Make life easier - Android Themes

I was just wondering. Has anyone thought of putting together an application that allows easier theming. I've spent a lot of time trying to grasp the concept of everything that's currently involved with changing the theme on the droid. Will there ever be a time where the droid will have a theme swapping function like cydia with the iphone?

dabo318 said:
I was just wondering. Has anyone thought of putting together an application that allows easier theming. I've spent a lot of time trying to grasp the concept of everything that's currently involved with changing the theme on the droid. Will there ever be a time where the droid will have a theme swapping function like cydia with the iphone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what stericson has been doing with the metamorph application.. you should try it out it makes theming easier than having to flash a zip to apply a theme

Me and metamorph don't have a good relationship. My current issue is that I don't have busy box nor the time to have to learn how to use the com to properly install it. I'm sure stericsons invention is a great tool it just takes so much to actually use it.

dabo318 said:
Me and metamorph don't have a good relationship. My current issue is that I don't have busy box nor the time to have to learn how to use the com to properly install it. I'm sure stericsons invention is a great tool it just takes so much to actually use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all I dont understand why Google just didn't build a way to "apply themes" into the settings and now that they're up to 2.1 you'd think they would have and honestly I dont understand why not.

Related

Help with making a custom lockscreen

I usually make a custom wallpaper for my lockscreen or homescreen everytime I switch a rom but so far they are pretty elementary mostly because I have no idea what the hell I am doing lol. I am on a mac so I am working in GIMP but I have a few things I cant figure out. I am uploading a picture of what I have so far. I would like the black areas around the pictures to be semi-transparent and the edges of the pictures themselves to be rounded slightly to give it a smoother feel. I will upload the individual pictures also. I would much rather learn to do it myself but I understand if for whatever reason no one wants to show me. Believe me its not the end of the world. Just something I like to have so when I pull my phone out at work I can see my family. That is me, my wife, and daughter,by the way. ....oh I also wanted a small slightly-less transparent box around the time and smaller but proportional boxes around the sprint and date. I know its alot but I got this image in my head of the perfect lockscreen and not a clue on how to get it to the phone lol.
oh and the reason I posted this in CDMA and not themes and applications was because I wasnt sure if to get the transparency it would have to be update.zip style and I wasnt sure if it made a difference if the phone it was being flashed on was CDMA or GSM. Oh and I am on modaco 2.0
I've got the photo shop experience for this, but I can't seem to find the images in com.htc.resources.apk or lockscreen.apk that need to be edited. If you can point out which images control the lock screen, I will help you with this.
I'll write a quick how to later when I have a linux box/gimp at my hands.
I was just looking into this myself. I know that any overlays are a file known as lockscreen.topedge. I am not good with Photo shop so I havent tried but I downloaded a lockscreen and extracted the .apk and found that image to be the overlay. You could create a picture and use the wand function to single out the background, add transparency to it. I wish i had to the time to mess around with it but work isnt the place unfortunately.
kbizzle said:
but work isnt the place unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish work wasn't the place for this kind of stuff
Well it would be if i owned a laptop. Lol Hopefully I can dig in tonight or tomorrow and see what I can do.
The 1st part of what u need I can probably help with, u want the black background semi transparent and the pictures of you and your family rounded a bit correct? That's what I understood from there. The second part I'm not so sure of still
I see in gimp that there is a menu layer ->transparency but I cant see how to make certain regions transparent and if I try to make the whole image semi transparent I do not know how to preserve that transparency through saving, transferring and applying the image to the phone. I figured it would be better off as an overlay as NOJs lockscreens are but I am unexperienced in update.zip and how to sign and package them. I could push them via adb but I am not sure where to push overlay images to the lockscreen. Thanks for all of the help yall are giving me I really appreciate it. This stuff can get frustrating nice to have helpful people in the community.
I am not sure if you are willing to pay a few bucks for it, but i know that Noj is taking requests for custom locksreens for a small donation.
You can find Noj's custom lockscreen request @ Flipz's GeekFor.Me HERE
p.s. I would love to see someone write a quick tutorial on which files need to be edited to make our own lockscreens.
Im really hoping to learn how to do it myself I'll go broke as much as I change the pictures on my lockscreen(about twice a week) lol
The reason you are having issues is due to you probably not following a correct workpath in PShop/GIMP. Use layers/masks/etc.
really he would make u pay money for a little project -___-, well since i dont work today let me take a shot @ this, ill post up what i done later
rockcrawler said:
I am not sure if you are willing to pay a few bucks for it, but i know that Noj is taking requests for custom locksreens for a small donation.
You can find Noj's custom lockscreen request @ Flipz's GeekFor.Me HERE
p.s. I would love to see someone write a quick tutorial on which files need to be edited to make our own lockscreens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I stumbled coincidentally in this thread. I wrote a tut for Desire HD recently, since this mod is one of the easiest around anyway. This should answer all your questions.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=907477

Minimal Matte Eris port

Is there any chance someone could port the theme found here:
hxxp://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=745854 (I am a new user, can't post links)
over to the eris. I tried to see if it would work without changing anything and my phone got stuck in an endless boot-loop. I am in love with the theme. Thanks.
If you know how to mess with the sering and stuff with your computer I think the maker of white widow says how he got it to work on his rom in his thread, I might be wrong though.
Sent from my Eris using XDA App
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=726912
I've been using this theme, which is pretty similar. It works just fine on kaosfroyo 28.
im using it with no problem... the MM version anyway...
how everytime i download it it is missing the theme file
I've been using the mm version on cyanogentazz since v3....
Sent from my Froyo Eris using XDA App
I now realize that this is different from the Minimal Matte MM I'm using...
I want the widgets from this theme! It doesn't work because it if for Desire...
sydtrakked said:
I now realize that this is different from the Minimal Matte MM I'm using...
I want the widgets from this theme! It doesn't work because it if for Desire...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing working for me are the widget themes. When I try flashing anything else it puts my phone into a boot-loop, and the only way to fix it is to go into recovery and do a restore.
You do need Launcherpro plus to get the widgets, then applying the theme to them should be no problem.
If anyone was able to find that "simpltext" doc them please let me know because I searched on the makers website and found nothing, thanks.
Emx333 said:
The only thing working for me are the widget themes. When I try flashing anything else it puts my phone into a boot-loop, and the only way to fix it is to go into recovery and do a restore.
You do need Launcherpro plus to get the widgets, then applying the theme to them should be no problem.
If anyone was able to find that "simpltext" doc them please let me know because I searched on the makers website and found nothing, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so you were successful in applying the theme to the widgets??? mine failed...
I talked to the creator, he said he will port to eris for 10 pounds.
loki154 said:
how everytime i download it it is missing the theme file
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happens sometimes. What you need to do is go back into Metamorph and choose pick existing theme. Scroll through till you get to the XML file and tap that and it should give you the choices to theme which app(s). Thanks to RangeStang for giving me this pointer. Hope it helps you too.
Emx333 said:
I talked to the creator, he said he will port to eris for 10 pounds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that guy is constantly ASKING for money... i know we should donate if we truly enjoy a devs work but i've never seen one ask for money as much as him...
Sent from my Eris using XDA App
sydtrakked said:
that guy is constantly ASKING for money... i know we should donate if we truly enjoy a devs work but i've never seen one ask for money as much as him...
Sent from my Eris using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
asking for it is weak, but 10 pounds isn't that much. if you were to cut the cost between 3 or 4 people it would be relatively cheap, make everyone's devices look super clean, and save someone else the hastle of trying to port.
i really like this theme. what i'd LIKE to do is speak to some devs who have experience modifiying Sense, etc. (e.g. Konikub, the original dev for Aloysius). Sense with a modified Rosies and the full Minimal Matte theme throughout all Sense apps would be badnasty.
seriously, i think i could go to a bar, pull my phone out, and have sex with the best looking girl at the bar as a result.
usually a phone won't get you laid, but in this case it might!
KarateExplosion6 said:
asking for it is weak, but 10 pounds isn't that much. if you were to cut the cost between 3 or 4 people it would be relatively cheap, make everyone's devices look super clean, and save someone else the hastle of trying to port.
i really like this theme. what i'd LIKE to do is speak to some devs who have experience modifiying Sense, etc. (e.g. Konikub, the original dev for Aloysius). Sense with a modified Rosies and the full Minimal Matte theme throughout all Sense apps would be badnasty.
seriously, i think i could go to a bar, pull my phone out, and have sex with the best looking girl at the bar as a result.
usually a phone won't get you laid, but in this case it might!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haha... nice... i'm sure we have enough people that want it and would donate a little here and there... I'm trying to find out if I can accomplish this myself first... there is a theme converter in the Android development section and I'm seeing if can be used... then I would share of course!
I don't get it, I used the minimal matte MM and got everything except the icons (which is fine by me). What ROM are you using?
Sent from my Froyo Eris using XDA App
es0tericcha0s said:
This happens sometimes. What you need to do is go back into Metamorph and choose pick existing theme. Scroll through till you get to the XML file and tap that and it should give you the choices to theme which app(s). Thanks to RangeStang for giving me this pointer. Hope it helps you too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What i'm saying is no matter how many times i download the theme, when i open it on my desktop it always has a missing .xml file.
rycheme said:
I don't get it, I used the minimal matte MM and got everything except the icons (which is fine by me). What ROM are you using?
Sent from my Froyo Eris using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the MM doesn't skin the Launcher Pro Plus widgets... that is what I want the most of all from that theme... i got the framework from the MM(except the status bar didn't work...) but i really want those widgets...
wasn't able to port it correctly.... sorry.... going back to the MM... that seemed to work the best for me...
I haven't tried pushing the apk's yet... so thats my next attempt
has anyone else tried pushing the widget apk's and if so, did you succeed? If you're using Apps2SD where do you push to?
Hey, I'm having a similar problem. I found a CM6 build for Eris, then used MM to put on the theme since it wasn't working on my KaosFroyo ROM.
I have the status bar and notifications working great with it, but I can't figure out how to get the widgets and the icons.

[Q] Help create a Steampunk theme...?

Ok folks, my friend just got a hero and we were talking about why to root. I showed him several ROMs from this site and all the cool themes. We got to talking about how cool it would be if there was a STEAMPUNK themed ROM out there.
Here's the rub... I SUCK at theming.
I looked at the "buufed" rom and I like some of the style, but it's just not quite what I'm looking for. Props to the developer of that ROM because it's very thorough. This is the depth I'd like the Steampunk theme to have, but I just don't know how to do it. I've never built a ROM from the ground up, so I don't even know where to start.
Is anyone out there interested in a project like this, or could someone help me know what to do?
Thanks!
-mb
+1
A steam punk theme would be pretty awesome
It has begun...
Ok... I have a great deal of respect for all you devs and themers out there. This is a beast. Time-consuming and not very forgiving...
I have started working on my steampunk theme. Here are some screenshots of what I've done so far. By no means is this a complete theme. I am using ZenHeroFX 2.0 by nfinitefx45 as my base. Credit to all artists/devs for their work.
I have themed the notification pull-down as well, but I don't have a screenie of that yet. Also, I themed the stock sense rosie, but (again) no screencap yet. I'm curious what y'all think...
-mb
Looks cool so far.
Wow. You're a fast learner! Here are some clear notification bar icons that I made. You can use them so that the black squares wont show up around the icons in the notification bar. Just unzip the zip file, and you'll see the folders that the icons are supposed to go into. Good luck!
http://www.mediafire.com/?nqe4mm2znhh <---- clear notification icons
(when I say clear, I mean that they are white with a clear background)
alexthearmo said:
Wow. You're a fast learner! Here are some clear notification bar icons that I made. You can use them so that the black squares wont show up around the icons in the notification bar. Just unzip the zip file, and you'll see the folders that the icons are supposed to go into. Good luck!
http://www.mediafire.com/?nqe4mm2znhh <---- clear notification icons
(when I say clear, I mean that they are white with a clear background)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome! Thanks. That file is really helpful! I'll post more screencaps when I can do some more work on the theme.
-mb
This is looking really good. Here's another theme I found a while back that has some of the same elements of csrom and your current build. I've never used it, but maybe something in there will help you, or maybe this dev can help you.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478570
wow! this looks ... awesome! not usually an "extreme theme" kinda guy, but this I would use!
sadly though, I am using CM6 or AOSP, so would not actually end up using it, but I will be watching this thread for S&Gs anyway. the end result should look spectacular.
if I could add one "suggestion"? Get rid of the "branding" (SteamMod in big letters on the lockscreen?), I would think ppl would rather have something less intrusive in the look. I know I would. something clean and mechanical. just a IMHO kinda suggestion, great work regardless!
fallonjp said:
This is looking really good. Here's another theme I found a while back that has some of the same elements of csrom and your current build. I've never used it, but maybe something in there will help you, or maybe this dev can help you.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478570
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link. There is some good stuff I might be able to use in there... credit to the creator of course!
kingdazy said:
wow! this looks ... awesome! not usually an "extreme theme" kinda guy, but this I would use!
sadly though, I am using CM6 or AOSP, so would not actually end up using it, but I will be watching this thread for S&Gs anyway. the end result should look spectacular.
if I could add one "suggestion"? Get rid of the "branding" (SteamMod in big letters on the lockscreen?), I would think ppl would rather have something less intrusive in the look. I know I would. something clean and mechanical. just a IMHO kinda suggestion, great work regardless!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem-o... I appreciate the suggestion. Funny thing, too... I was using some of the mods from this on my daily use, and I thought "I need to take off that lettering 'cuz it's getting on my nerves." I'm just going to use it as the splash screen when sense loads rather than on the lock screen.
I have to take a break from this for a couple of days, but hopefully I can work on it some next week. Here's where I'm going to have most of my problems... DISTRIBUTION. I can theme my own phone b/c I know what I'm editing... I just am not sure how to make it so others can use it without bricking their phone. Any ideas? I hate Metamorph... was thinking more of a flashable zip? Or maybe just a themed version of a full ROM? ??
-mb
I may be way off, but I'm a Hero user and digital scrap "designer". I have photographed and extracted some Steampunk watch parts that you are welcome to use if you like for your theme.
http://www.scrappincop.com/search/label/Steampunk
The DL links are right below the pics for each post. Again, if I'm way off and you think my stuff sucks, disregard this post!
I love your theme btw!
I have abandoned this project... it was too big for me to take on. If anyone wants to pick this up...?
mbuchholz said:
I have abandoned this project... it was too big for me to take on. If anyone wants to pick this up...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's too bad, one theme I was really looking forward to.
and no, dont know diddle about theming.

[Q] Themeing

so im very new at all of this and what im about to ask i probably wont get to many answers back. but im trying to learn themeing and ive tryed to do it myself but i just get lost really fast. i was wondering if anybody would take time to maybe show me how to get started...tutorials wont help till i officially no what im doing....if anybody can help me u would be a very big help to me... thank u!
MarleyBoi said:
so im very new at all of this and what im about to ask i probably wont get to many answers back. but im trying to learn themeing and ive tryed to do it myself but i just get lost really fast. i was wondering if anybody would take time to maybe show me how to get started...tutorials wont help till i officially no what im doing....if anybody can help me u would be a very big help to me... thank u!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i mean tutorials are the way a lot of us got going, or really got into it
basically though, just start by using 7zip to take apart the frameworks from another theme and look through the drawable-hdpi or hdpi-4 folders and see the changed images
its a lot to take in though really...not something that can be picked up in a week or something...but dont get discouraged
MarleyBoi said:
so im very new at all of this and what im about to ask i probably wont get to many answers back. but im trying to learn themeing and ive tryed to do it myself but i just get lost really fast. i was wondering if anybody would take time to maybe show me how to get started...tutorials wont help till i officially no what im doing....if anybody can help me u would be a very big help to me... thank u!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i don't think you understand the concept of a tutorial
to bo honest i dont think i do...thats why im trying to learn
You really just have to jump in. I use winrar instead of 7zip . But to start, open up a theme that already works for the fascinate ...and just look at the folder tree and understand where everything is ... after that, Start replacing images. XML editing is going to take a tutorial, but there is a lot you can do before you take that step. It takes time ... and patience. Pretty much just jump in .you have an advantage being that this phone is so easy to recover if something goes wrong. It is addictive though ... be warned. The theme I'm working on has consumed my life almost haha.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
MarleyBoi said:
...tutorials wont help till i officially no what im doing..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point of a tutorial is to show you what to do. So you should give them a shot instead of writing them off.
i did...i read like three to four tutorials but they all start in diff areas of stuff and it just gets to confusing...im trying though...im not just writing it off...i really am
MarleyBoi said:
i did...i read like three to four tutorials but they all start in diff areas of stuff and it just gets to confusing...im trying though...im not just writing it off...i really am
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
while i *should* update my tutorial to include more of the basic stuff, the reason most of it focuses on the more advanced xml/.9 things is because in december/january that seemed to be the most pressing issue for many.
i was getting dozens of pms a day on androidforums/xda/irc with many of the same questions, and while i was trying to be helpful and respond it was getting to be a bit overwhelming....so i figured id answer the most commonly asked things first and work back from there...but then dl30 dropped, then eb01 and i got tied up by porting the themes/ports i maintained.
now that im working on more detailed themes that takes up most of my android time...but ill see what i can do about updating the tutorial
Thank u man...sorry for being such a noon :/
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
So is it really hard to combine elements from different themes to make a new theme? There are several different ones that I love parts of, but I would like to be able to pick and choose and piece one together...
Like for instance, I like somebody the dark themes, but I don't always like plain toggle buttons, and I love the stock gingerbread statusbar with the little vertical battery meter that has the percent in it.... some themes I did the transparent pull down, etc....
I'd like to be able to mix n match
How hard is it to do that?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App
agsded said:
So is it really hard to combine elements from different themes to make a new theme? There are several different ones that I love parts of, but I would like to be able to pick and choose and piece one together...
Like for instance, I like somebody the dark themes, but I don't always like plain toggle buttons, and I love the stock gingerbread statusbar with the little vertical battery meter that has the percent in it.... some themes I did the transparent pull down, etc....
I'd like to be able to mix n match
How hard is it to do that?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if its *just* images..not very hard at all....just use 7zip to extract the icons from one theme and to copy them into another
nitsuj17 said:
if its *just* images..not very hard at all....just use 7zip to extract the icons from one theme and to copy them into another
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there certain parts of Themes that you should not try to copy over to other themes?
are most APK's ok to copy from one theme to another? I have many themes that i really like alot and then i found some areas of one theme i like but would like this or that from another. But overall i give you all alot of credit as you all do some amazing work!!!! THank you all

[cm12][5.0] theme template

ANDROID 5.0.+ Lollipop THEME TEMPLATE.
For all you themers from noobs to advanced. I noticed there was alot of people asking for theme templates for CM12.
I finally got around to making one. So here it is. This is the first build of it and it's 1am on a work night. anyway....
Here's what's included (for themeing so far)
FRAMEWORK-RES
SYSTEMUI
GMAIL
SETTINGS
MMS
CONTACTS
GALLERY
CAMERA
BROWSER
CALCULATOR
DESKCLOCK
DIALER
DOCUMENTS
CM LAUNCHER
FILE MANAGER
LOCK CLOCK
THEME CHOOSER
DOWNLOAD LINKS
Google Drive --> ANNEX CM12 THEME TEMPLATE
MEGA Cloud --> ANNEX CM12 THEME TEMPLATE
Awesome, Thanks for the CM12 Template!
So how do I know what to do with everything
DOBBY0 said:
So how do I know what to do with everything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's come with experience
great! ....
T-Rex said:
that's come with experience [emoji14]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how can I get experience? There really isn't a guide to how to do this for complete beginners.. I mean I've come to figure out a lot on my own but I don't have the time to do this for hours and hours a day
DOBBY0 said:
So how can I get experience? There really isn't a guide to how to do this for complete beginners.. I mean I've come to figure out a lot on my own but I don't have the time to do this for hours and hours a day
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really know the extent of your knowledge, but become familiar with the different ways to decompile/recompile apks if you haven't already done so. I personally use Virtuous Ten Studio, apktool (probably the most simple way), and sometimes I use Android Studio. Download some type of image manipulation program such as Photoshop or GIMP. Gimp is free to use and very powerful in my opinion. It's what I always use. Become familiar with the file structure of Android.
The list goes on and on, but you'd be surprised what you can find just from googling. Every thing I know about theming and android has been self taught, it is possible :good:
That's mostly what I know. I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 and I use android studio +gimp. I also know how to decompile and recompile and sign apk files I just don't know how to understand the code for each thing
New settings commits added?
http://review.cyanogenmod.org/#/c/87074/
DOBBY0 said:
So how can I get experience? There really isn't a guide to how to do this for complete beginners.. I mean I've come to figure out a lot on my own but I don't have the time to do this for hours and hours a day
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To get started download java dev kit 7, android SDK, and apktool. Setup your environment variables, after that you can decompile the apk and if you need help I should be around to help.
I just don't know what to do with the template. I know how to do everything else
Not able to install this
Hi
i have installed ur template apk it is installing but when i tried to apply the theme it is automatically deleting and i am getting notification that theme is not installed.. I ddnt changed anything in apk i just installed ur template as it is
aswath_10 said:
Hi
i have installed ur template apk it is installing but when i tried to apply the theme it is automatically deleting and i am getting notification that theme is not installed.. I ddnt changed anything in apk i just installed ur template as it is
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The apk is stock... nothing is edited. so you don't want to install that... you want to theme that apk... so Decompile it, then theme it.... compile it and sign it.
hey there thanx for the template
im also a noob in theming and want to get started making my own personal theme. i dont like that new app that came out doesnt theme like i really want my phone to look...im just askin if someone can point me to a noob friendly instuction or could help me out here...and yes like the person mentioned before i been using google and couldnt realy find anything that shows me step by step...i dont know which version to use...sdk ,android studio ,virtous ten method....
would apreciate evry help i can get..
Naggahood said:
im also a noob in theming and want to get started making my own personal theme. i dont like that new app that came out doesnt theme like i really want my phone to look...im just askin if someone can point me to a noob friendly instuction or could help me out here...and yes like the person mentioned before i been using google and couldnt realy find anything that shows me step by step...i dont know which version to use...sdk ,android studio ,virtous ten method....
would apreciate evry help i can get..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Learn to theme first...theme chooser isn't a toy. Much easier to make themes look perfect if you know how apps work. I'm not gonna sit and help someone step by step....unless you gonna pay something....j/k
Also....
You didn't look very hard, I found six wiki explaining how to theme android...YouTube it's great too but if you gave up searching for ways to theme then you'll have a tough time searching for code and images. It's not easy if you do it right. But I'll even point you to my tutorial that has taught some great devs to theme. So it should help you.
http://www.designrifts.com/teamblackedoutapp/tutorials/
If you can't figure it out this way then you'll need to rethink doing this. [emoji4]
But
If you can get an app themed then this will click faster!
Good luck!
DJ
Thanks but i managed it myself.. All i really wanet to know which tool would be easier since there are a few out for diggin in to the android system.learned it the hardest way i think.. By taking the complete system and apps appart.to have their images and etc. But now i know whats going on from ground up .still thank you
And of course there wouldve been some actions from my side , be it a payment, a drink ,dinner etc...
Nothing in this world is for free

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