes!

Excellent article published in 2002: The Mac OS that can't be tweaked

WOW! Take a "quick" peek at thousands of Kaleidoscope themes on Twitter ! [ACCOUNT SUSPENDED :( Check out a tiny bit of it on ARCHIVE.ORG instead]

WOW! Get ready to have your mind blown by 3400+ Kaleidoscope schemes on this website made by @ataraxia ! https://kaleidoscope.hryjksn.com

Damnit... Note to myself: I think it's time I set up a web emulator where people can try them all out at will once and for all. [EDIT: Done! And I'm sorry, good luck wasting less than an hour on this!!!]


Download Kaleidoscope for Mac

(1.82 MiB / 1.91 MB)
Kaleidoscope v2.3.1 (US English) (2001) / Binary encoded, use Stuffit Expander
1157 / 2014-04-14 / 2019-03-09 / 16b591e42eaef8c36de66aa087617919934ba787 / /
(1.84 MiB / 1.93 MB)
Kaleidoscope v2.3.1 (FRENCH) (2001) / Binary encoded, use Stuffit Expander
37 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / 90f0c42f457317fe614f6a2034b49ec8ab0a3de3 / /
(1.84 MiB / 1.93 MB)
Kaleidoscope v2.3.1 (GERMAN) (2001) / Binary encoded, use Stuffit Expander
76 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / e62a7c9ce130fc6fb1c61993aabfb6544843ac4f / /
(1.97 MiB / 2.06 MB)
Kaleidoscope v2.3.1 (ITALIAN) (2001) / Binary encoded, use Stuffit Expander
30 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / 07dc05a93c46f4b48812bb8b73193ca76886160e / /
(1.88 MiB / 1.97 MB)
Kaleidoscope v2.3.1 (JAPANESE) (2001) / Binary encoded, use Stuffit Expander
70 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / dba7f98f8fdb6aadab8e0d3e38daf1d477b3f402 / /
(1.79 MiB / 1.88 MB)
Kaleidoscope v2.2.2 (US English) (1999) / compressed w/ Stuffit
130 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / 4935b55cf673039ffafd99549caeab64244ceef5 / /
(1.28 MiB / 1.34 MB)
Kaleidoscope v2.0.1 (US English) (1998) / compressed w/ Stuffit
33 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / c705699c26cca5abd16cb02a015c75cb0fbaab6c / /
(645.84 KiB / 661.34 KB)
Kaleidoscope v1.8.2 (US English) (1998) / compressed w/ Stuffit
24 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / 5520b6553ec30d5cb54862863c0df7d164ff4a22 / /
(497.2 KiB / 509.13 KB)
Kaleidoscope v1.7.1 (US English) (1997) / compressed w/ Stuffit
18 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / 0b06e81acd5822a2d3954b9a04fe9d24d06f5dbc / /
(485.8 KiB / 497.46 KB)
Kaleidoscope v1.6 (US English) (1997) / compressed w/ Stuffit
16 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / 6f33c3d99acb958402798e253581cbfda7a84c51 / /
(320.85 KiB / 328.55 KB)
Kaleidoscope v1.0.1 (US English) (1996) / compressed w/ Stuffit
36 / 2015-01-11 / 2019-03-09 / d5bf4c280527432d59aac9c8f7414df70f172906 / /
(649.97 MiB / 681.55 MB)
More than 4000 Kaleidoscope schemes / Zipped
439 / 2015-03-22 / 2019-03-09 / a5b9b951353c07c00adfe09fca1f747fa545ad9d / /
(11.62 MiB / 12.19 MB)
32 banned by Apple Kaleidoscope schemes / Zipped
268 / 2015-03-22 / 2019-03-09 / caf5b11c03f451de72b7bb960b4cd3bef70805b3 / /
(30.26 KiB / 30.99 KB)
HiTech scheme by Frederick J. Bass for Kaleidoscope 1.5 & up / compressed w/ Stuffit
41 / 2019-03-16 / 05ad60504375acbd7244f3cc17162bc8cac9368e / /
(47.05 KiB / 48.18 KB)
Lavendar Smoke scheme by MauiMail.com for Kaleidoscope 1.8 & up / compressed w/ Stuffit
34 / 2019-03-16 / 3f68a6348d7055a36aeccfae3a727112d19ed519 / /
(29.31 KiB / 30.02 KB)
NetscopeCom scheme by Masaharu.Sato for Kaleidoscope 1.5 & up / compressed w/ Stuffit
29 / 2019-03-16 / 758d6b213ffaea21efd4795918eecd8867a31992 / /
(436.48 KiB / 446.96 KB)
/ BinHex'd, use Stuffit Expander
4 / 2023-01-07 / 1ce3a5d2329c263c9da8f79e743858b00831c01a / /


Architecture


Motorola 68K



System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.0 up to Mac OS 9.2





Compatibility notes

Architecture: 68K (68020 or newer) or PPC

Mac OS 7.x - Mac OS 9.2.2

Valid SN:  AC10-M345K-VW98C-359

 


Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver





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