[Q] Theme colors (or lack thereof) - Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Is there a reason most themes for Captivate are made of mostly 2 colors? I read once that back when LCDs were not-so-good, a sharp contrast made the screen look better and the text easier to read(or something to that effect).
But the screen on the Galaxy S is very, very nice. So why the lack of color options? Is it a popular styling? Emulation of something more popular? Lack of creativity? Power consumption?
I'm not saying all of the themes available are like this. I've used PaulDiddy's theme in the past, and I loved it. It really showed off the screen and gave everything on it some life. Looking through the offerings that come with ROMs, their custom replacement themes, and the Themes subforum, I'd say the majority of themes offered exhibit this duo-chromatic characteristic, but in the I9000 theme directory thread, many of the themes are colorful, some to an extreme. But getting these themes to work with Captivate ROMs seems to involve just as much work as making the theme itself.
This is not meant to be a rant. I would like to know if I'm missing something about black+a color themes, or some sort of reasoning to the trend. Then again, if I'm completely off base and there are, in fact, more color themes than I'm seeing, then by all means, let me know. I'd far prefer that to a 'that's the way it is, get used to it'-type answer.

My best answer would be because people like consistency. The background one color with the text and other items another color. Too many colors and it gets confusing quickly.
Also with the type of screen we have, black as a background uses less power so that is the norm

WTF are you talking about? There are themes for the captivate in a multitude of colors.
There is one for mosaic (an earlier version as we just updated the ROM and haven't ported the themes yet) called rainbow bright. It is rainbow colored. ROYGBIV.
Not to mention all the other themes we have.
And this is just speaking of one ROM.
Take a look at fusion, that is a HEAVILY themed ROM...
Idk where you have been looking where all you see is black and white.

ugoff said:
Is there a reason most themes for Captivate are made of mostly 2 colors? I read once that back when LCDs were not-so-good, a sharp contrast made the screen look better and the text easier to read(or something to that effect).
But the screen on the Galaxy S is very, very nice. So why the lack of color options? Is it a popular styling? Emulation of something more popular? Lack of creativity? Power consumption?
I'm not saying all of the themes available are like this. I've used PaulDiddy's theme in the past, and I loved it. It really showed off the screen and gave everything on it some life. Looking through the offerings that come with ROMs, their custom replacement themes, and the Themes subforum, I'd say the majority of themes offered exhibit this duo-chromatic characteristic, but in the I9000 theme directory thread, many of the themes are colorful, some to an extreme. But getting these themes to work with Captivate ROMs seems to involve just as much work as making the theme itself.
This is not meant to be a rant. I would like to know if I'm missing something about black+a color themes, or some sort of reasoning to the trend. Then again, if I'm completely off base and there are, in fact, more color themes than I'm seeing, then by all means, let me know. I'd far prefer that to a 'that's the way it is, get used to it'-type answer.
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Click to collapse
Ever tried fusion no black and white there.
Currently Fusionized

Related

[THE][WM6.5.1][AllRes]m.carroll PureBlack3

Long overdue... I give you: pureblack3
It's not supposed to be fancy, just black. Based on the latest (as of 10/2/09) theme files (Build 23060). For (W)VGA and (W)QVGA devices.
Changelog:
10-3-09 1:04am: (W)QVGA Added
10-2-09 6:29pm: Initial Release
waiting for a qvga version..thx..
the font is neosans?
Wonderful 3rd installment. thanks for the hard work.
Perfect works indeed,waiting for your QVGA release for this theme
m.carroll said:
Long overdue... I give you: pureblack3
It's not supposed to be fancy, just black. Based on the latest (as of 10/2/09) theme files (Build 23060). Only for (W)VGA devices at the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as requested: first post updated with (w)qvga theme installer. please test and report back that everything works, i don't have a qvga device to test on.
it's good to be back
i liked your older ones - so nice to see you did work on it and now it's supporting the new theming of wm65
great job - thumbs up
Great work M.Carroll
was waiting for this one since i dont know when.
Thanx dude.
Love ur work
....very nice work, indeed. Works very fine on my AtomLife. Thanks so much. Will include this on my next ROM, if you will permit...
Thanks a lot, just what I was waiting for!! And it definately looks fancy to me .
bajok! said:
....very nice work, indeed. Works very fine on my AtomLife. Thanks so much. Will include this on my next ROM, if you will permit...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem on cooking it in your rom. let me know if you need help putting it into a package
really liking this but i got 2 small probs
the text at the top is not there
also the buttons at the bottom are wrong
nice work, will you be doing a gloss v3 as well?
i use it all the time as it goes so well with EVERY rom
Drury said:
really liking this but i got 2 small probs
the text at the top is not there
also the buttons at the bottom are wrong
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it would appear that you're using the (W)VGA version with a WQVGA device. Try the (W)QVGA version in the first post.
GutsyTripod said:
nice work, will you be doing a gloss v3 as well?
i use it all the time as it goes so well with EVERY rom
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Click to collapse
i think i might be able to swing it. I'm looking for the files i used... gotta be around here somewhere...
that is the one im using
researching.
Thanks m. carroll. I was hoping you'd put this out. So far, it's working great on build 23420.
Thank-U!!! I love your themes they rock; I will publish in my kitchen when released, with all due credit
All the best - DA
PureBlack?
With all due respect (and genuinely mean that, cause I sure as hell haven't been able to create anything of the sorts... although I'm still trying) But for "PureBlack3" There sure is a lot of white and faded shades of gray rather than black. if it's call pure black, then make all the backgrounds in the menu's, and GUI in general, that are usually white... make those black, invert the font colors, and you'll be amazed just at how much batter life alone you will be saving people. The handset expends little to no power to display a black pixel, because there is simply nothing to display. Displaying a white pixel uses the most battery power. It's also really helpfull when usign the handset in a night time vehicular setting because you have less light distracting your vision.
Could maybe it be possible if you were so inclined, when creating PureBlack4, or perhaps a PureBlack3a, truly make it as pure black as possible.
I apologize if in anyway this post is insulting or derrogatory, for that was not my intention. Keep up the good work.
Blu
djblu said:
With all due respect (and genuinely mean that, cause I sure as hell haven't been able to create anything of the sorts... although I'm still trying) But for "PureBlack3" There sure is a lot of white and faded shades of gray rather than black. if it's call pure black, then make all the backgrounds in the menu's, and GUI in general, that are usually white... make those black, invert the font colors, and you'll be amazed just at how much batter life alone you will be saving people. The handset expends little to no power to display a black pixel, because there is simply nothing to display. Displaying a white pixel uses the most battery power. It's also really helpfull when usign the handset in a night time vehicular setting because you have less light distracting your vision.
Could maybe it be possible if you were so inclined, when creating PureBlack4, or perhaps a PureBlack3a, truly make it as pure black as possible.
I apologize if in anyway this post is insulting or derrogatory, for that was not my intention. Keep up the good work.
Blu
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Click to collapse
With respect, I disagree.
As an electrical engineer, I can confidently assure you that the color of a pixel has an unnoticeable effect on battery life. Black backgrounds would have no effect on battery life. The backlight is the battery-drainer, and the theme has nothing to do with that. Other than that, the way that WM is written, it's almost impossible to do what you're suggesting. My aim was to give a "mostly black" theme that the Microsoft set of themes were missing. I suppose your argument on the semantics of the theme name is correct, but I guess that's why I'm not an english major
Thanks for the suggestion!

COOKs! We love you, but...

Dear Cooks,
We love you dearly, and we respect and value all the sleepless ours you spend on making our phones look and work beautifully.
But I think I'll speak for a lot of people here (maybe even a majority?) if I dare to say that we are tired of the perpetual darkness of every manila theme out there.
I understand that phone is black, and it's all-business, and black looks classy... but every single rom out there is ever completely black, or very dark. It's seriously making me depressed.
I, for one, use my phone at work so much that I'm starting to worry about buttons/screen wearing out. I sync with exchange and I'm all pro-work, but I still want it to be colorful and bright.
Browsing through our awesome collection of ROMs in this thread I can't help but think how much it'd benefit from having some brightly-colored themes cooked-in in the ROMs Manila.
Here's hoping that this could be one of the ways we can have even more fun with our devices,
Me.
P.S: Here's an awesome alternative to the eternal darkness in our Manila. It's not finished yet, and it looks like developers could use a hand.
yes, but u can install them afterwards
cant u
agent_47 said:
yes, but u can install them afterwards
cant u
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, if you look at the official WM6.5 Theme thread, they are all dark/black. Some dark blue ones, and many poorly-designed/unfinished ones.
Besides, properly updating manila's design isn't that easy or reliable as changing WM's theme. A good, fully-integrated, fully-working bright theme is yet to be seen.
DarkDvr said:
Dear Cooks,
But I think I'll speak for a lot of people here (maybe even a majority?) if I dare to say that we are tired of the perpetual darkness of every manila theme out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you posted a request for a bright theme in the "Rhodium...Themes and Apps" sub-forum?
I've seen quite a few colorful themes there, by the way...even if they're not to my taste.
MCbrian said:
Have you posted a request for a bright theme in the "Rhodium...Themes and Apps" sub-forum?
I've seen quite a few colorful themes there, by the way...even if they're not to my taste.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't think I did, at least I don't recall.
There are no complete colorful themes. Bright wallpapers don't count - you can't read Manila's text on anything that's not black or very dark. Open a calendar tab to see what I mean.
If I missed some, please point me to it, but I don't think I have.
malina is not so good.
try spb mobile shell,

[Q] "Lighter" theme/Menu options

Hi!
I've been trying out different ROMS and most of them look pretty decent, but coming from a HTC MyTouch 4g, what I've missed the most is one theme/Rom that is actually NOT black/dark, but has "lighter"-background (ie., light greyish) menus and, particularly, light-background boxes for the menus that pop from the bottom when you press, well, the menu button (how do you call those boxes? I've had a lots of trouble trying to run a proper search).
Any pointers or recommendations on where to look for a theme like this would be much appreciated!
David
Deivid85 said:
Hi!
I've been trying out different ROMS and most of them look pretty decent, but coming from a HTC MyTouch 4g, what I've missed the most is one theme/Rom that is actually NOT black/dark, but has "lighter"-background (ie., light greyish) menus and, particularly, light-background boxes for the menus that pop from the bottom when you press, well, the menu button (how do you call those boxes? I've had a lots of trouble trying to run a proper search).
Any pointers or recommendations on where to look for a theme like this would be much appreciated!
David
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm working on a new theme called White Fire. It should be out in the next few days. All menus and popups are white. Check out the phoenix and Firefly Themes thread in the next few days.
Hey, sounds great! Looking forward to seeing it!
By the way, why is the overwhelming majority of (or all) themes black? White looks so much more modern
Deivid85 said:
Hey, sounds great! Looking forward to seeing it!
By the way, why is the overwhelming majority of (or all) themes black? White looks so much more modern
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am also working on a white theme called PISS...polar bear in snow storm.
In all seriousness, I believe that most themes are black in nature to conserve battery life.
sent using a phone.
Deivid85 said:
Hey, sounds great! Looking forward to seeing it!
By the way, why is the overwhelming majority of (or all) themes black? White looks so much more modern
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, if you followed Android OS then you would know black is actually more modern. Go get a G1 and look at how the 1.5/1.6 theme is, and that came first.
Black/dark is better for battery life on a SAMOLED. It's why Gingerbread is dark/black for the Nexus S.

[THEMING] Post your theme requests here...

Hello everyone!
I've got a quick and simple question for you: what themes do you want?
Name a theme you like, and I'll let you know if I can port it. If I can, I'll get in contact with the developer to get permission, then it'll end up here as a Clockwork-flashable .zip file.
Easy, simple, painless.
And, as a special thanks to anyone who donated previously, send me a PM if you've got any theme requests or special changes and I'll see if I can make it happen!
I don't know about theming, because I've always used a custom launcher and kind of dig the dialer they gave us on the Revo (it looks like the one on Go Launcher), and the power buttons in the taskbar being stock is kind of cool too.
But I kind of always liked the circle battery taskbar theme along with the ability to throw the percentage in there. I think the former is an actual theme part, and the latter is part of CM?
edit: and as far as donations are concerned, after all you've done for this community, and the time you spent on this device, that you don't even own, you don't owe me anything (I and this community technically owe you) I'll make requests from time to time, but don't feel that you have to meet them. Just suggestions.
I used to use NexTheme on my droid but any theme that has black (or dark background) with white (light) fonts will do. I just think that contacts, email, messaging, etc should have the same color scheme as the rest of the phone interfaces/apps (i.e.: settings, alarm clock, calculator, etc.)
how about the pull down being transparent. a theme like CyanGalaxy and frost with the aosp froyo sliders or gingerbread sliders.
Colored Menu's and colored status bar Icons
mackentosh said:
Colored Menu's and colored status bar Icons
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any particular theme in mind?
(also, anyone else played with the Evo3d? Friend dropped his off at my house this morning so I could try to root it along with the other devs. It's _really_ cool!)
yup, i work in the mobile field and played with the evo 3d.... i believe i have fallen in love with sense again, 3.0 atleast the locksreen is pretty amazing, wish something like that could be ported over to the Revo. has anyone tried that new honeycomb launcher?
Why do I keep going Verizon? Axing their unlimited plan, highest rates of any carrier, and inferior phones compared to lower end competitors.......
I was seriously considering switching to Sprint after the announcement of the relinquishing of the unlimited plan.
Had the Evo 3d been available at the time, that may have convinced me to take the plunge.
Kind of makes me sad...
This is pretty slick: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1027492
Here is a port for the charge: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1125309
I'm diggin that theme Majorpay.
hey thecubed, will these themes be sent out individually to the person who request it or will it be released to the public.
Released to the public, I should have them done here shortly. I'm working on porting the the stock Gingerbread theme firstly-- the come the requests. (I like the GB theme )
majorpay said:
Why do I keep going Verizon? Axing their unlimited plan, highest rates of any carrier, and inferior phones compared to lower end competitors.......
I was seriously considering switching to Sprint after the announcement of the relinquishing of the unlimited plan.
Had the Evo 3d been available at the time, that may have convinced me to take the plunge.
Kind of makes me sad...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you already have their unlimited 4g plan then you arent going to lose it. You are grandfathered and to change your plan would be to break your contract. Same things happened to me with other aspects of the plan. I pay 5 bucks a month for 1000 texts to anyone not verizon and unlimited texts to other verizon, I have had this plan sine 2004 and they obviously stopped it back then. I just havent edited my text package and therefore still have the same plan. Same concept different part of their service. Oh and Cubed, thanks so much for what you are doing, and the basic 411 you gave me, and I would love to see the white chrome ported.
theme like evil fascination
i came from the fascinate and loved evil fascination theme. would love to see the extra's like black facebook, blackened sms and mms. and so forth.
If we could get theme chooser on here so we can just download whatever from the market that'd be awesome. The vivid theme on there is very nice!
Little Buddy Sr.
smokerjoker420 said:
i came from the fascinate and loved evil fascination theme. would love to see the extra's like black facebook, blackened sms and mms. and so forth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a fan of the darker themes myself so I'd go for an evil revo theme
I would LOVE to see just about anything ported over from Miui.. Heres a thread with some amazing lock screens that would look great on our nice big screen =)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1134657
Think this is possible to move over to Revo?
Hey Thecubed, I dig the go launcher ink icons. But they have like 12. An expanded library of them would be stellar.
I like the HTC Thunderbolt dock.
Most of all, I like clean lines, and a dang near clear home screen. I use Go Launcher, so my swipe down motion opens the status bar. The only thing I have going on is the dock bar.
Edit... Alright. So I downloaded HeLauncher. I love it. I like the different options. So I have been playing with the Samsung Theme. I dig it.
I use the "Paperless system" adw theme. It would be neat to see the theme extended into the taskbar, keyboard, ect...
Sent from my VS910 4G using XDA Premium App

Holo hue/color variants

Hi,
I've been looking for a simple Holo theme with the default blue changed to another color (orange, green, yellow, whatever new), just this simple, one modification - with no results.
The only themes that get as much as possible are: blackout1911's Betterbean Themes, kroz's Hue and Quasim Zia's Holo-series, but even those suffer from additional, redundant changes (like changing default grey into color) which IMO negatively affect JB's great simplicity and legibility.
I know I'm not the only one looking for those themes, since I've came across others, posting similiar questions/request. I wonder why no such themes exist (or I'm unable to find them). Is it so hard to make a simple, colored theme? If it involves changing hue for only two shades of blue, then why is it so problematic? Isn't there any tricky way to automatically recolor the blues in majority of icons with some Photoshop macros?
Thanks for any help and comments, I'd really appreciate this!
Well I'm no themer ...but if hasn't been done its likely because you can't with the theme chooser app...may bee a flash able zip or learn yourself ...me on the other hand I use holohue ....but I have sorcery ROM who's devs focus on most customosible support that AOKP doesn't even come near and with bean picker theme for ROM that's an easy fix for me...good luck
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
charlie95113 said:
Well I'm no themer ...but if hasn't been done its likely because you can't with the theme chooser app...may bee a flash able zip or learn yourself ...me on the other hand I use holohue ....but I have sorcery ROM who's devs focus on most customosible support that AOKP doesn't even come near and with bean picker theme for ROM that's an easy fix for me...good luck
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That could be pretty close, if there would exist an option to change the icon colors (eg statusbar icons), not only the text/lines. As far as I can tell from the screenshots provided, the icons stay untouched.
Thanks, anyway, that's a step forward. I'm still waiting for other suggestions, though.

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