Arcsis’s Blog » Anatomy of a W580 (or most SE phones) theme.

Anatomy of a W580 (or most SE phones) theme.

Standby | Desktop | Tabs, Popup, More | Activity | Sounds

I’m taking theme requests for Sony Ericsson W580 phones. (Other SE phones are compatible with these themes as well.)

However you can’t just shoot me a message like

~~“OMG I want a [insert topic of interest here] theme! K ThX BAI!”~~

I need you to do some homework… get me images (or links to images) of what you want, as large as you can. If I have to blow up a 50×50 pic to fit a 240×320 screen, it’s gonna look like hell.

So in list form, here’s what I need from you:

Theme Topic (ie: Mustang, Iromman, Beyoncé, Hello Kitty, & so on)
Pictures you like to be used. The more the better. (Link `em or attach them to the email. 5 or 6 will be used max, but send extras in case they fit better. )
Sounds if you want them included. (1 ringtone and/or 1 txt alert)
Other Info- you email, suggestions on the theme.Good suggestions include:
-Color choices (Tell me something like “Make the tex the color of his shirt.” Etc)
-What pics to use & where
-Color for Illumination (you can set the lights on the edges of the W580 to match [relatively] the colors in the theme. This function is only available to W580 phones using a W580 specific theme.)[No guarantees on the suggestions provided, but I’ll go my best & take them all into consideration.]

***Colors too similar will make the theme “invalid” so keep that in mind!***
To help aid in your themely research, I’m going to lay out what the parts of a theme are. This should help clarify what pictures and/or colors should go where.

FULL THEME LAYOUT

FINISHED THEME LAYOUT

To Begin, I’m going to use the elements from my Robert Downey Jr theme. In what’s available, its a very basic theme. This will be along the lines of what requests will be in the finished product. (Although individual results will vary.)

See the complete element list here.

Part 1: Standby
-Image 240×320
This is the “main” screen & the best (or favorite pic) should be used here.
Colors of the Operator Logo (Sony Ericsson in this pic), clock & soft keys (Calls/Menu buttons) can be 3 separate colors.

There are also option for custom buttons on the soft keys & on the status bar (signal / battery display area) but I don’t get into that much detail for requests. Or my own personal themes for that matter.

So blank:

And Finished Standby:

Part 2: Desktop (Aka Main Menu)
-Image 240×320(Mine are usually a different pic than the standby image, just by personal preference.)
This is the Main Menu section, where all the icons are displayed. I like using Images that show the “topic”, but not with alot of detail, since it’ll get lost amongst the icons.
[Often a “Zoom-in” from the main image is good]
I also used a “highlight” image to show which icon the user has selected. Generally requests get the generic oval unless they provide a small, simple image for it (~50px in height is fine.)

Clock & button colors are set here.

Blank:

Finished Menu:

Part 3: Tabs, Popup & MenuList Images
-Tab Select Size: 69×39
-Popup Size: 214×231
-Menu List Size: 212×193

I do these 3 together since the colors are usually very similar if not the same.
For Tabs, generally the only pic I add is a highlight, all the rest are transparent or a coordinating color.

Blank:

Finished Tabs:

Popup is similar- You don’t need a bg pic, as solid colors are fine. I’m quite partial to bg pics here these days. There’s also an option for a highlight, but this option is of course optional. The popup pic is also tied to the “misc” screen- it shows the download bar & text alerts. You will see this image / bg color often.

Blank:

Finished Popup:

The Menu List is almost identical to the Popup- minus the title. I still like having a different picture for it if there’s a good one available. If the menu is short, the top may get cut off. Just something to note.

Blank:

Finished More List:

Part 4: Activity Menu
-Activity Size: 214×231

This is also very similar to the way the Popup is setup. I usually use the same picture as they’re the same size. This section too, has a highlight option- if that is use, the unselected image is a transparent block.

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