• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root I neeh help with theming

cougar214

Android Expert
Feb 9, 2011
1,422
157
I'm trying to learn how to make my own themes. the problem is every tutorial I find doesn't walk you through every single step in making a theme.

Not to mention being new to this I have no idea what the tutorials are saying because I don't understand the programs, terminalogy being used, and steps are left out leaving you with questions that the tutorial can't answer.

can someone please dumb it down for me so I can atleast begin to understand it?
 
I have computer skills and I am quite familiar with different sorts of programs. The problem here is I'm in uncharted waters trying to learn something by reading "collage" material" with only a "elementary" comprehension of it. If that makes sense.
Makes perfect sense. What exactly are you trying to theme? The launcher? An app? The statusbar? the battery icons? There are tons of things to theme on an android device and different things have different theming methods. If you're looking to theme the entire device, you're looking at a lot of work because you'll have to theme every app individually.
 
Upvote 0
I cant be alot of help but I will share what I have learned thus far. Need a app like ninjamorph (to extract apks and jars) on the phone, apktool (to decode apks) on your computer, a text editor like notepad++, a image editor like photoshop, a shyt ton of patience.

Theres also the adb method to pull files off the phone to your computer which I have setup but yet to figure it all out.

I did manage to do edit the GB leak keyboard, or at least the images for lanscape, after that it just broke it and it would work on the phone lol.

so far I have better luck learning how to compile ROMs from src and not 'cook' em. I have started a side project of trying to build a pure AOSP for the DX. If that suceeds then maybe a port of CM7 for the DX.
 
Upvote 0
Upvote 0
Well to answer all your questions, kinda, what I want to do is start small. First I want to start out by making things like notification icons. Then maybe move on to changing colors. The biggest problem I'm having is not knowing what I'm looking at. For example, when I go into Bouchigo's BWC theme( hope you don't mind Bouchigo. Im just trying to get a feel for the file types) I have no idea what I'm looking at.

So I think to myself "let me look for, lets say, the buttons that make up the dialer pad" I have no idea what to look for or what they look like. I see what looks like the dialer buttons but they look nothing like what they do on the phone, I:E no color.

Another issue I'm having trouble with is resigning files. When I look at the Stericson walkthrough over at XDA he says not to use the automatic method for signing files on windows 7. O'k, he tells how to do it on XP and Vista but then mentions nothing of windows 7. That's an example of what I was saying about info being missing from these tutorials.

So all in all I would like to start small. But in order to do that someone has to come up with a tutorial on how to do this step by step, not ad-libbing it. I have every program mentioned over at the ultimate theming guide page. I even have git although I have no idea what its for.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones