[SKN] Dark Diamond for PocketCM 0.29+ ***QVGA*VGA*WQVGA*WVGA

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don_pipo

Senior Member
Oct 7, 2008
82
0
Dark Diamond for PocketCM 0.29+
***Version 0.9.4

Last updated: November 22th 2009

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***Changelog

-Added custom edition for square resolution phones (square screen only!)
Try it here.



*0.9.4
-Some cosmetic corrections
-Fixed layout problem when sending SMS to multiple contacts
-Rhodium design for SMS input box



*0.9.3
Another update due to requests!

-Added option for no header
-Added counter options too



*0.9.2
Minor update to satisfy some users' requests!

-Inverted theme (white) in Rhodium style ***Not complete/Need work! (Requested by PaulDays)
Preview

-Option for plain backgrounds (Requested by AlainL)
-Option for bigger and bolder fonts (Requested by AlainL)


-Enable using SIP for searching -> Available in no index views (Requested by bartbk)


Still pending requests:
-Square resolution support

New translations:
-Italian!


This release include also call log translations since daily 0.30.155 and corrects a bug with index that appeared in 0.30 daily builds.


*0.9.1
Minor update for QVGA: Changed fonts for better readability.
New fonts package also, don't forget to download it.


I made a mistake in first uploaded file that affects only WQVGA resolution. If you see a red background, please download the file again.


***My message to you

Hi there,

To sup up things a little, I've continued working on original Dark Diamond theme created by Lukymat for PocketCM.
I first have arranged things a little for personal use then, discovering PocketCM coding possibilities, I decided to get further in theming and share my work.
With Lukymat's help, I added things here and there, corrected a lot of others things, reworked code and graphics...
Many thanks to Tene, PocketCM developper and Lukymat for helping at this.

I'm releasing a "0.9" version which looks still like a beta to me... This is as a matter of fact because PocketCM is still in developpement with a large room for improvements too.

There's a lot of changes since my previous 0.3 release. I'm keeping the same idea of skinning in HTC TouchFlo's spirit and stay away from bugs as much as I can.

Please be aware that PocketCM is not completely stable in its current version, but this is the only one compatible with this skin.

Fell free to express you support, thanks, suggestions and remarks
Hoping you'll appreciate our work.


***Links

Downloading webspace
(Use this link if direct links don't work)
PocketCM 0.29

French topic here :)


***Direct links

Theme

Fonts
French translation
English translation (some personal changes and also a base for translation to other languages)
Other translations also available:
Italian -> thanks to Netjerikhet!
German -> thanks to TomAngel!
Dutch -> thanks to h.ketelaars!
Czech -> thanks to Mr.74!
Spanish -> thanks to anxo!
Follow webspace link on Mediafire (or search this thread) to download the language files.


"Read me" file

You should not distribute this theme. Please only link to these webspace links.
For any use or modification of this theme, please contact me!


***Installation (in the right order)

If it's not already done, install CAB version of PocketCM 0.29.

Copy "Dark diamond 0.9.zip" directly in PocketCM folder "Program files\PocketCM". Don't unzip it!
Copy fonts in "Windows" and/or "Windows\Fonts" or "Windows\Polices" depending on your ROM language.
Copy language file(s) in PocketCM folder.

Launch PocketCM, load theme via options screen, load language file.
Eventually here, select "Wide resolution" if you have a wide phone.

Restart completely PocketCM.


***Screenshots

(Screenshots are in French, but skin is English-friendly!)

Customizable contact list/search:


Contact details and SMS:

The keyboard is PocketCM Keyboard 0.14 along with the great Nottingham's Black Diamond skin which I like a lot.

Two types for menus:


Options...


Landscape mode:



***Custom theme settings

Since PocketCM 0.29, it is possible to add custom settings to themes.
Useful or not (!), I added these custom settings to Dark Diamond:
-Show/hide default contact picture,
-Show/hide alphabetical index,
-Align contact picture on left or right side of the list,
-Colors schemes (HTC's green by default, blue, red, yellow) -> You want to see a new color scheme -> Ask me...*
-Choice between different style for checkboxes,
-Choice between two styles of menu (a fast basic menu or a HTC "Quick list" style menu),
-Formatting options for contact name in list,
-Formatting options for the second line in list to show either phone number or company or both.

Possibilities are almost inifinite, so if you have a bright idea, please share it with me!

Some custom settings need time or a restart of PocketCM to be applied. List formatting need the entire contact cache to be rebuild, this can take time depending of the number of contacts you have.


***Release notes

This release of the skin is designed only for PocketCM 0.29 and perhaps later versions.
It is not compatible at all with previous versions, because it uses new features.

I designed this release in one unique package, one for all resolutions PocketCM can handle properly and natively: QVGA and VGA, standard and wide.
Wide resolutions are handled in this theme via a custom option.

This relaese is zipped entirely to be fully compatible with PocketCM, as a consequence it's a bit slow at its first launch.

Despite of numbers of optimizations, this release is still "heavy", I'm working at recompressing graphics with not too much alterations.

PocketCM 0.29 should be installed via the CAB version, it should be more stable than the ZIP one.


***Limitations

-Please restart completely PocketCM after having loaded the theme, so that it displayed correctly.
-Please select wide resolution if needed immediately after having loaded the theme (see below).
-PocketCM has to cache the whole skin the first time, so please allow each screen to load and display one time before crying about it is slow. The theme will be slow only for the first time each screen is displayed.
Then it's fluid and responsive.


***A side note for wide resolutions WQVGA and WVGA


To release the skin in one package, I'm dealing with PocketCM limitations, so I added a parameter in the option menu to activate wide resolution WQVGA and WVGA support.
Until this parameter is activated, the skin behaves in standard resolution, and has graphical glitches.
If you have a WVGA or WQVGA phone, this should be the first thing you have to do when you select the theme: check the "Wide resolution" box!


***Fonts


You should copy Helvetica fonts in the "Windows\Fonts" folder before using the skin.
/!\ Eastern Europe/Asia and other languages with special alphabet should uninstall the fonts if characters aren't properly displayed. These fonts support fully Western alphabets only.

***Languages

I include with the skin language files that are made to work with the skin: they add translations to skin parameters, plus some modifications I personally prefer.
Fell free to translate from English or French to your own language! (Apart some changes I made, English is added for this purpose also...)


Enjoy!

Alex, also known as "don_pipo".
 
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don_pipo

Senior Member
Oct 7, 2008
82
0
Thanks hanackin.
I'd be glad to know how it works on the Blackstone, as I experience lots of crashes with the WVGA emulator. Here or on Actualité Mobile ;)
It behaves fine on the Diamond, though.
 

MasterMerlin

Senior Member
Jun 2, 2005
143
10
Thanks a lot!
Now I am using my favorit Contact manager again ... (was only due to lack of good VGA Skins)
 

Moguledyouth

Senior Member
Oct 3, 2007
556
73
a couple things, I noticed that the settings.ini file was wrong in that the red.ini settings were set for both red and yellow options.

also I was wondering if the option to have the index on either side of the screen could be an option for the next release?

I love this skin keep up the good work.
 

ajskhan

Senior Member
Dec 19, 2007
54
3
Looks great, only an IDEA! how about one cab with PocketCm, The Skin, and TF3D Defaulting?
 

Sean D.

Senior Member
Nov 5, 2007
428
6
Hayward
QVGA...?

I know you put QVGA in the zip with everything else, but I'd rather not install a 3mb file, can you make a QVGA file only?

:confused:
 

don_pipo

Senior Member
Oct 7, 2008
82
0
a couple things, I noticed that the settings.ini file was wrong in that the red.ini settings were set for both red and yellow options.
Thanks for pointing this! Actually, it was correct in the separate language file "English.lang.ini".
Since it's not a big issue, I reuploaded the file with the correction.
also I was wondering if the option to have the index on either side of the screen could be an option for the next release?

I love this skin keep up the good work.
I'd love to offer this option but PocketCM doesn't allow to put the index on the right side in its current version!

BTW, thanks for your kind words. :)

Best looking PocketCM theme I've seen! Good work.
:)

Looks great, only an IDEA! how about one cab with PocketCm, The Skin, and TF3D Defaulting?
Final version will be available as one CAB, especially to install fonts along with the skin.

Since not everybody use TouchFLO interface, I won't include defaulting in it.
BTW, I've not found a solution to set PocketCM as default contact manager in TouchFLO, but it has the option to come to front on new SMS and to be default WM contact manager.
If I find a solution for this, I'll certainly will make a configuration file available!

I know you put QVGA in the zip with everything else, but I'd rather not install a 3mb file, can you make a QVGA file only?
:confused:
I'd prefer not, since 3MB does not look like space hungry to me.
Next release will use more compressed images and the whole ZIP file will approximatively weight less than 1.5MB!

If you want to save some space, open the ZIP and erase all files begining with "VGA_, "WVGA_" and if your phone is standard resolution "WQVGA_" aswell.
 
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thejoker01

Member
Mar 24, 2008
35
0
This theme is really nice looking! I do have a slight problem though, I am using the theme on my Elfin (QVGA) and I've followed all your steps including copying the font files over to the Windows/Font folder. Unfortunately, all the fonts are still really blurry, any idea what's the cause of this?
 

don_pipo

Senior Member
Oct 7, 2008
82
0
This theme is really nice looking! I do have a slight problem though, I am using the theme on my Elfin (QVGA) and I've followed all your steps including copying the font files over to the Windows/Font folder. Unfortunately, all the fonts are still really blurry, any idea what's the cause of this?
Blurry?
Sure QVGA looks blurry compared to VGA... Have you activated Cleartype?
Please post a screenshot unless I can't help.
 

thejoker01

Member
Mar 24, 2008
35
0
Ok here's my screenshot (cleartype enabled on left, cleartype disabled on right):



I'm not too sure...but something about the theme on QVGA does not look the same as you screenshots in the original post. Could it be because the theme does not downsize well to QVGA resolution? And the fonts look slightly different, did I do something wrong? I just coped the 2 font files over to my Windows/Font folder prior to installing the theme.

Thanks for your help.
 

don_pipo

Senior Member
Oct 7, 2008
82
0
Ok here's my screenshot (cleartype enabled on left, cleartype disabled on right):



I'm not too sure...but something about the theme on QVGA does not look the same as you screenshots in the original post. Could it be because the theme does not downsize well to QVGA resolution? And the fonts look slightly different, did I do something wrong? I just coped the 2 font files over to my Windows/Font folder prior to installing the theme.

Thanks for your help.

Hmmm, yes, fonts are drawn a bit strangely in QVGA. I didn't noticed this because I'm developing the theme in VGA. But these are the good ones.
These are surely VGA fonts! :(
Maybe another font or another Helvetica version should be used in QVGA...
Also some graphics need to be a bit reworked for QVGA (dot lines for instance). I'll take a look a this when I'll make an update.

As a consequence too, graphics are downscaled versions of the VGA ones, but I think I've achieved pretty good results with graphics at downscaling them, taking in account that I did not redraw or retouch them.
They may look blurry compared to VGA but it's a matter of resolution.

Even if I can't help right now, I want to thank you for reporting this!

Alex.

Edit: Actually, it's "Helvetica LT 35 Thin" which is not suited for QVGA. I'm looking for a replacement font.
For the time being, you can try this:
-Quit PocketCM
-Open the ZIP file (best done via PC)
-Open "settings.ini"
-Replace this line "$font$=Helvetica LT 35 Thin" by this: "$font$=Helvetica LT 55 Roman"
-Save the file inside the ZIP
-Reload PocketCM.
And tell me :)
 
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