I've been taking a look at the various PAM-mod themes that are available. Seems like some themes use non-white backgrounds but don't bother with transparency of folder icons and application icons. Others seem to do pretty well with this, and others seem to try transparency but leave a jagged white border around the icon itself.
Can anybody tell me why some themes are more successful than others? Are there different methods to hammer a square peg into a round hole? Would it help to start with application icons that already have transparent properties? That way, it wouldn't matter so much about the theme coding...