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Graphical Installer for Inno Setup
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Copyright (c) 2011 - 2024 unSigned, s. r. o. All Rights Reserved.

Product website: www.graphical-installer.com

Developer website: www.unsigned.sk

Email contact: customers[at]unsigned[dot]sk


This document is related only to Graphical Installer for Inno Setup.

For information about Graphical Installer for NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) see appropriate documents in Graphical Installer for NSIS package.

See the documentation to find out what is new in this version. Known bugs and problems are mentioned in file Bugs.txt



=============
About
=============

Graphical Installer is an extension for Inno Setup. It allows to change the design of whole Inno Setup installer.
This is a third generation of this extension and it has a lot of new features and improvements.

It is possible to set:
- Custom picture for installer background
- Custom icons (Installer/Uninstaller/...)
- Custom picture for buttons (Next/Back/Cancel/Browse/...)
- Custom color for texts (Headers/Labels/Links/Static texts/...)
- Custom colors for buttons texts in various situations (normal/focused/pressed/disabled state)
- Custom colors for installation progress bar (foreground/background)
- And many more aspects of the installer!

It is also possible to create installers with irregular windows (Part of window can be fully transparent and you can drag the window with mouse).

Main features:

* Fully customizable graphical interface
It's possible to change graphic look of whole installer - background picture, icons, buttons picture and many more!

* Creating installers with irregular windows
Part of window can be fully transparent - you are no more tied to rectangular shape!

* Easy to be integrated into existing Inno Setup scripts
All you need is to add references to this installer, no hard-coding is necessary!

* Templates and examples for instant start
We provide many templates and examples, so your installer can be finished in few minutes!

* "Graphical Installer Wizard" for creating new and converting existing Inno Setup scripts
Standalone application and plug-ins for Inno Script Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio, Embarcadero RAD Studio for fast creating Inno Setup scripts with custom design.

* Full 100% compatibility with other Inno Setup plugins and functions
Our product use the same core as traditional Inno Setup installers - so there is no difference in writing scripts!

* Custom dialogs and interfaces
Thanks to Pascal Scripting language it is easy to add custom wizard pages and elements to them (textboxes, checkboxes ...)

* Support for multiple languages (also Unicode languages)
Fully multilingual support (including RTL languages) in one installer!

* Simple switching between 'skinned' and 'classic' design of installer
Modify only single line of script to completely change the design of your installer!

* ... and much more ...


=================
Requirements:
=================

REQUIRED: You need to have Inno Setup installed:

- Inno Setup 6 installed - http://jrsoftware.org/ (Starting with Inno Setup 6 there's only one version available: Unicode.)

OPTIONAL: To edit Inno Setup scripts you need any text editor (e.g. Notepad) or you can use advanced IDEs. These are recommended:

- Visual & Installer (recommended tool - Visual Studio 2005 - 2022 extension with syntax highlighting, complete word functionality, ...) - http://visual-installer.com/

- RAD & Installer (Embarcadero RAD Studio 2009, 2010, XE - XE8, 10 Seattle - 12 Athens expert with syntax highlighting, complete word functionality, ...) - http://rad-installer.com/

For creating setup Dialogs (Forms and Pages) we recommend to use Install Designer for NSIS & Inno Setup - http://install-designer.com/

Please notice:

To create FULL Unicode installers use ***Unicode*** version of all used plug-ins with Unicode build of Inno Setup (default in Inno Setup 6).


=================
Installation
=================

1. Follow the automatic Setup Wizard.

2. During the setup process all necessary components will be installed, if they are not present on your machine.
For correct function of Graphical Installer these components will be installed:

- GraphicalInstaller plug-in

- Graphical Installer core files (.iss files, .exe files, documentation and other tools)

- Graphical Installer Wizard (optional) - for Visual & Installer, RAD & Installer, Inno Script Studio and standalone application

- Examples

- Skins

3. At page 'Select Destination Location' choose path to your Inno Setup directory (if not found automatically).
Graphical Installer cannot be installed into other directory, because it is tightly linked with Inno Setup core files!

4. At page 'Select Graphical Installer version' choose which version to install: Ansi or Unicode.
Both versions can be installed on the same machine (into different directories).

5. The Setup process offers you to install Inno Setup IDEs. They are recommended, but not required for Graphical Installer.

6. When Setup finishes run your preferred IDE. There is 'Graphical Installer' option in the main menu. Use it to create new installers or to convert your existing scripts.


======================
Creating an installer
======================

You have several options:

1) To create scripts manually from the scratch.
2) To edit some of the Examples script (which can be found in Graphical Installer\Examples directory)
3) To use a supplied Graphical Installer Wizard plug-in (Wizard.exe in {Inno Setup}\Graphical Installer directory), which has a lot of functions and will generate new or convert existing scripts for you.
4) To use a Visual & Installer - Visual Studio extension for creating Inno Setup installers directly from Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 - 2022.
It also contains Graphical Installer Wizard so you have all tools in one package - download from http://www.visual-installer.com/
5) To use a RAD & Installer - Embarcadero RAD Studio expert for creating Inno Setup installers directly from RAD Studio 2009, 2010, XE - XE8, 10 Seattle - 12 Athens.
It also contains Graphical Installer Wizard so you have all tools in one package - download from http://www.rad-installer.com/

Few tips:
- Read the comments in the .iss files, there is a lot of information
- Browse the Graphical Installer\Examples directory, there are several useful examples
- Graphical settings are configured via .graphics.iss file. This file is unique for each project
- Functions and various macros are defined in GraphicalInstaller_functions.iss file. Do not edit this file if you are not an Inno Setup expert
- All projects using Graphical Installer must have defined symbol GRAPHICAL_INSTALLER_PROJECT in the .iss file
- If this symbol is not found the script is compiled normally (without skinning)
- See examples and tutorials for Inno Setup, they can teach you a lot!
- Background image size is exactly 690x496 pixels. Other files can be generated via BitmapCutter.exe tool
- Read the enclosed CHM documentation or online manual for more info.


=========================
LICENSES AND COPYRIGHT
=========================


Graphical Installer permission:

By installing this software you agree with using of your name/company name, company logo and installer screenshot for unSigned marketing purposes.
These details will NOT be provided to third party subjects.


Graphical Installer uses modified sources of Inno Setup compiler, see its license below:

==================
Inno Setup License
==================

Except where otherwise noted, all of the documentation and software included
in the Inno Setup package is copyrighted by Jordan Russell.

Copyright (C) 1997-2023 Jordan Russell. All rights reserved.
Portions Copyright (C) 2000-2023 Martijn Laan. All rights reserved.

This software is provided "as-is," without any express or implied warranty.
In no event shall the author be held liable for any damages arising from the
use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
including commercial applications, and to alter and redistribute it,
provided that the following conditions are met:

1. All redistributions of source code files must retain all copyright
notices that are currently in place, and this list of conditions without
modification.

2. All redistributions in binary form must retain all occurrences of the
above copyright notice and web site addresses that are currently in
place (for example, in the About boxes).

3. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software to
distribute a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation
would be appreciated but is not required.

4. Modified versions in source or binary form must be plainly marked as
such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.


Jordan Russell
jr-2010 AT jrsoftware.org
http://www.jrsoftware.org/