[REF] Theme Developement Resources

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I want to make a thread for both those that are already Dev'in themes, and those that want to start, can trade info and techniques. For example:

(Program)
Photoshop Editor:

Then a description of a given process...

Etc.

I know that there are How To's, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=471586 but I'd like a more direct, and detail orientated place to discuss the specifics. I've tried a few attempts myself and found that some programs work, some don't. Plus, since the prices of some of these programs are as high as $600, and the fact that there are thousands of web-based programs, it'd would be nice to see what works best for who, and how.

Hopefully, this will turn into a good resource, and we'll soon have a forum full of the most excellent themes.


MODS: Let me know if I'm outta bounds and I'll fix. This is my first time makin a thread so it ain't all that.

To Do:
*search and post Theme Developement info for Windows, Linux, and Mac


These are links to useful threads related to different parts of theme developement...

Key Files Chart:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...3ci5_oxwQ4mGrg

Creating your boot animation:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=527200

Progress circle style/color editing:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=540830

Editing .XML's:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=479019

How to use baksmali/smali:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=537779

General Theme Developement:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467639

Using DrawPatch-9:
http://developer.android.com/guide/d...raw9patch.html

Signing made easy:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=473580

photoshop is my primary weapon of choice but I've also found that for minor edits like color changes touchups transparency changes and resizes photoscape and fotoflexer work pretty well especially when I'm at work and decide to mess around because I can't install photoshop on my work computer due to administrator locks I just downloaded photoscape and installed to the documents folder and fotoflexer is an online image editor and both are free

Okay... here is something very usefull...
You know those pesky indexed files right? they corrupt if you open them in photoshop?... I figured out how to remove the indexing... first you need to download and install Paint.NET off of the web... and then install(of course)... and then open any indexed file in Paint.NET... then save it... and it will be un-indexed... ... this will be very usefull for lots of people... cuz it is for me!

I like paint.Net myself. Its free and if you load the plugins available you can get a lot done quickly and easily.

Best tip is to make sure you save stuff in layers so that if you only need to edit part of an image you can.
Another tip is after you finish your edits you can expand the canvas on all sides by 1 pixel then use solid black for doing the .9 marks. Once done you can dump your files right into the latest eclipse and draw9 isn't even needed which saves a lot of time.

Also 7-zip is just amazing. You can use the file manager to move files between zip files and apk and even jar files without unpacking or packing over and over.

I agree with beagz 7zip is a must it makes it a hell of a lot easier when porting your themes for new builds another life saver is the android sdk lot s of useful information in there and eclipse for compiling .9 images which there are samples of in the android sdk to show you how to do the guides properly like beagz was talkin about in his previous post because if you mess one of those your phone can end up totally screwed

This is easy

Apps
.zip/.apk management: 7-zip (the most important part of theme development)
image manipulation: GIMP

Software
sign/resign files: Java JDK
.9.png editing: Eclipse to compile the apk

Pre-reqs
ADB working properly through the command prompt

Applications that make theming possible for Jonnybueno
I use Photoshop for images. Hue and Saturation(ctrl+u) is my best friend for changing the color of stuffs. For hex editing, I use HXD, outlined in this thread by Stericson: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=479019.

For signing, I use Stericson's Autosign.bat. If you don't know, you can double click on this to pull up the command prompt rather than launching the command line and then typing "autosign". Also, you can copy the file path by right clicking while holding the shift button on Vista.

And finally, for notification text, I use Ohsaka's colorChange.jar. Along with this really simple batch file.

White text:http://sharebee.com/b6b43290

Which is just one line(that I'm too lazy to type everytime I update)

java -jar colorChange.jar theme.zip ticker=FFFFFFFF clock=FFFFFFFF date=FFFFFFFF ongoing=FFFFFFFF latest=FFFFFFFF clear=FF000000 network=FFFFFFFF roam=FFFFFFFF

Resources
For viewing source to reference those xml files, I use these sites

Cyanogen source:http://github.com/cyanogen
Android reference (stock): http://developer.android.com/referen...id/R.attr.html

And then this website for finding just the right RGB codes: http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html



Tips
I've learned that it is totally possible to rotate .9.png files using windows without having to redraw them and that images don't have to be the original size. There is a limit to how big you can go... but i have no idea what that limit is.

Oh and for different colored(other than black) notification text for downloads, edit the only xml file in DownloadProvider.apk/res/layout. For example, 0800001C 000000FF becomes 0800001C FFFFFFFF. In case you're confused, whats happening is that you're changing an ARGB code (which is backwards, so you're looking at BGRA... see stericson's thread please) from black (000000FF) to white (FFFFFFFF).

Working from Linux (Ubuntu) I've found File Roller to work as nice and easy as 7zip in Windows for working with zip/jar/apk.
GIMP is my gfx editor of choice in both worlds. Glad I discovered you don't need draw9patch to put the .9 guides in - draw9patch is a pain to use!
In Windows I use XVI32 a hex editor, ghex in Linux.
testsign.jar is all you need to sign - very simple from command line in both Linux and Windows

/Mats