Creating your own custom theme for Snowboard or Anemone

Contents

• Getting Started
• Theme Configuration
• Creating Icons
• Exporting Icons
• Icon Masks
• Packaging
• Building the DEB

Getting Started

Note: Without the proper folder structure, your theme may not show up!

• Create a new folder called themeName.theme (Replace themeName with your desired theme name)
• Within themeName.theme folder, create another folder called IconBundles (You cannot change this name)

Theme Configuration

• Now, inside the themeName.theme folder, create a file called Info.plist and paste the following

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
  <plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>PackageName</key>
    <string>ThemeName</string>
    <key>ThemeType</key>
    <string>Icons</string>
  </dict>
</plist>

• Replace PackageName with the name of the Package and replace ThemeName with the Theme Name

Now, you might ask what is the difference between PackageName and ThemeName?

Well, if for example you want to publish two variants of your icons, one dark and one white but you do not want the user to seperately install them. Then, you would name the package MyTheme and include two themes Blackie and White thus creating two entries. More about this in the end

Creating Icons

• Open up the Image Editor of your choice and create a new file having a resolution of 512x512

Note: Due to IconBundles, we just need to create the icons in one size and they get resized automatically :ghost:

Want to create rounded icons? Create them squared only, we will learn how to apply masks!

Exporting Icons

Note: All icons must be saved as *.png (Tip: This means you can even create partially transparent icons!)

• All Icons must be saved in themeName.theme>IconBundles as bundleID-large.png

Finding BundleIDs

Stock Application BundleIDs

3rd Party Applications BundleID Click here

Icon Masks

• Getting the Classic Rounded Rectangle Masks

In your Info.plist file add the following value between <dict> and

<key>IB-MaskIcons</key>
    <true/>

• Custom Icon Masks

NOTE: This is an optional step, if you do not want Icon Masks, skip this step

• Inside your themeName.theme folder, create another folder called 'Bundles'
  • Inside Bundles create another folder called com.apple.mobileicons.framework

Designing Masks

Masking does not support IconBundles, therefore you need to save the masks for each of the following

• While creating the mask, make sure that the background is not a solid colour and is transparent
• Whichever area you want to make visible, it should be coloured in black

Example (Credits: Pinpal):

would result in

Packaging

• Create a new folder outside themeName.theme with the name you want to be shown on Cydia, e.g themeNameForCydia
• Create another folder called DEBIAN in themeNameForCydia (It needs to be uppercase)
• In DEBIAN create an extension-less file called control and edit it using your favourite text editor

Paste the following in it, replacing yourname, themename, Theme Name, A theme with beautiful icons! and Your Name with your details:

Package: com.yourname.themename
Name: Theme Name
Version: 1.0
Architecture: iphoneos-arm
Description: A theme with beautiful icons!
Author: Your Name
Maintainer: Your Name
Section: Themes

• Important Notes:

  • The package field MUST be lower case!
  • The version field MUST be changed every-time you update your theme!
  • The control file MUST have an extra blank line at the bottom!

• Now, Create another folder called Library in themeNameForCydia

• In Library create another folder called Themes
• Finally, copy themeName.theme to the Themes folder (Copy the entire folder, not just the contents)

Building the DEB

For building the deb you need a *nix system, otherwise you can build it using your iPhones

Pre-Requisite for MacOS users

1) Install Homenbrew /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" (Run this in the terminal) 2) Install dpkg, by running brew install dpkg

There is a terrible thing called .DS_Store which if not removed, will cause a problem during either build or installation

• To remove this we first need to open the folder in the terminal

• Launch the Terminal and then drag-and-drop the 'themeNameForCydia' folder on the Terminal icon in the dock

• Now, run find . -name "*.DS_Store" -type f -delete

Pre-Requisite for Windows Users

• SSH into your iPhone and drag and drop the themeNameForCyia folder on the terminal

Common Instructions

• You should be at the root of the folder in the terminal, i.e Inside themeNameForCydia
• running ls should show the following output

DEBIAN  Library

• Now, in the terminal enter the following cd .. && dpkg -b themeNameForCydia

Now you will have the themeNameForCydia.deb in the same directory

You can share this with your friends :+1:

If you have scrolled this far, consider subscribing to my mailing list here. You can subscribe to either a specific type of post you are interested in, or subscribe to everything with the "Everything" list.