Hi Zur,
Thanks for the feedback.
The skills tab needs a displayed Skills: (Total) on it, maybe on the right of the title bar, for us filthy peasants.
A total count might be useful.
The skills menu needs a re-design. The current one is just a quick draft using the generic GUI components. You've probably noticed that some GUI windows are more stylized & functional (like the new spellbook, map & inventory). Some GUI menus simply never were finished when we went on a "short break" a decade ago. 
I think Zer recently suggested a "scroll" style for the skills menu. That will give a unique look, but also keep consistent with this book style. My hope is that we can continue to build on both the spell & skill windows to give much more information and functionality. For example, I would like to see details: description, mana consumption, range, damage type & values, duration, etc).
The spell book needs a 'dark mode', or the pages needs to be a bit more aged/weathered to darken them to make it easier to see the spell icons... it's a tad blinding and difficult to see them currently.
Agreed.
This is very apparent with your two examples. I do like the darker one better, and that's an easy thing to change. However, I also notice it has the opposite affect on the "flash" spell icon. In addition to optimizing the spell book page brightness, some of the icons could use some adjustments to contrast better on the darker GUI icon slots as well as the lighter book page.
