vB Easy Archive - Common theme flaw -- A fix?

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Common theme flaw -- A fix?
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Posted by: player911

Hey guys, I'm new to nokia's and symbian for that matter, but not new to the forums.

I just bought a N75 and it is fantastic. One thing I can't seem to settle on is a good theme. I've tried 20 or so and they all have 1 common flaw that really hurts to use.

The "flaw" is that you have your background, then a second background while in the menu's. Well when you try to SMS, your trying to read/write text over top the background image. Unless you use a solid color, SMSing becomes difficult.

A good solution, like most phones, is to have a white section for text fields so that you have black text on a white surface for the best legibility.

I don't think this is possible unless there is a 3rd party SMS tool that replaces the default one, OR for the menu background include a white square that surrounds the menu icons (and SMS text).

I've found several great themes, but SMSing is a pain while outdoors. Maybe the text is just too small. A bigger text might be a good solution too.

Has anyone else found this an issue and possibly have a solution?

Posted by: Rcadden

create your own theme. Ownskin.com, though I don't konw if it lets you set the text entry color. You could also attempt to use/learn Nokia's theme creator, but good luck.

Personally, I don't have a hard time, but I don't use themes with alot of graphics going on. Give me a plain textured/designed background and I'm good to go.

You may also check e-series.org's theme fridays, there might be something in there you like. I personally have found several.

Posted by: peterd

a flaw ive experienced a few times is when (this happens only in some themes) i go to the web browser and try to type in an address, and the address bar is white, and so is the text so im unable to see what im typing in lol. but if you make no mistakes while typing you should be fine LOL

Posted by: player911

Yea I noticed this with several settings options like the external screen brightness menu... all that appeared was a white box. If you press left or right you'll see the external screen get dimmer or brighter. Its just a theme problem.

The SMS thing is constant. i may just have to find a basic wall paper that will allow easy text messaging.

Posted by: owziee

Quote:

Originally Posted by player911

Yea I noticed this with several settings options like the external screen brightness menu... all that appeared was a white box. If you press left or right you'll see the external screen get dimmer or brighter. Its just a theme problem.

The SMS thing is constant. i may just have to find a basic wall paper that will allow easy text messaging.

The wallpaper will only be visible in the standby screen... Best option IMO is using a 3rd party app like ThreadSMS, that will give you black text on white background = maximal contrast!

Posted by: player911

That program looked cool, but it doesn't take over the OS level app and from reading it seems to still have its problems.

Like when a text comes in, it'll come in through the OS level app... which you'd have to dismiss and open up the ThreadedSMS to read it...

Looking at the app, it does solve the problem of reading the messages, but creates several more hardships along the way. Almost like 1 step forward and 2 steps back kinda deal.

I just think a good secondary background would suffice.

Posted by: player911

I've been playing with Carbide.UI and found that if you edit the active background and just put solid theme based color, it works wonderfully.

The only time you even see the solid color is when you need it, like SMSing, Address book, configs, etc.

It works really well although the you can see some of it extruding from behind the calendar. I haven't tested it fully. Now I just got to figure out how to build a theme around the background... lol.

Posted by: player911

Click here to download

Notice the menu has the white box... well it also has that for SMSing which makes it a ton easier on the eyes. The only thing I DISLIKE about the theme is the text on the main active idle screen is black (No cal. entries for today), which is hard to see over that dark blue background. White would have been alot nicer. The softkeys could use a button image too.

I PM'd Pesco about this and hopefully he'll make the changes and repost.

Posted by: player911

Here is another good scheme that is red. I don't dig the race car, but its solid red background while in the menu and SMSing is easy on the eyes.