I would like to use this Widget again but simply cant stand for any background to it, as it doesn't then fit the rest of my simple no background widgets. I tried pulling the apk apart myself and editing the PNG files to be transparent but then I could not get the apk to install nor did pushing it to my device work at all.
If someone can tell me how to modify the apk or modify it for me, I'd be very appreciative.
I emailed the Dev of this and have not gotten a response about adding a transparent background option so that is why I am here now asking for help. Thanks.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.zedray.calllog
So you can see what Last Call looks like I have attached a screen, I believe it is an issue with editing the .9 file. I can't figure out how to do it correctly, ugh..
No one eh? Does anyone think it's just a matter of figuring out how to edit these .9 files and I should be ok no need to resign the package? I Wish the dev would help out here, I'd gladly throw em ten spot for just changing the image background.
I've added a transparent style to the Widget (was a little bit more complicated to implement in practice than it sounds).
For future reference, nine-patch files are altered by the Android build system during compilation making it more difficult for a third party to make the changes described. Hope it suits your home screen.
I want to make a minor change to the way the lockscreen looks and want to see if its something easy enough for me to do.
I'm looking to make the gray part with the dots on ether side slightly transparent. I would also like to keep the clock solid. Also not lose any of the functionality of the htc lockscreen.
Is this easy enough for someone with no theming experience to do?
Assuming you are rooted and if you are just changing images it is not difficult at all.
The lockscreen slider is actually in
/system/framework/com.htc.resources.apk
and there are 3 that start with lockscreen_arc
You need to copy the apk to your PC and open it with 7zip (my preferences) and extract the res folder to the PC. Do your graphic changes in that folder. Then reopen the apk in 7zip and drag the modified res folder over the window and drop it in.
Then you just do and adb push to put it back on the phone
You can use the same process to modify other images in the
/system/app/HtcLockScreen.apk
Changes that are not just graphics become very difficult and require de-compiling the apk to edit xml files.
AND Do a nand backup before just in case you mess up.
Awesome, sounds like a good guide. I'll post my results once I finish it.
it seems this is going to be harder than i thought.
I made the part that I wanted translucent only to find that the two pngs under it are not editable enough to remove them from behind it, so I'm left with this. I'm assuming that the only way to fix this is to do some xml editing which is a little above me.
I actually like that
If I could just get rid of the straight parts near the top of the time, I would like it. But simply editing the pngs won't cut it as I have a feeling that the xml extends the top graphic straight down because what is seen there doesn't match up with what the png looks like.
You would be correct. The problem you're running into is the 2 images behind the main lock bar are actually .9.png images and not regular .png images.
Quick, very rough explanation: To save space these images are stretched by xml files at certain points in the image to create a background. When an apk is decoded, these stretch points are represented by a 1px border around the image. This does not show up when you just use a program like 7zip.
Something to try if you want to cheat, not sure if it'll work.. Treat it all as one image instead of 3 separate ones. Make lockscreen_arc.png a taller image, and then put the top and bottom bars on it that way. Then just make the other two .9.png files completely transparent. Since it's a regular .png, it wont get stretched. I know making it smaller works out, so I'm assuming you could also make it larger.
Edit: Just thought about it some more, and that might not work, because if I had to guess, the Verizon and date text are probably set up in the xml relative to that image.
I'll mess around a little more today and see if I can't come up with something.
i also would like to do this but not the stock lock screen but this one..
To look like this...
Just the green and yellow to blue..
If all else fails, you could use the theme kitchen (http://uot.dakra.lt/kitchen). It'll allow basic changes to the whole theme (specifically the lockscreen).
Dude this thread is almost a year old and some people like to do stuff manually
First of all, major thanks to JsChiSurf for his amazing work on this port!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877003
This is a separate thread for themes of this mod.
I've always wanted a clean, slick looking shade on the notifications pull down and thanks to JsChiSurf, it's pretty easy to theme it.
Here are two that I made today. I haven't gotten around to skinning the buttons yet though.
Try these, static images don't do them justice, it's neat seeing the way they move. For more details on flashing these, please refer for JsChiSurf's thread above. These already contain the updated 2.1.1 services jar.
After zipping, you can use this:
http://circle.glx.nl/
to restore your battery %. Thanks chogardjr!
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Circular_Light
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Circular_Dark
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed Metal Grate Small Circular Dark Industrialized
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Dark_Industrialized_Android
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Dark_Industrialized_Android_v2
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Light_Industrialized_Android_v2
Neo3D said:
First of all, major thanks to JsChiSurf for his amazing work on this port!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877003
This is a separate thread for themes of this mod.
I've always wanted a clean, slick looking shade on the notifications pull down and thanks to JsChiSurf, it's pretty easy to theme it.
Here are two that I made today. I haven't gotten around to skinning the buttons yet though.
Try these, static images don't do them justice, it's neat seeing the way they move. For more details on flashing these, please refer for JsChiSurf's thread above. These contain the 2.1.1 services jar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong section to post this in, however, nice MOD.
Hi. How do i go about installing this mod please?
Jason Black said:
Hi. How do i go about installing this mod please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jschisurf has intructions in his thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877003
since he originally ported this, it's best to refer back to his thread.
oh, i already included his latest 2.1.1 services jar, so there's no need to flash twice.
SteelH said:
Wrong section to post this in, however, nice MOD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry Thanks for moving it to the correct section!
Using with Myn rom
I think the brushed metal version looks great and want to install, but would that change myn's black notification menu power control back to white or just add the metal screen drop down. I like the black notification menu power control over the white version.
Thanks
terence74 said:
I think the brushed metal version looks great and want to install, but would that change myn's black notification menu power control back to white or just add the metal screen drop down. I like the black notification menu power control over the white version.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, honestly, I'm still new at this, so I don't know. Can you make a Nandroid image, then flash it and let everyone know?
terence74 said:
I think the brushed metal version looks great and want to install, but would that change myn's black notification menu power control back to white or just add the metal screen drop down. I like the black notification menu power control over the white version.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, it will.
This is all very easy. If you have done this much then you can do it all. I have faith in you.
chogardjr said:
This is all very easy. If you have done this much then you can do it all. I have faith in you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it just a matter of replacing the PNG's?
What PNG optimization do you recommend?
Also, how do you change the color of the fonts? I tried to look at the xml files but they open up as strange characters in any text editor I use (Notepad++, notepad, etc)
I also noticed that I lost my battery % after flash jschisurf's mod?
Thanks for your faith! The hardest part is knowing where all the PNG's are that need to be replaced!
Replacing png's is the noob way to do it. But is is the best place to start. You need to find apktool and learn how to use it. This will solve most of your problems with xml's. You also need a program called xml editor. This is my starters list. Here is a link you might learn a lot from.
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/index.html
As far as learning which png's, most are in the drawable-hdpi folder. Stay away from .9.png files untill your ready for them. Apktool will let you know when you make a mistake and where the mistake is to fix. Search youtube and do a lot of reading in this forum. It seems like a lot but after a while you will start to understand how the OS works and manages the files. Happy Themeing!
Neo3D said:
Is it just a matter of replacing the PNG's?
What PNG optimization do you recommend?
Also, how do you change the color of the fonts? I tried to look at the xml files but they open up as strange characters in any text editor I use (Notepad++, notepad, etc)
I also noticed that I lost my battery % after flash jschisurf's mod?
Thanks for your faith! The hardest part is knowing where all the PNG's are that need to be replaced!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neo3D said:
I also noticed that I lost my battery % after flash jschisurf's mod?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to the sticky where the rom wiki is and at the bottom of that page you will find kitchens. One is for changing battery icons. That one is the easy fix to getting the icons you want into the his mod. But if you must know more, there are 3 xml files in the drawable folder that needs to be replaced to work with more png files than his stock ones. All I can say is APKTOOL and 7ZIP is the bread and butter.
Thanks for the awesome tips and info!
I found the .png for the toggle switches (stat_power_background.9.png) and yea, it must be some kind of special PNG cuz I measured it out to be 80x75 but rendered incorrectly.
Sweet, looking forward to learning more about Android!
BTW, just finished looking over that Android page and is this the APKTool you're referring to?
Android Asset Packaging Tool
Thats one of them. Here is a post made by a guy who compiled them all together for anyone who wants them. Use just the tools and use that link I gave to learn about them. APKTOOL is something made by someone here on xda but I can't find his link.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=882742&highlight=apktool
Neo3D said:
Thanks for the awesome tips and info!
I found the .png for the toggle switches (stat_power_background.9.png) and yea, it must be some kind of special PNG cuz I measured it out to be 80x75 but rendered incorrectly.
Sweet, looking forward to learning more about Android!
BTW, just finished looking over that Android page and is this the APKTool you're referring to?
Android Asset Packaging Tool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found the website: FWI use v1.3.1 as v1.3.2 has bugs
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...8j1-bcnOf1Rz8k9fA&sig2=4MkcxzG_ROaqAr4-tWwlGw
As stated, just changing the .png's is the starting way of theming. Just make sure you do a nandroid backup before you go around messing with anything.
When you get comfortable with that, the next step is to look into XML. XML is generally easy to learn but can be complicated at parts. I don't really know of a good starting guide to XML for android but I'll post one if I see it.
NinePatches (*.9.png) aren't as complicated as people think. Once you get the concept of it, they are actually pretty easy. I'm creating a guide for it when I have time. But the basic concept is:
The NinePatch tool ads a 1px border to an image.
The new border can be colored black (except the 4 corners).
The left and top borders defines the stretchable area.
The right and bottom borders defines where content is allowed.
Like I said, I'm making a guide to it which will explain it better and have pictures.
chogardjr said:
Thats one of them. Here is a post made by a guy who compiled them all together for anyone who wants them. Use just the tools and use that link I gave to learn about them. APKTOOL is something made by someone here on xda but I can't find his link.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=882742&highlight=apktool
I found the website: FWI use v1.3.1 as v1.3.2 has bugs
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...8j1-bcnOf1Rz8k9fA&sig2=4MkcxzG_ROaqAr4-tWwlGw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok sounds good, thanks!
Skullmonkey said:
As stated, just changing the .png's is the starting way of theming. Just make sure you do a nandroid backup before you go around messing with anything.
When you get comfortable with that, the next step is to look into XML. XML is generally easy to learn but can be complicated at parts. I don't really know of a good starting guide to XML for android but I'll post one if I see it.
NinePatches (*.9.png) aren't as complicated as people think. Once you get the concept of it, they are actually pretty easy. I'm creating a guide for it when I have time. But the basic concept is:
The NinePatch tool ads a 1px border to an image.
The new border can be colored black (except the 4 corners).
The left and top borders defines the stretchable area.
The right and bottom borders defines where content is allowed.
Like I said, I'm making a guide to it which will explain it better and have pictures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the 9patch app and it's pretty easy to use (I have experience with Illustrator and Flash). However, when I replace the original 9path file w/the new one, it shows the 1 px border on my android. Also, it seems to scale it wrong. I attached an example of what I'm talking about. I measured the bkg of the power toggles to be 80x75, but on the Android, it shrinks the graphic and you can see the 1 pixel border?
Looking forward to that guide!
Neo3D said:
I tried the 9patch app and it's pretty easy to use (I have experience with Illustrator and Flash). However, when I replace the original 9path file w/the new one, it shows the 1 px border on my android. Also, it seems to scale it wrong. I attached an example of what I'm talking about. I measured the bkg of the power toggles to be 80x75, but on the Android, it shrinks the graphic and you can see the 1 pixel border?
Looking forward to that guide!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you talking about the background of the icons or the entire power area?
the background of the icons look fine to me even zoomed in.
if your trying to make the entire power area be the caution image, then there is an xml edit involved in res/layout-hdpi-v4/status_bar_expanded.xml. ill give you the exact change you need if you cant figure it out.
just keep in mind that ninepatch will only stretch images, not repeat.
Skullmonkey said:
are you talking about the background of the icons or the entire power area?
the background of the icons look fine to me even zoomed in.
if your trying to make the entire power area be the caution image, then there is an xml edit involved in res/layout-hdpi-v4/status_bar_expanded.xml. ill give you the exact change you need if you cant figure it out.
just keep in mind that ninepatch will only stretch images, not repeat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh ok, i wasn't sure how the background of that area worked. so there's a background png and a background png for each widget?
i found this png: stat_power_background.9.png
which other one is for the background of the entire thing?
about the extra 1 pixel showing, you can see on the sides of the background a black vertical line. on 9patch png's, is the 1 px border that defines the 9patch actually supposed to show? i think there might be something wrong with my 9patch png's.
also, if you look at the screen cap again, there's horizontal white space above and below the toggle widget bkg graphics. is there a way to make them larger so they cover the white space? seems like android likes to shrink them to that size (in the screen cap) no matter how tall the image is.
Neo3D said:
ahh ok, i wasn't sure how the background of that area worked. so there's a background png and a background png for each widget?
i found this png: stat_power_background.9.png
which other one is for the background of the entire thing?
about the extra 1 pixel showing, you can see on the sides of the background a black vertical line. on 9patch png's, is the 1 px border that defines the 9patch actually supposed to show? i think there might be something wrong with my 9patch png's.
also, if you look at the screen cap again, there's horizontal white space above and below the toggle widget bkg graphics. is there a way to make them larger so they cover the white space? seems like android likes to shrink them to that size (in the screen cap) no matter how tall the image is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well theres a solid color using a ARGB hex (for the background of the power control area) and a png for each icon background by default. you can set it up so there is an image for each.
the stat_power_background.9.png controls each icon (as you may have guessed already)
i'm not sure why the power control area isnt a solid color.
when in the ninepatch editor, you are supposed to see the black extra pixel but when you load it on your phone, they should dissappear. i honestly dont see them in the ss you provided.
can you send me the framework-res.apk you are working on so i can see if everything is set up correctly?
Hey everyone,
First of all sorry if I posted in the wrong section, I'm very much new here, trying to find my way around the forums.
Now, for my question: I'm using an old but trusty Galaxy Ace with Nebulosity ROM, Nova Launcher and the Gummy Liberty Gold theme. Pretty much everything in my phone is colored yellow or black, except those pesky little blue triangles in the bottom right corner of the contacts icons. (See the attached picture and you'll know what I'm talking about.) It really keeps bugging me as everything else is pretty much unified color-wise. Now, the problem is that I don't really know where the system gets the resources for that particular item. I suspect I could switch the launcher's color theme, but it causes a crash on the current ROM I'm using and forces me to reinstall the launcher. Is there any way to recolor that particular element? How can I find and modify it without having to change the launcher's color theme (if it's even possible at all)? Something I have tried (bear in mind that I have very little programming background, I'm pretty much picking up everything as I go) was decompiling the Liberty Gold theme in hope of finding a little blue triangle somewhere along the assets so that I can recolor it, but alas, nothing like that - this is why I'm suspecting that that element might be part of the system itself instead of the theme.
These might all be stupid questions, as I said, I don't know half as much about these things as I should, but I would really appreciate if someone could elucidate me on the destination of that particular element (or just it's color source) so that I could recolor (either in photoshop or by replacing the color code) it and make the whole UI have the same color scheme. It's not too too big of a problem and I do not want to waste anyone's time, but if there's someone out there who happens to know the answer, please write, I'd really appreciate it.
Thank you in advance!
Being new to android, I am slowly finding out how to customise the look and feel to suit me.
One thing I can't figure out is how to change the font colour in the attached photo, I'm not sure what this bit is called. But light blue is a terrible colour and I would like to change it to white or black if possible.
Can anyone tell me where this might be done? The OS is 4.2.2.
Hard
I am guessing by the huge amounts of replies, that changing the colour of this item is incredibly difficult and beyond the capabilities of most of the people on this forum.
anyone?
I must be in the wrong forum.
Well you could have saved some time and looked at it yourself. It is set in the system ui apk and defined in framework res. Depending on your device. See that's the thing it really depends on the rom and device. It is different for each. Not to mention there are plenty of tuts that would have told you the same thing.
thanks
Thanks, you couldn't point out one of these tuts could you? If I knew what the thing I want to change is called too, that would be helpful.
found it
It's called statusbar, and now I know it's name I can search for info on it.
Google returns a lot of results for 'thingy' or 'wotsit' but rarely the results you are looking for.
Conclusion
The thingy in the original post is called the status bar.
It is defined in /system/app/SystemUI.apk
Editing it requires a piece of software called apktool.
I now have white text instead of pale blue.
Thanks to zelendel for the clue.
All is now good.
As a slight aside, I found both a status_bar.xml and a gemini_status_bar.xml in SystemUI.apk and my phone appears to be using the gemini one. What practical use this is I don't know. The phone is a U51GT-C4B if anyone cares, it's as big as will fit in your jacket pocket without requiring the services of a tailor and makes using rdesktop so much easier.
It doesn't make your fingers any less fat, but it makes typing easier because the letters are further apart.