So, I recently decided to switch to using the new trillian beta, its actually grown into a rather decent application quite quickly. Of course, like most apps though, its designed for stock android, so all the notification icons are black & white, and look pretty lame on our vibrant (well, at least in my opinion they look lame.)
So I decided to make some new status icons for trillian, based on the default app icon, and I take NO credit at all for designing their original icon, I just like it a lot better than the awful black notification icons.
I am not packaging this into an apk until they release a non-beta version, since they seem to be updating the application as often as weekly right now. So the zip attached to the post only contains my new icons, you need to mod your app on your own.
Note, from my testing, I find that in order to make this installable to /data/app like a normal app, you need to extract the apk with apk manager, replace the images, then zip apk and re-sign. However, if you don't mind doing an adb push to /system/app then all you need to do is open the trillian.apk and drag-and-drop the new images into /res/drawable-hdpi.
And of course, zimp's awesome warning message...
WARNING: ALWAYS make a nandroid backup prior to installing any modification, including this one. You are making the decision to install this on your own, and I am not responsible for anything nuclear that may happen to your device.
Removed, sorry, too many people use other people's work without giving credit, and it leads to way too many headaches, he-said/she-said, ignorance, etc.
Related
I am now using the awesome all black mod and was wondering how hard would it be to "all black" the gmail and gtalk apps to match. Black background and white/grey text perhaps. I would think in my case this would save a lot on battery as well as I check email frequently.
I would love this as well though I am just a user, not a programmer or the like. However I don't think this would be too hard. It could be as simple as implementing maybe a high contrast which pretty much almost flips the colors. No idea though
If their layouts, styles, etc are defined in accessible XML files it could probably be done.
yeah add me! this would be an awesome mod. can totally see 2+ days with something like this.
Anyone able to actually do this I poked around some and was unable to make it work.
I'll take a look...
That would be awesome. If you would be willling to share your findings that would be icing on the cake as I would love to learn how to do this myself.I tired to change the background colors by changing color values in the chat_view.xml but that seemed to have no effect. I am sure its just a matter of changing color values in a few key xml files but just dont know where to look.
Thanks again
Check out the thread called "tiles by ardchoille" in the section I think it may be what your looking for
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Wykedx said:
Check out the thread called "tiles by ardchoille" in the section I think it may be what your looking for
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link but no that is not what I am looking for. What I want is for the background screen inside the apps to be black background with white text. The default for gmail and gtalk is a white background with black text on it.
adm1jtg said:
Thanks for the link but no that is not what I am looking for. What I want is for the background screen inside the apps to be black background with white text. The default for gmail and gtalk is a white background with black text on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost positive framework for google apps (gapps) is closed source and not to be modded or distributed. that is why CM got the cease and desist letter.
You could create a metamorph to do this but it would take quite a lot of hunting to find all the .xml files needed, as well as all the .png's used. The easy part would be editing the basic framework files. Editing all the apps you've installed is a whole new story.
Snoop around in framework.res and twframework.res if you like. That's what the AllBlack mm changes.
FYI, Cyanogen got a C&D for the _distribution_ of Google apps. I strongly doubt Google would care if you change the graphics of gapps for yourself, so long as you're not making the apps themselves available for download.
Bump (Throws up a shield to avoid tomatoes)
Any new way to accomplish this?
nakagusukumike said:
Bump (Throws up a shield to avoid tomatoes)
Any new way to accomplish this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I would love to get a blacked out Gmail.
I had found one on a droid x forum recently. Someone has done it.
Scarinzi said:
Same here. I would love to get a blacked out Gmail.
I had found one on a droid x forum recently. Someone has done it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Blacking out apps is a royal pain to do it right. I've been working on this for my newest (still unreleased) honeycomb theme, and its slow, and tedious. I can spend hours changing one color value, or one line of code, re-compiling, push to phone, test, only for it to not work properly, and then I have to undo the change, and start over.
https://picasaweb.google.com/113127051130934911253/HoneycombTheme?feat=directlink
Gmail for instance, uses XML layouts, colors coded into the java directly, and then custom CSS for the message view.
I've been tweaking and debugging for days, and still can't override enough of the font colors to black out the message view to a level I'm happy with.
Anyway, I've done gmail, gtalk, googlevoice (well, like 90%, can't blackout the setup process properly no matter how I try) AOSP 2.2 calendar (I hate touchwiz) CM6/AOSP Mms (just touchups), google quick-search-box, twitter 2.0.1, android market, and the ABSOLUTE worst of them all, google maps (only like 85-90%, I can't decompile the resources, so some parts will never be inverted properly.) And then there were also tweaks to Contacts, Browser, Beautiful widgets, Voodoo control app, and the frameworks themselves.
And I still need to blackout facebook, google reader, google books, and a few more.
I had planned on releasing eventually, but in order to blackout maps, the framework-res.apk has to invert every call for a "light" theme to "black" instead, so it WILL break other apps that use custom display styles, but rely on default android text colors (or vice-versa.) And of course, if anyone starts asking for a release-date, I'll likely just abandon it entirely. This was all done for my own personal enjoyment and use, not anyone else's.
Blah, sorry for sounding *****y, I'm tired of people causing drama in the android world, its supposed to be FUN, not high-school.
Cheers, =)
s0niqu3 said:
Hi,
Blacking out apps is a royal pain to do it right. I've been working on this for my newest (still unreleased) honeycomb theme, and its slow, and tedious. I can spend hours changing one color value, or one line of code, re-compiling, push to phone, test, only for it to not work properly, and then I have to undo the change, and start over.
https://picasaweb.google.com/113127051130934911253/HoneycombTheme?feat=directlink
Gmail for instance, uses XML layouts, colors coded into the java directly, and then custom CSS for the message view.
I've been tweaking and debugging for days, and still can't override enough of the font colors to black out the message view to a level I'm happy with.
Anyway, I've done gmail, gtalk, googlevoice (well, like 90%, can't blackout the setup process properly no matter how I try) AOSP 2.2 calendar (I hate touchwiz) CM6/AOSP Mms (just touchups), google quick-search-box, twitter 2.0.1, android market, and the ABSOLUTE worst of them all, google maps (only like 85-90%, I can't decompile the resources, so some parts will never be inverted properly.) And then there were also tweaks to Contacts, Browser, Beautiful widgets, Voodoo control app, and the frameworks themselves.
And I still need to blackout facebook, google reader, google books, and a few more.
I had planned on releasing eventually, but in order to blackout maps, the framework-res.apk has to invert every call for a "light" theme to "black" instead, so it WILL break other apps that use custom display styles, but rely on default android text colors (or vice-versa.) And of course, if anyone starts asking for a release-date, I'll likely just abandon it entirely. This was all done for my own personal enjoyment and use, not anyone else's.
Blah, sorry for sounding *****y, I'm tired of people causing drama in the android world, its supposed to be FUN, not high-school.
Cheers, =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't blame you at all.
If you decide to make this available to everybody, it will be awesome. Good work.
I couldn't find it on XDA but a quick Google search found one on a droid x forum in zip form.
I flashed it with CWM and it worked.
Not as nice looking throughout as s0niqu3's but looks alot better than the regular version.
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/blacked-out/128296-release-gmail-2-3-4-1-blacked-out.html
So, I'm trying to figure out how to theme Android. Currently, there's some really overdone glossy/gawdy themes out for my device, and I want to bring something back more elegant.
I'm not looking to do anything insane, what I really want to try doing to start with is just changing the notification icons that appear in the status bar, for starters, like the GMail, missed call, messaging, and the signal/wifi/bt stuff (not yet interseted in changing the battery indicator).
What am I looking to edit? My understanding is that I can replace the image files with the same name as what I want to replace with, and then resign the framework apk as well as resigning the zip. Am I totally off?
dont know any stuff yet which allows u to change ur notification bar view or somethin... but i've tried a good interactive live wallpaper available in market place which make ur notifixation bubbles n show on ur homescreen.... u shud try if the case is for making somethin interestin in ur device......
Sent from my GT-S5670 using XDA App
LiquidSolstice said:
So, I'm trying to figure out how to theme Android. Currently, there's some really overdone glossy/gawdy themes out for my device, and I want to bring something back more elegant.
I'm not looking to do anything insane, what I really want to try doing to start with is just changing the notification icons that appear in the status bar, for starters, like the GMail, missed call, messaging, and the signal/wifi/bt stuff (not yet interseted in changing the battery indicator).
What am I looking to edit? My understanding is that I can replace the image files with the same name as what I want to replace with, and then resign the framework apk as well as resigning the zip. Am I totally off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't resign anything in the system folder. Well there are some exceptions. Also you will only be able to change the stock apps icons as 3rd party have their own built into the apk
Hey there everyone, I am wanting to edit my framework to get a better looking notification bar. I have an android phone called SH7218U, I am rooted with all Gapps.
If you look this up phone on Google, you will see that the notification bar and icons are very similar to stock Android 2.2 ( I am running 2.2.1). The only difference is that the signal bar is located to the left of the bar as well as some icons getting set there as well. You can really see this here: http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Sharp-SH7218U-Clamshell-Android-Phone.jpg
When going into root explorer and checking out system/framework I am see the familiar framework-res.apk file, but I also see an apk file called dianxinos-res.apk. It seesm to be able to mess with framework and change the UI and other things, both of these files need to be edited. This is just a guess though since I have been able to find a post on a Chinese forum that gives a new notification bar (the only difference being the battery icon replaced with a numerical battery representation and the (when bar is pulled down) shortcut to the useless built-in task killer is gone. Inside of the package to this new framework I get both framework and dianxinos files so it seems I would have to replace both of the old files with the new ones.
As you can see in the above image there are virtual android buttons on the bottom of the screen as well, for when you want to use the phone normally. I do not think that the dianxinos-res.apk is linked to the virtual buttons as exploring system/media/pics contain.bmp images of the virtual buttons and I have confirmation by another SH7218U user that editing these images will directly effect how they are displayed.
I was just wondering anyone know how to edit the framework when there are two files corresponding to this. I don't know much about editing the framework but even so I am quick to learn but figured I would just ask around before I do anything. Worst comes to worst, like a bootloop for instance, I have a system.img for my phone so flashing that with fastboot will get my phone working again.
Anyway, Ive uploaded both files in case anyone would like to look at them. I am trying to go for a gingerbread-esque notification bar with blue instead of green possibly.
If anyone thinks this thread would get better hits elsewhere I would appreciate any input.
I hope this is true. Below is quoted from the article.
Google has made an excellent decision concerning the UI requirement because it’s going to force manufacturers to make the skins they put on devices a choice for users, not a mandatory “this is what you get.” This should lessen the time it takes to roll out new updates to legacy devices that can support the newest versions of Android
http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile...ule-them-all-for-android-4-0-devices-2012016/
sorry to say you're mistaken. google and skin makers put a bunch of files in frameworks that apps pull from in order to look like the rest of the phone. this is why some things look different in different themes/roms inside 3rd party apps.
google is now requiring that instead of replacing their default theme, skinners just make a second one and put it in also.
app devs can choose to use either "androidholo" or "defaulttheme" or something like that by adding a line in the manifest of their apps.
and any OEM added apps will also probably be skinned.
so again im sorry to say probably not
plz correct me if im wrong on any of this i probably am.
dkdude36 said:
sorry to say you're mistaken. google and skin makers put a bunch of files in frameworks that apps pull from in order to look like the rest of the phone. this is why some things look different in different themes/roms inside 3rd party apps.
google is now requiring that instead of replacing their default theme, skinners just make a second one and put it in also.
app devs can choose to use either "androidholo" or "defaulttheme" or something like that by adding a line in the manifest of their apps.
and any OEM added apps will also probably be skinned.
so again im sorry to say probably not
plz correct me if im wrong on any of this i probably am.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No your right. Take Sense for an example HTC will most likely rewrite it so the default theme is still there but apps will still pull from the HTC resource file. This will really only effect AOSP style roms and phones.
Hello everybody, this is my first theme, and I hope it's a good enough product for XDA and the Streak 5 community!
I have been forced by circumstances to stop all hobby projects for some time, and unfortunately this includes this theme. If anyone has the time and wants to continue work on this theme, or just to make a theme starting from this one, he/she is free to do so, as long as the people I have thanked here in the thread as well as myself are credited. Once again, thank you _n0p_ for a good ROM and I apologize for leaving my work unfinished.
Before I start, I want to thank _2bad4u_, nickshertzer and tenorntex for letting me use PNG's from their MattedBlues theme, the original MattedBlues theme creators for their theme, Google for a much improved interface for Android after version 4.0, LG for their smart (IMO) mod of white popups and backgrounds, and _n0p_ most for the most complete ROM for Streak, and the best performing one. (_n0p_, if you could add longpress-back-key-to-kill-app functionality from CM in DSC, I'll owe you a big case of beer.)
NOTE
This theme is made for DSC (1.5 currently) running in MDPI Portrait. I didn't test extensively in Landscape, but so far I didn't find any bugs that weren't already there in Portrait, so I guess it's ok. I have NOT tested any other GB ROM, DSC version, or other DPI, and I DO NOT guarantee that it will work if you flash this theme on anything other than DSC 1.5.
Installation Instructions
I am a noob with the more complicated stuff, so I went for the simplest solution I could find. In post #3 are .zip files that contain the framework, systemui and settings app. Just flash the suitable zip using Streakmod Recovery and you're good to go. USE ONLY ONE ZIP. The difference between them is explained in the Bugs post.
DESCRIPTION
As some of you probably agree, stock GB looks like crap, stock ICS looks much better. So I started making a theme for DSC, my ROM of choice, that would fulfill (most of) my aesthetic and functional ideals. However, this is an ICS-inspired theme, not an attempt to replicate that interface style, so please don't ask me to copy ICS, because that's not what I'm trying to do. I follow my own guidelines (listed below) when doing this theme, and some of them are actually the opposite of stock ICS.
Main Features
Starting from the ICS look, I want the theme to have the following characteristics:
MDPI base, because on our device, in HDPI, a lot of apps take too much screen space with interface elements, and this lowers the amount of useful information on screen
All white popups (windows, dialogs, popup menus, toasts) with black text, because IMO black on white is easier to see in direct sunlight , given the same screen brightness and text size, and we don't have LED screens so the battery drain isn't any higher. Also, popups should be obvious and clearly visible, either because they were brought up by the user, or because they were brought up by Android and contain useful information
Blue text (on black) for titles, hints and other text that can't be interacted with (pressed, copied), to better distinguish from black or white text, that can be copied, pressed or otherwise interacted with
Clear text hierarchy: Main (application) title (largest), Category title (large), Main text, buttons (medium), subtext/note/description (small)
Secondary modifications
There is also a number of smaller scale modifications, that include but are not limited to
Bigger text on buttons, because MDPI makes it too small on our device
Bigger text in Recent Applications, because it takes up the whole screen anyway
Thin volume/seek bars, ICS Style, with handle (not in the Music app, because the app isn't themed)
Modded Settings app for ICS Icons
Modded Quick Toggles from the DSC ROM to suit the theme, added overscroll effect
Modded gradient background
ICS notification icons
New menu popup icons
Replaced radio buttons with check buttons, for consistency
Increased text size in popup menus to Medium (from small), decreased text size from the "more" popup menu to Medium (from large). (Why were they different in stock GB?? It's basically the same menu!)
Hidden the Notifications and Ongoing titles from Notifications (but not the separators), because they are useless, every Android user knows which is which, and the notifications are already full of text most of the time
more stuff I don't remember now but you'll find out!
SCREENSHOTS
KNOWN BUGS
I have modified quite a few things for this theme, so a few bugs are to be expected. Here are listed the known bugs, and below I attached screenshots.
1. The stock phone app has some trouble with backgrounds other than black, as far as I can tell. In the screenshots you see a black square behind the "call" icon in the call log. It can be fixed using a non-transparent icon that covers that entire space, but since I'm using exDialer (MIUI fan!) with the white ICS theme, this fix was low on my priority list. I will add it in a later version for those who want the stock phone app, but I recommend you use another dialer/contacts app if the theme is important, because I will not theme other apps than the ones already themed. I don't have a lot of time and I've already worked more than I wanted to do this theme.
2. The stock alarm clock app also has problems with the gradient background. The alarm times are not visible in portrait, only in landscape (it's visible in the screenshots). You can turn the alarms on and off, and if you press the bugged area where the alarm time used to be, it still takes you to the alarm edit screen, where there are no bugs, so it's only the alarm selection screen that has bugs. I won't be theming this app either, so again I suggest using a different alarm app if you want to have the gradient background.
3. The email app overlaps 1 bigger and 1 smaller activity title bar. I don't know why, and I haven't used the stock theme since I started working on this one to know if the problem was there before. Again, I won't be theming this app either, so there probably won't be any fixes coming from me.
4. Not really a bug, but in some apps the popup menus use some of their own icons and some of the icons from the framework you have installed. In most cases they won't be the same and will look like crap together, and there's no fix (that I know of) other than theming all the other apps (which I won't do). Below is a screenshot of the issue in Terminal Emulator.
5. Mismatched light bottom popup. I couldn't track down the problem, and now I won't be able to.
BUG FIXES
A fix for the clock and phone, for those who do not want to use alternate phone or clock apps, is to eliminate the gradient background and revert to the stock black background. Until I find an alternative fix, I will attach 2 zips for each release version, a black background and a gradient background. Other than that there is no difference between them.
BUG REPORTING
If you find a bug, either in stock apps or in other apps, and you are sure it's my theme that causes the problem and not a problem with the app itself, then please report here. A screenshot would be most helpful as well. Bugs include white on white, black on black or grey on grey text (popups aren't perfectly white, so white text could still be visible, and black text should be visible on grey popups)
Releases
Releases
Current version: 0.6b for DSC 1.5
v0.6b changelog:
-Grey panel_background png, used for USSD popup and Root Explorer permissions popup, for example, is now white
-minor color modifications
-bottom part of popup fixed
As stated in the Bugs post, "gradient_background_vXX.zip" is the full theme, while "black_background_vXX.zip" uses the stock black background to eliminate the phone and alarm clock bugs. Flash either one using Streakmod, over DSC 1.5.
Great job, i like it, make's wanna come back to dsc. Because it's a great rom, and now it's looking like ics. Great job.
_2bad4u_ said:
Great job, i like it, make's wanna come back to dsc. Because it's a great rom, and now it's looking like ics. Great job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man. Now I regret my decision a little, it's a lot of work to do a theme, more than I thought. I hope people like it.
Please make it for longhorn2.9.3. pls
Sent from my ST25i using xda premium
Both framework-res and systemUI are missing META-INF folder with manifest. This will cause system to bootloop (no rights in system) right from start, or if you are lucky, after factory reset
Simply copy that folder from original.
--
Attached - quickly changed manifest and install script of black background version, works for me.
_n0p_ said:
Both framework-res and systemUI are missing META-INF folder with manifest. This will cause system to bootloop (no rights in system) right from start, or if you are lucky, after factory reset
Simply copy that folder from original.
--
Attached - quickly changed manifest and install script of black background version, works for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fixed! It always booted fine for me, so I never checked, I completely forgot. Thanks! I'll be using your install procedure from now on.
Edit: I just tested and saw the message the install script shows. Very cool, thank you. I always wanted something like that!
jitin02 said:
Please make it for longhorn2.9.3. pls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry, but to port the theme to CM based ROMs is like starting over, as far as I know. I need to take a look at it to be sure. It's too much to do for the little time I have at the moment. Maybe I'll look into it once the theme goes into a more final stage. Right now I'm trying to track down all the bugs and make the last few popups white.
Sorry, i forgot to mention that you need to also copy AndroidManifest.xml from source.
I will try to diff and create a zip mod for your theme.
This will free us from recreating the theme for framework/system apps changes.