Meet Paper Lantern, a new look for cPanel

Paper LanternPaper Lantern is the next look and feel for cPanel.

How Paper Lantern was developed

For a product with an incredible amount of depth and complexity, one of the first things we decided to do was adopt Twitter Bootstrap 3 as our standard UI kit and solid base for future work. With Twitter Bootstrap, one of the most common UI kits utilized by web professionals today, we hope that web developers and designers will be able to crack open the code and easily create beautiful, new themes.

Next, we began identifying and reusing elements across more of the user interface to increase consistency throughout the project. Consistency helps users to quickly become familiar with using their cPanel account. Once a user learns one feature with a consistent layout, the next feature becomes that much simpler to navigate.

After we establish a sound foundation to build on, even more dramatic changes will take place that will separate Paper Lantern from it’s X3 roots. We have many, many more ideas in mind for Paper Lantern—11.42 is only the beginning.

Send us feedback!

Paper Lantern not only introduces a dramatic change in appearance, it also requires lots of heavy lifting, even for modifications not visible to users. We are developing Paper Lantern openly, which means that you can see changes as they happen. Going forward, each cPanel release will include the latest iteration of Paper Lantern and preview builds will be released regularly to users who want to play with them. In addition, we will continue to update our demo server frequently with the most recent changes to Paper Lantern. Check it out and let us know what you think.

How you can try Paper Lantern for yourself

If you are currently running a build of cPanel & WHM software version 11.42 and you do not have a reseller account, then contact your reseller and request that your account be set to the Paper Lantern theme.

If you are currently running a build of 11.42 and you do have a reseller account (or reseller privileges), then:WHM - Manage Accounts - Paper Lantern

  1. Log into WHM
  2. Click Modify an Account in the sidebar.
  3. Select an account and click Modify.
  4. Select Paper Lantern from the cPanel Theme menu and click Save.
  5. Log out and then log back into WHM to see your new theme!

Please remember that Paper Lantern is very alpha in 11.42 and will be going through quite a few big changes over the new few releases. Nothing, including the visual presentation of Paper Lantern, is set in stone at this point and we need your feedback more than ever. Email us or post in our User Experience forum and we’ll see it. Let us know what we’re getting right, what needs improvement, and if you have ideas about how we can make Paper Lantern even better.

cPanel

The web hosting industry's most reliable management solution since 1997. With our first-class support and rich feature set, it's easy to see why our customers and partners make cPanel & WHM their hosting platform of choice. For more information, visit cPanel.net.

39 responses to “Meet Paper Lantern, a new look for cPanel”

  1. Joao Junior says:

    i also do prefer x3 😀 but who cares !!! at least they are working and got oficial with cpanel updates …

  2. Love it, great job guys.

  3. cpanelAdamF says:

    Please consider opening a support case with https://tickets.cpanel.net/submit/ so that we can have a look

  4. The text box at the top, where you type letters to find functions. It works on the X3 theme but not on paper lantern, anf I have 3 different whm versions on 3 different servers.

  5. cpanelAdamF says:

    function finder….what feature do you mean when you say ‘function finder’?

  6. Buggy. The function finder doesn’t work on FireFox:
    TypeError: box_el is null

    …ction raw_set_box(box_el,to_expand){var h_el=box_el.getElementsByClassName(“grou…

  7. AlfaEnergy says:

    i think Paper Lantern is nicer, but i would prefer if i can switch to old cpanel icons.. i got used to them and new ones hard to get used to..

  8. Mark Jackson says:

    Think it looks great guys. For the last while I have been working in environments with out cpanel, but I still have a site that uses it, and although the software is getting old now I have been very happy with the its maintenance. Lots of great things I love about it still compared to raw terminal. Best.

  9. Mark Jackson says:

    Think it looks great guys. For the last while I have been working in environments with out cpanel, but I still have a site that uses it, and although the software is getting old now I have been very happy with the its maintenance. Lots of great things I love about it still compared to raw terminal. Best.

  10. Cool, thank you. Finally a cPanel that is able to go wider widths. Suggestion: Consider using @media to make fonts/regions use less pixels at high res. No tablet is high res, therefore header/fonts dont need to look like playskool taking up massive areas of screen. We arent blind 🙂

  11. nettigritty says:

    ********** FIX for paper_lantern posted by nettigritty.com ***********

    cp -R /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/x3/cloudflare /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/paper_lantern/
    cp -R /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/x3/css2/cloudflare /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/paper_lantern/css2/
    cp -R /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/x3/images/cloudflare /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/paper_lantern/images/
    cp -R /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/x3/js2/cloudflare /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/paper_lantern/js2/
    cp -R /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/x3/js2-min/cloudflare /usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/paper_lantern/js2-min/

  12. Řąwã Šłęmańí says:

    nice! really good theme

  13. Zacharia Samuel Grierson says:

    I believe you mean x3

  14. Azhar Shahzad says:

    Great…Very excited to know that it has been planned.

  15. Richard van Breugel says:

    Nice! TY!

  16. cpanelAdamF says:

    Aligning cPanel and WHM’s user interface is the long-term plan! We have a lot of code consistency stuff we need to do to make that a reality behind the scenes, so it’s a bit premature to line up the aesthetics just yet. We’re definitely laying the groundwork to make it happen, though!

  17. cpanelAdamF says:

    Yes it does…which is why we’re addressing the quality of our translations in 11.46. Read http://blog.cpanel.net/localization-more-languages-better-quality/ for more information!

  18. cpanelAdamF says:

    X3 is still the default theme for all new accounts – we might change this in the future, but we haven’t done so yet. Maybe your system has been set to Paper Lantern for all new accounts…if so, here’s how to set it back to X3:

    in WHM select ‘Basic cpanel & WHM Setup’ and look for the entry entitled “Select the cPanel default theme. Your selection will be used as the default setting in the following user interfaces:”. Make sure that that’s set to X3 and you should be good.

    Remember, individual account packages/plans can have their own theme settings. If the above setting doesn’t return your default to X3, make sure to check your account packages to see if they have Paper Lantern set as the default for some reason.

  19. cpanelAdamF says:

    cloudflare will need to re-register their plugin using the new plugin registration system in order to address they’re 404.

  20. Azhar Shahzad says:

    Logo in header for Paper Lantern theme is too large. Reduce its size… Why not match the appearance of basic elements (like header and sidebar) of cPanel with WHM? WHM theme looks good and modern too.

  21. dheeraj says:

    cloudflare not working in lantern theme
    plz bring update for the same

    It shows 404 error in lantern theme but works properly with x3 theme

  22. StackLinux says:

    It was auto enabled on a blank install. How do I disable this theme so that its not used for new accounts I need to add?

  23. Richard van Breugel says:

    x4 is nowhere to be found 🙁

  24. Richard van Breugel says:

    Nice! Language (Dutch) still sucks in cpanel but this is nice!

  25. Cas Eliëns says:

    This doesn’t seem to be working quite yet.. It’s been 2 months

  26. cpanelAdamF says:

    A fix is on the way! Since 11.42, we’ve made updates to how configurations work for third-party plugins (like CloudFlare and Softaculous) so that they can define how they should appear in Paper Lantern. Expect to see this released very soon.

  27. Almost Perfect !!

    BUT Few Issues regarding CloudFlare & Softaculous Working. Both are currently not working on this theme. Getting 404 Error with Cloudflare Module, when I am trying to open it in cPanel’s new theme “lantern” . I request to release fix asap.

  28. Pat Lee says:

    Hey Adam. I noticed the separation instantly, as well as the new group icons that represent each category of function. I also saw the upper menu right away, a lil cleaner. The use of padding is just great. When clicking through I also find that the subsequent pages carry through rather then skimping out. So far I found no glitches or bugs. I’m also a fan of using wider screen layouts. For OUR clients (of which we have a few thousand) I find the terminology was often confusing but slowly the labels are becoming more clear as to what they do, that is the only area of improvement I can see.

  29. cpanelAdamF says:

    Thanks, Pat. I would be interested in what you think of the next version coming down the pipe as well. Poke at http://go.cpanel.net/paperlantern and let us know what you think.

  30. Pat Lee says:

    I like it. Things like shadows on icons are subjective, like all art. So that’s less relevant (although I do like the flat “no shadow” look myself). What I find appealing is the large size icons, the good use of white space. There is general clarity when you log in where the current panel makes for a cluttered feel. I like the order of icons as well, the things most of our clients would look for show up first (and are titled more descriptively).

  31. Jonathan Edgardo says:

    I Love it

  32. Alex Vojacek says:

    Thanks for the link, will report back.

  33. @mariorodriguez  says:

    Alex appreciate the feedback, have you had a opportunity to provide feedback directly to the team handling Paper Lantern? They are really good at responding when time permits there. Here is one thread you might want to take a look at: http://forums.cpanel.net/f8/paper-lantern-feedback-390632.html#post1572002

  34. Alex Vojacek says:

    HORRIBLE. I’m am really honest with my comment. I custom design websites and I am experienced with CSS from 1 to 3 and I can honestly say this interface is a MESS. It needs separation for each section, it’s way to white, the icons are not elegant, fonts are not appropiate for an administration panel, it lacks shadows, it is not responsive. Really guys?. I could do it better for 2 pennies and I’m talking, FOR REAL. I prefer x4, even with the old design, it’s just better.

  35. Felippe says:

    Really nice look!

Leave a Reply