# Any guides to theming available?



## shrike1978 (Sep 2, 2011)

I'm interested in getting into some light theming, but I only have a vague idea of where to start. I'm a developer by trade, and have played with the Android SDK a bit with some test apps. On the firmware side, I know how to unpack and repack roms, and I know where the framwork resides within it, but that's kinda where I hit a dead end. I've searched around the web, and I can't seem to find any guides anywhere.

First, I've read that a rom needs to be deodexed to fully theme. I know what that means, and I have an idea about what's needed to accomplish it (haven't tried it yet, but I found the tools), but I was wondering if it's strictly required, and what I would lose by not deodexing. Also, I think I've found that most of the theme information is contained in the various framework xml's, but I haven't been able to open them successfully. Anyone have any insight into what format they are in?

I don't mind figuring things out on my own, but if anyone could give me a little nudge, I would greatly appreciate it. It seems like this information is pretty prevalent out there, but it also seems to be "community knowledge" that is known by a lot of people, but not really recorded.

Thanks in advance.


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## dwitherell (Jul 23, 2011)

First off let me preface this by saying that I have absolutely zero knowledge on such topics. That being said, I had loosely placed a similar thought on my if-only-I-had-more-free-time-this-would-be-nice-to-learn list. At the time of that original wouldn't-it-be-nice thought, I found a couple threads on XDA that I figured I would look at once the time presented itself. Still waiting for that... but maybe they will be useful to you?

- *LINK*
- *LINK*

Both of these have a focus on a particular phone, but much of the info is said to generalize across phones. The second link has a few links in the OP that also looked promising. Good luck, and my apologies if any of these were a waste of your time!


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## shrike1978 (Sep 2, 2011)

Thanks for the links. I'll check these out this weekend.


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## CaptTrips (Jun 10, 2011)

This is the "Ultimate Themeing Guide"

http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?896-The-Ultimate-Android-Themeing-Guide


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