Announcing Theme Architect, a brand new application in development that will allow you to create and edit themes for your phone. Made for experts or novice alike, Theme Architect will open a whole new door to customization!

The Main Screen

When you first open Theme Architect, you will be presented with a simple wizard dialog :

Create a new theme : This option is the most commonly used. Open the "Simple Mode", which is a visual mode to create new themes.

Open an existing theme : If you have downloaded some themes or if you already have created one with Theme Architect, you can open them with this option. To be as flexible as it can, Theme Architect will try to detect theme created on both a PC and a Mac.

Use the style editor : A powerfull feature, the Style Editor will allow you to change some of your OS colors.

Switch to Expert mode : Use this mode if you have created some theme before and you don't need anyone to hold your hand anymore.
 

Simple Mode (or WYSIWYG mode)

Simple mode allow you to see your changes for most of the UI items as you make them. Some items cannot be displayed, like the hinges sounds, but you will still see them as icons.

Menus

New Theme : Create a new theme. You will be prompted to name your theme in the property window. The name of the theme will also be the name of the folder that it will be saved to. 

Open Theme : Open an existing theme. Note that some of the images in your theme might not appear right away as they will be loading in the background.

Save Theme : Save the theme to your SD card, under the "Themes" folder. The name of the theme will be used to create a subfolder to save it in. If you didn't name your theme, this option will be disabled.

Item :

Use System Default : Effectively leave the UI item blank, and the default OS UI element for that item will be used.

Create shape : Open the shape creation screen

Do not show : Replace the UI element by a blank image, so that it will not show in the OS. Some items, like the backgrounds, cannot be hidden.

Stock Icon :  This menu will only be enabled if you have a OS Icon item selected (on the 3rd page in Simple Mode). Note that those stock icons cannot be redistributed with a theme and are for your own personnal use.

Select Stock Icon : Allow you to manualy select an icon without regards for the built in themes or size.

Set all to Plastic/Modern/Soft : Set all UI icon item to a common pre-selected icon pack.

Style Editor : Open the style editor

Expert mode : Open the Expert Mode  

Show Preview : Show you what your theme will look like once it is loaded within the OS. You cannot edit the theme when previewing it. Press the D-Pad up and down or use the trackball to change screen.

Properties : The properties dialog will allow you to name your theme and add some comments for other to see.  

Keyguard settings :  Open the Keyguard Settings dialog

Settings : Change some settings . 

Shape Creation Screen

The shape editor is a very powerfull tool that allow you to create monochrome shapes for nearly every UI element.

Some pre-selected shapes are included, but you can always import your own. You only need to create a 48x48 2 colors image and the topmost pixel color will be used as the transparent color. JPG created with most image editors might work, provided that JPG artifacts are not to apparent. 

Most UI element can be created that way, but some elements cannot be transparent or have transparent parts (like backgrounds)
 
Style Editor

The style editor open a whole new area of customization for your phone. You can change most UI colors and even share some pre-made style with your friends

Be aware that some of the OS UI elements take changes more or less well. For example, the "TileBarColor" entry will change the main screen title bar color, but if you are with T-Mobile the logo will still retain the old color, clashing with your changes. But most menu and dialogs will behave pretty well.

Theme Architect always keep the default OS style colors so that you don't get stuck with some unuseable setting by mistake. If, for example, you have set the menu backgrounds and the menu items as the same color, you will not see the menu items anymore. Just come back to Theme Architect and change the colors, as the menus will always be readable from within the application.

Expert Mode 

Expert mode is a "raw" mode, where no file lenght or size checking is performed by Theme Architect. If you want to create some "special effects", like make bigger ring bubbles, this will be the place.

Keyguard Settings 

What would be the use of customizing your phone if you cannot see your background when the phone is in keyguard? 

Change options like the caption and the desired effects her, and then go to the OS keyguard setting dialog to select the Theme Architect icon.

Settings

Handle the "Theme.txt" files : Let you add a handler for the Theme.txt files stored on your SD card. This will allow you to integrate Theme Architect with File Manager and to open the various theme.txt files from within File Manager. Other SD aware applications might be compatible too.

Enable handling of ".style" file : If you receive some style file by email, this option will allow you to open them with Theme Architect 

 
FAQ

Q : When I use the Style Editor to change the title bar's color, half of it stays the original color.

A : That is because the carrier logo (likely to be the T-Mobile one) is not drawn on a transparent background, so the color you see is the backgroubd og the image used for the  logo. This cannot be changed unfortunatly.

Q : How do I apply a theme I created with Theme Architect?

A :  Once you saved a theme, you should be able to see it in the regular theme menu of your hiptop. It should be automatic, but because we use some unsupported methods to force the OS to do it, it might sometime fail. If you don't see your newly created theme, try forcing the OS to update it by one of the following:

-Wait 2-3 minutes for the OS to do it itself
-Plug and unplug the USB cable (this one should work)
-Opening and closing your battery cover
-Removing the SD card (make sure that the SD card activity icon is not on your screen)
-Reseting your device.

Once you see the theme in the device's menu, just select it like any other themes.

Q : How do I change the background image only?

A : Just create a new theme, change the background item only (don't forget to change the one in the folder pane if you want them to be different), save your theme and apply it like you would for any other themes, in the device's theme menu.