how to make ZLauncher skin and icon myself?

[jennifer1980]

How do I make skin and "Icon" for my Zlauncher?
can you guys tell me what program I should use? I tried to use photoskin.. but it didn't cover those 4 button in the graffiti area... so.. and... also, the icon, how can i create it?? please tell me any program??

thank you

[Sideway]

Read this thread (http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7910) and this thread (http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2364).

[jennifer1980]

i did read both forum, but the program is so complicate and too much problem. I just wana know what other tools do you guys use to create your icon and theme!

[Festus440]

Some people use "Constructor" which is part of the "CodeWarrior" developoment package. Even though CodeWarrior is not free. Constructor, which comes with the demo, has no limitations.

http://www.metrowerks.com/MW/download/request.asp?action=dl&product=PalmOS&submit=Select+Eval+%3E%3E

To use Constructor you open an existing theme file and cut and paste images from a paint program into Constructor, and then save the file.

However, using my ThemeMaker should not be difficult.

1) Find the bitmaps for the type of theme you are making and modifiy them with a paint program. They are arranged in folders according to the type of theme.

2) Click "Make Theme File".

[*YellowRose*]

Originally posted by Festus440
However, using my ThemeMaker should not be difficult.
All of your programs are easy & straightforward to use.  With ZLauncher it's getting all those icons together that's a pain.  BLECH!  You need a bazillion of them!

[Festus440]

You can say that again!!!
Since there were more icons in the newer themes, and even some of the old icons changed slightly, I wound up exporting and re-naming them all from the theme files. (That's over 2000 icons!)

[jennifer1980]

hi, Festus, is Zlauncher thememaker your product? if it is, could you please briefly explain what should I do to create a theme?
when I open the program, i just don't know where to start...

If this is not your program, and you know how to use it, can you help me with this? just briefly explain.

thank you so much...

Also, Yellowrose, if you know how to use it, could you help me out too, thanks a lot

[Festus440]

You start by locating the set of bitmaps for the type of theme you need to make. There 6 sets plus a set of icons.

The bitmaps are located in a folder called "Bitmaps". They are below the location where you installed the ThemeMaker program.

If you used the default when you installed the program, that would be:

C:\ZLauncher ThemeMaker\Bitmaps\

If you expand the Bitmaps folder, you will see the 7 or 8 folders:

HR64K -----> High res 16 bit (for Sony or new Palm PDAs, 64,000 colors)
IconSet -----> Icon bitmaps
SonyHR16 -----> High res 16 color (High res gray scale, 4 bit)
SonyHR256 -----> High res 8 bit (256 color)
Standard16 -----> Low res 16 color (Gray scale, 4 bit)
Standard64K -----> Low res 16 bit (64,000 color)
Standard256 -----> Low res 8 bit (256 color)
temp -----> created by the program when you make the first theme.

Let's say you are going to make a 16 bit theme for your Sony Clie.
Expand the "HR64K" folder and you will find all of the bitmaps arranged in categories such as "Battery", "ControlPanelButtons" etc.

Use a paint program such as PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro to modify a few of the bitmaps.

Save your changes and then run the ThemeMaker program.

On the left side of the screen, pick the type of theme you are making. In this example, the program starts with the correct type, which is "High Res 64k Color Theme".

Click "Make Theme file" and the program will make the theme file and it will show up in the folder called "New_Themes", located below where the program is installed. (Unless you change "Current output folder".)

You can go ahead and load it to see how it looks.

When you are finished with your theme, change the filenames in the text boxes in the program.

There are also detailed instructions included with the program. They are located in the "Docs" folder.

[jsostari]

Festus440....say if you want to make some ammendments to one of the themes available, how to do load up the current theme and make the changes.

for example, say there is 16kHR clie skin that you want to change to a 16kHR standard skin that works on a tungsten|t, is there any easy way of doing this using your theme maker?


TIA

[Yoyoman412]

Originally posted by jsostari
Festus440....say if you want to make some ammendments to one of the themes available, how to do load up the current theme and make the changes.

for example, say there is 16kHR clie skin that you want to change to a 16kHR standard skin that works on a tungsten|t, is there any easy way of doing this using your theme maker?


TIA

Yah this would be a very great tool for your theme maker. Can you try to make it in your next beta, or does the current beta already do this?

Thanks

Jonathan

[Festus440]

I came down with a cold this weekend, so my heads a little foggy :(

But this should be possible.

Here's what I thing you would need to do to change a theme for a tungsten:

1) Copy the rcp file to a new filename.


2) Add the "Density2" keyword to the bitmaps in the rcp file. This should be pretty easy using find and replace in notepad. The only oddballs would be the first two families that have multiple bitmaps.)

3) Go into the program config.ini file and change the rcp file to your new rcp filename. (You can also change the default filenames and "Theme Type" if you like.)


4) Go into the advanced settings and add support for double density. (This changes the flags is the ThmI resource.)

Here is what that looks like:

http://home.mn.rr.com/eatonr/Advanced.jpg


































I think this is correct, but to be honest I have to give it some more thought. (And today's not a good one for that!!!)

[Festus440]

OK, forget the previous post. (NyQuil can have that effect!)

The ThemeMaker doesn't work with theme files, it creates theme files from sets of bitmaps.

Since the high res 16 bit Sony and 16 bit high density (OS 5) themes use the same set of bitmap images in the ThemeMaker, you can create either type of theme once you have modified the images. (This works with the current beta1 version.)

However, I don’t know a quick and easy way to change an existing theme file from high res Sony to high density Palm OS5. Even if you changed the bitmaps to double density with Constructor, you would still probably need to edit the ThmI resource inside the file with a hex editor to turn on OS5 support. :(

To convert someone else's theme, you would need to extract (and re-name) the bitmaps into the "HR64K" bitmap folder of the ThemeMaker using something like PRCExplorer. Then you could generate an OS5 version of it. Quite doable, but admittedly a lot of busy work.

(I hope this makes sense. If not, let me know.)