Editing a Nokia Cell Phone Theme in Detail with Carbide.ui
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This three-part series of articles takes a comprehensive look at the process of developing themes for Symbian S40- and S60-based Nokia cell phones using the powerful Carbide.ui software. Part one introduced the software, and discussed the interface in some detail as well as providing an overview of the Symbian S60 theme architecture on Nokia cell phones (the S40 architecture is very similar but simpler). In part two I will go on to demonstrate how to edit basic theme element properties, discuss bitmap and vector image editing, and take a look at Carbide.ui’s use of masks and layers in the theme creation process.
Editing theme element properties
As we saw in part one, every theme contains a large number of components, most of which have some editable properties. For example, the theme's icons can be color-adjusted, and the presentation of certain lines and boxes can be altered. Carbide.ui provides a selection of built-in component-editing tools, which are accessed through the Properties window. The contents of this window change to reflect the editable properties of the currently selected element.
Let's say that you want to edit the colors of the text labels for the Application icons (in the application, this text is referred to as Unfocused Application Title Texts). The first step is to select the relevant item. Carbide.ui provides a number of ways to do this, but the simplest is probably to select the Application Grid in the Gallery pane and then click on the text label below any of the icons (don't choose the highlighted one - we're dealing with "unfocused" icons here). If the Application Grid isn't visible in the gallery pane, click the pane's toggle button to view the complete set of screens. When you select the Application Grid, the Properties window is updated to show the name and properties of the text labels, as in this screen grab.
There are two ways to edit the text color. The first is to select a named color from the drop-down list. As soon as this is done, the application panes update immediately to reflect the new selection. However, the list of named colors is not very extensive. Additional colors can be accessed by clicking on the color box immediately to the left of the drop-down list. This opens the Color Picker tool, which offers a comprehensive range of color options.
In this example, the text color has been changed to Slate Blue (#6a5acd). The same principle applies to editing the properties of any element.
Next: External Image Editors >>
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