I'm new to Sony devices and was looking to get a dark theme set up on my new X Compact. After digging around I'm pretty confused abut the whole thing and thought I'd ask for some help here.
I'm looking for white text on a black background. I think I'm doing something wrong here, because I can't seem to find a white on black theme in the native Xperia themes, but I can find one for Substratum. This seems odd because my understanding was that Substratum was a port of Sony's Overlay Manager Service.
In any event, from my understanding I've got 2 options:
1) Install OmniROM and Substratum
2) Install CM13 and use the built in theme engine
I'm a bit reluctant to install CM13 as it's still in alpha, which leaves me with the OmniROM solution. Is this accurate? (I should note, that it's great to see so much development for the X Compact so soon after launch!)
Thanks so much for any help.
I am not sure what you mean when you say you can't find a theme with white text on black background. Unless you mean that you want the theme to be always black, even in the settings and similar apps. That isn't possible, because since Kitkat Android (at least for Xperia) has two modes: bright theme and dark theme. The settings are always bright. I tried myself to invert the bright theme making it dark, but far too many things get unreadable because they aren't 100% customisable.
Still if you want to give a try with a a dark theme you may want to try this one. It's free (and don;t worry, the link doesn't have any ad. It's from Google shortner): https://goo.gl/PHyqRH
If you don't like it you can simply uninstall it and try another one. There are tons of free black themes. personally I'll never go as far as unlocking the bootloader and install a custom ROM just to have some different themes. Also because apparently most of the support for custom ROMs is ending. Cyanogenmod closed, for example. It has been taken over by someone else, but it won't probably be the same thing.
Thanks so much for your help with this. The monochrome theme you directed me to has some dark elements for sure, but I was looking for a completely black background. To be honest, I've been a bit surprised at how much I'm bothered by the white backdrop, especially at night. I've been using a dark CM theme on another phone for years, and didn't really think that a small change like this would make such a difference to me.
I think you understand what I'm looking for, but just to confirm here are some links to the play store:
Black Background using CM13: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blissroms.moelle.ddoverhauled
Black Background using Substratum: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brit.swiftblack.layers
Nope. As I wrote the stock Android for Xperia doesn't support the dark panels on the bright themes. Or better, it's possible to put dark backgrounds in a bright theme, but after that far too many elements get unreadable. Dark text for starting, which can't be changed. The clock and SMS apps get quite messy for example.
The CM ROMs have its own customisation engine, different from the one Sony has implemented for the Xperia phones (and thus as far as I know their themes are not compatible). The same I believe applies to SubStratum, which I don't know. But I suppose you need root to install it. And also it may conflict with the Xperia customisation.
Still there are plenty of great themes that change the backgrounds to different colours or even images. They won't be totally dark, but they are a relief from the obnoxious pure white. Blue themes are usually the best for that purpose. Also the Golden themes are quite popular at the moment. This (still free) at least removes the white, replacing it with gold color: https://goo.gl/WK9yGm
Related
Here is my first theme made for the Herald. I'm new to this so I've begun by modifying the default htc touch theme and made it darker (close to black) and changed it a bit. Hope someone likes it.
damn......nobody postes screen shoots
it's like the basic dark grey-black htc theme for touch with some modifications to look better (In my opinion at least).
I'll check it out. I've been looking for a darker/better looking version of that theme. I can't post screenies yet, but I'll give a review.
facdemol said:
it's like the basic dark grey-black htc theme for touch with some modifications to look better (In my opinion at least).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow hey this is great man! I LOVE the blue text!
What I think would really make it look better is if you could make the theme match Schap's 2G dialer. Possible make the greys look less monotone. I'm not saying add pinks and crap to it, but make it less grey and more black, with some grey contrasts to it. Hard to explain what I mean, but basically the text adds some much needed color, and I think the greys could be changed to do the same, but only staying withing the black/grey spectrum.
The only thing I do not like is the background wallpaper. Something smoother and darker would be nice, maybe mix in some of the same blue color you've got on the text with it. Dunno.
Does any of that make sense?
Overall, I like it, and am going to use it until you release another one.
You're on the money with this one. Taking what's already out, tweaking it, and making it better. Excellent.
Your theme looks fairly decent. The text color in the start menu is blue as well.
THX I like it!
thank you all for the apreciation.
I'm thinking of making a new theme, but currently looking for ideas. Does any of you have some ideas about some color combinations and background pictures? I'll make the theme and then i will upload it here. Any sugestions are welcomed.
Get rid of the grey shades. I hate grey and black together. Very dull. Keep the blue text, it looks great! I think a background image with some planets, or stars, or nebulae or something would be sweet with such a dark theme.
Make it a space theme!
facdemol said:
thank you all for the apreciation.
I'm thinking of making a new theme, but currently looking for ideas. Does any of you have some ideas about some color combinations and background pictures? I'll make the theme and then i will upload it here. Any sugestions are welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, we'll go to space However, complex coloured images on the today screen may affect the text readability. I'll try my first space theme with a background image of the moon or some other bunch of planets laying arround.
The trouble with themes is that you can't satisfy all people because their different opinions regarding the ideal theme.
Ahh true. It's all good, make what you like, and to hell with everyone else!
facdemol said:
Ok, we'll go to space However, complex coloured images on the today screen may affect the text readability. I'll try my first space theme with a background image of the moon or some other bunch of planets laying arround.
The trouble with themes is that you can't satisfy all people because their different opinions regarding the ideal theme.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RVM, I didn't put it that way. If I were to make a theme for myself I wouldn't need to upload it and just download again. Also I wouldn't have any need to comment it with people since I've made it to best suit my needs.
On the other hand I'm not that much into space themes. Personally I don't think a 320x240 screen with lots of text on it, can express the complexity of space (stars, planets, some dust&stuff) or at least not in the same manner like your average desktop. However I'll try this (or other themes) in order to to find out if it suits other people.
Regarding Theme?
Quick question Guys, where are you Guys placing the theme at. Exactly in which folder should I say. I downloaded a theme over the net and can"t figure out where to place it. Thanks for your help People...
^^Its very easy. Just place it in the first folder that comes up when you activesync.
This is a very nice theme. Im looking forward to more from you
Ok so lots of heated opinions about the default Oxygen theme and I don't want that to detract from the main ROM, after all I just do pretty pictures (or not so pretty lol).
I've also decided to turn this into something positive and in the spirit of community development open up the floor for discussion.
So what would people like to see changed in the theme?
Really like the theme, maybe a little more green than lime
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Can it be possible to make it so that the user can change the color through the UI?
Wanted to change the orange highlights and rollovers in OD to blue but not sure how.
Wrong section, this should be in desire general, themes and apps its just for what it says not discussion threads
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
First of all, thanks for your work on the theme for this great rom.
As this is all about personal preferences, I would prefer the following...
1) maintain the exact same color for each icon
2) going back to the original oxygen blue would be more attractive
3) a black notification bar
I imagine that those of us who are attracted to AOSP type roms would also prefer simple elegance as opposed to bright and flashy.
Change wallpaper in each home
Good day as will all?
The theme is very good ... I least liked what I saw!
But I have a problem that I don't know if it would be possible to solve!
I currently use 2 launchers ... the ZEAM and update Gefrost 60 g (Emuphirus) that mimics the launcher Galaxy S ... anyway ...
But if you change the wallpaper of a laucher when dumb to another change that I made before the current in the launcher applies!
Wish I could have 2 different homes in each launcher, each one with your wallpaper ... issopode opinion tosco, but is something that I would love that could do to further improve the theme!
This would be possible?
Thank you..and congratulations for the beautiful initiative a unique moving trhread discussion on the topic here!
I would like to share my opinion.
I liked your theme it was nice but i didnt use it. Simply because my wallpaper didnt match it. When you use colors (lets say that light green is quite aggressive color) in theme they look good only when they match wallpaper and wallpaper is something everyone got different. So the safest option and the one that looks great with almost all backgrounds is black or white or any color of grey.
Thats why with OD, greatest popularity had simple black bar or as it was for me the stock white option.
I would love to see your icons in grey on white notification bar, custom lock-screen that would match notification bar colors and dock for luncher also in same taste.
So in my opinion you should focus on those neutral colors that would appeal to more people and then add some colors to it just barely, to hit that sweet spot between flashy and too simple.
Mix of ClassicalGas (flat) and BlueFrost, in white would be that spot for me.
I love the default theme, and the add-on theme. Very fresh, and isn't that what this project is about? You have my vote, and loyalty.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Hmm I would prefer something similar to what CM did with his ROM, with just a simple .xml file to edit to change the colours. I want to flash over a white notification bar, but the clock got stuck at whitish, so I had to flash a black one. Anyone else knows how to change it (easily)? Without modifying files dangerously?
I'm quite sattisfied with the green (lime) theme, I just exchanged the header and footer in the drawer (I took them from the Elegant Steel theme ) and now it's really ok for me.
I'm going to change the orange highlight color to green / lime, too. Then there will nothing be left to complain for me nice theme by the way!!
I think the green need to be the same green all throughout. For my tastes there is currently too many different shades of greens and greys.
I like this theme. Not bad. I also agree with people who support that a stripped down rom should have the option to flash/change a theme instead of forcing it.
The only thing I do not like very much with the theme are the G/E/H icons. Not very visible. I would prefer something more colorful, or the most common arrows used than a letter that is half blinking.
Sorry for not contributing with any constructive criticism, but wanted to thank you for your hard work. I really enjoy the theme! Great work.
Personally really liked the theme - everyone has different tastes. As usual with these things 50% of people will never be happy no matter what changes - I think you and Adam should just keep doing the things you like and if people want to use it they can do. After all you could not release it and no one could use it which would be a real shame.
I kinda like the new theme, got a few "disslikes" thou.
The green color doesn't seem to be the same everywhere in the notification
The battery seem to have a few extra pixels in every corner
The logo, dunno why I don't like it thou, but me and my friend posted a few alternative logos in the Oxygen-thread, dunno what other guys think about them thou.
other than those 3 notes i like the idea of an speciall oxygen theme!
//_b
jastonas said:
The only thing I do not like very much with the theme are the G/E/H icons. Not very visible. I would prefer something more colorful, or the most common arrows used than a letter that is half blinking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I liked the icons. When no activity on the connection it is gray almost invisible, when it has activity it turns green clearly visible. You can see in the Market picture attached.
@1000moths
Could you look at the attached images, I have some suggestions. Thanks 1000moth loved the theme.
...one last thing, When I installed the 0.2.2 I did not got your wallpaper with the Oxygen logo somehow got my old wallpaper. Now I do not know how to get your wallpaper again. Would you mind telling me how can I find this wallpaper inside the rom? Or maybe you could post it? EDITED: Already found in the zip posted below.
Thanks again man.
Current status -
White pixels on battery - Fixed and changed the battery to face the other way bit like MIUI
The lime green - I'm going to switch this to the official Android green #A4C369 it's less "aggressive" but may look a bit washed out but we'll see.
Status bar - I've gone with blacker version for the next itteration
Header bar - i've removed all Oxy branding for the time being.
Uploaded a flashable zip below so you can check it out.
1000moths said:
Current status -
White pixels on battery - Fixed and changed the battery to face the other way bit like MIUI
The lime green - I'm going to switch this to the official Android green #A4C369 it's less "aggressive" but may look a bit washed out but we'll see.
Status bar - I've gone with blacker version for the next itteration
Header bar - i've removed all Oxy branding for the time being.
Uploaded a flashable zip below so you can check it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downloaded the zip and it looks a million times better already!! Keep up thee good work!!
Dunno if someting happend thou, but the background of notifications looked strange for me?
//_b
1000moths said:
Current status -
White pixels on battery - Fixed and changed the battery to face the other way bit like MIUI
The lime green - I'm going to switch this to the official Android green #A4C369 it's less "aggressive" but may look a bit washed out but we'll see.
Status bar - I've gone with blacker version for the next itteration
Header bar - i've removed all Oxy branding for the time being.
Uploaded a flashable zip below so you can check it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this flashable for Oxygen 0.2.2?
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Just downloaded and flashed the zip, and I must agree looks a lot nicer now and didn't notice those little extra pixels around the corners of the battery icon until someone mentioned it lol,
I am impressed with oxygen and I've only been running it an hour with vorkkernel r8 and man is it smooth.
Good work on the theme tho mate if you made the notification drop down a lot darker like the bar would be sweet.
And I think the background on the notification drop down looks "weird" cos it's got a carbon like texture on there?
Any recommendations where the black UI of android gets replaced by something that could be potentially more appealing? Something with the google play colors or any theme that matches or uses the google apps colors?
joefso said:
Any recommendations where the black UI of android gets replaced by something that could be potentially more appealing? Something with the google play colors or any theme that matches or uses the google apps colors?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And why can't you search it by yourself?
parkourz said:
And why can't you search it by yourself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do not bother responding if you belief I haven´t searched. Also notice the word "recommendations"
joefso said:
Any recommendations where the black UI of android gets replaced by something that could be potentially more appealing? Something with the google play colors or any theme that matches or uses the google apps colors?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gem flat and simplex were my two favorite themes for theme chooser when I was using CM roms. There are threads for both here in xda, take a look and see if you like. You can use them even on stock with hk theme manager xposed module, I think.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
I was also looking for similar themes and have found the following:
*Mianogen.
*iOS 7.
*Circle.
*Flat (by rayford85).
*MIUI v5 (There are three: 1- orange on white. 2- orange on black. 3- holo blue on black).
Edit:*Flow (is also a great theme).
And I agree with meatboy, Gem Flat and Simplex (both red and blue) are one of the best themes out there.
I've been enjoying my Shield since I got it 2 months ago, and like the original Kitkat look to it, the background and the colors. Well after upgrading to Lollipop I was horrified to see that the color theme is completely opposite. The app drawer is white!!!! How awful is that? Anyway, I've never needed to get a launcher in the past on my phones because the roms I used were customizable enough to get a theme or color set I liked. But with the Shield Tablet... I'm just not fond of the roms available.
So whats the popular launchers and are there any cool themes? I'm looking for something to make my Shield Tablet look like a "Shield Tablet" again and not some bright white lollipop stick in the mud...
You can always just flash back to KitKat.
You can always use Nova Launcher (my choice)
A lot of people swear by Nova.
I still like ADW Launcher Ex (runs fine on my Shield with Lollipop) - just hope to see an update since it's been hinted...
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using XDA Free mobile app
Thanks for the responses, I'll give those two a look. I know I could go back to kitkat, but for how long will I be sticking to Kitkat while the OS is updated throughout the years... Eventually I'd have to move on, so trying to now. Oh, and why the hell is there no auto brightness like kitkat had? I have t manually set the brightness now...
There is still auto-brightness in Lollipop, it's just implemented a bit differently. It's the "Adaptive Brightness" option that's found in your display settings. Juts like normal auto-brightness, it adjusts your screen brightness automatically based on your surrounding. Adjusting the brightness slider with adaptive brightness on changes how aggressively the screen up-clocks its brightness. So if you have adaptive brightness on and you pull the slider to the max value, the display will work like normal auto-brightness but will tend to favor higher brightness more of the time. (and vice versa). It's like normal auto-brightness but with the ability to customize how aggressive the setting is.
And as for a launcher, I've been very happy with Nova for years.
I've been trying Nova and Go launcher. I like how simple Nova is, but I like how many themes and styles Go has. It doesn't look like Nova has themes, other than icons...
No, Nova doesn't have an integrated theme engine like Go does. I just like Nova's little tweaks and adjustments.
Hope you can find one you like. One of the first things I do when I get a new device is add a custom launcher.
Buzz launcher.. Awesome themes.. And you can basically setup custom themes yourself if you know what to do. I've gone buzz and never looked back.
DFA1 said:
I've been enjoying my Shield since I got it 2 months ago, and like the original Kitkat look to it, the background and the colors. Well after upgrading to Lollipop I was horrified to see that the color theme is completely opposite. The app drawer is white!!!! How awful is that? Anyway, I've never needed to get a launcher in the past on my phones because the roms I used were customizable enough to get a theme or color set I liked. But with the Shield Tablet... I'm just not fond of the roms available.
So whats the popular launchers and are there any cool themes? I'm looking for something to make my Shield Tablet look like a "Shield Tablet" again and not some bright white lollipop stick in the mud...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nova definitely.. plenty of icon sets etc for it although there's no overall theme engine, lots of adjustment though.
F.
DFA1 said:
I've been enjoying my Shield since I got it 2 months ago, and like the original Kitkat look to it, the background and the colors. Well after upgrading to Lollipop I was horrified to see that the color theme is completely opposite. The app drawer is white!!!! How awful is that? Anyway, I've never needed to get a launcher in the past on my phones because the roms I used were customizable enough to get a theme or color set I liked. But with the Shield Tablet... I'm just not fond of the roms available.
So whats the popular launchers and are there any cool themes? I'm looking for something to make my Shield Tablet look like a "Shield Tablet" again and not some bright white lollipop stick in the mud...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using Action Launcher since the shield came out, and I like it alot. Version 3 hasn't been out all that long, but its got a nice material theme to match the rest of the OS, but you can theme it to a fixed color (Material Dark is what I do), or let it adapt to to colors of your wallpaper. Give it a shot?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actionlauncher.playstore&hl=en
No matter what theme I'm on, I always have white notifications. I just like darker themes and have always used them back in my AOSP days because they just look better and less iPhone-y when I use my phone. In some cases saves more battery life on amoled screens.
Anyone know how to can find my needs wants? lol.
Nougat 7.0 S7E
I have a few black themes was really hoping the Nougat update was going to extend more of that area into the theme setup, but it hasn't.
Right now there is no way to make notifications black.
BTW wear is your favorite black theme?
Good Lock app by Samsung allowed for the notification cards to have dark backgrounds. There is no Nougat-compatible version thus far. Samsung said they would have a new version for the 7.0 software, but I'm not very confident that will actually happen.
I have a hacker theme and tjay dkes the job for me. Almost nothing white except the msg app
ShrekOpher said:
I have a few black themes was really hoping the Nougat update was going to extend more of that area into the theme setup, but it hasn't.
Right now there is no way to make notifications black.
BTW wear is your favorite black theme?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On MM I liked one called something like Touchwiz Dark, it was basically the way some Samsung models used to have dark menus and dark dialer/messaging instead of light. Doesn't seem to be there on Nougat tho, at least I can't find it. There are some other decent ones on Nougat but there is always at least 1 thing I don't like in each one lol. How bout you?
I use Material Black on both MM and Nougat. Definitely would like to darken the notifications.