Change Font color in todays screen

coflyer · 03-24-05, 12:36 PM

I have come across a few today screens (.tsk) that have a light background and the dropdown text when you tap on the start button is white and does not show up well. Is there any way to change the font color that you see when you tap on the start button?

Theophilus · 03-24-05, 01:11 PM

I think basically a .tsk is a renamed .cab

Rename it to .cab and open it, in there you should find some picture files and text config files. I didn't do that myself, but I'm sure you can edit the config file to put your own colors.

Gigi · 03-24-05, 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by Theophilus

I think basically a .tsk is a renamed .cab

Rename it to .cab and open it, in there you should find some picture files and text config files. I didn't do that myself, but I'm sure you can edit the config file to put your own colors.

I have never heard of this. Where did you get this idea?

coflyer, have you tried modifying the them using Microsoft's Theme Generator? There are instructions here.

silentknight · 03-24-05, 01:34 PM

You can also use TKCreator from Funnysnake, free ware app to modify themes right on your axim.
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=10871

Theophilus · 03-24-05, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by Gigi

I have never heard of this. Where did you get this idea?

I opened a .tsk file with a hexadecimal editor, and noticed it had the same structure :)

Basically, in the .cab you'll find files with extension ".000", ".001", ".002". The extensions are not important.
The files names you can find are: Ostwater tdywater, ec. Those are the pictures (renamed .bmp files) And there is also another file with the name of the theme (more or less), surely it contains all the colors and parameters.

When I have some time to spend I'll try to look exactly how to change anything in the file parameter (it's not a regular text file, sad

)

Gildor · 03-24-05, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by Theophilus

Basically, in the .cab you'll find files with extension ".000", ".001", ".002". The extensions are not important.
The files names you can find are: Ostwater tdywater, ec. Those are the pictures (renamed .bmp files) And there is also another file with the name of the theme (more or less), surely it contains all the colors and parameters.

This is correct, though the above applies to standard PPC themes. Some of the third party application themes muddy the water a bit. If you want to check it out yourself, just open a tsk file in Winzip or other zip utility. No need to rename it to .cab or anything.

A few other notes on the files in a tsk file:
Its actually 0stwater.002 (A "zero", not an "oh") - This is the image used for the menu.
tdywater.001 - this is the today screen image
Both of these can be jpg or png or gif files. I don't know if bmp's will work or not.

xxxx.000 - this is the file which contains all the other info about the theme (background color, font, etc.) xxxx can be just about any name I believe. It is indeed a binary file, so you'll need a hex editor if you want to mess with it. Basically, the meat of the file are some indexes and associated values. These values are what you change to change the colors and other attributes of the theme. The trick is to know what index controls what attribute. I haven't seen a list, so you'd have to find one or figure it out yourself using trial and error.

There was an excellent article I ran across on this subject, which I have lost the link to, unfortunately. I'll post it if I find it. Also you can check this article on Spb's website.

While you could create and edit themes by directly manipulating these files, I frankly don't think it would be worth the effort. Just use one of the several nice theme editors that are available. I think you would save yourself a lot of grief.

emom79 · 05-11-05, 01:05 AM

i was looking for an answer to this exast question and the tkcreator is great. i love it and it's so much fun to play with.

LeAnn X50