Themes for beginners

So you have found an iphone theme, maybe your co-worker has there iPhone customized and you would like to do that to yours.  You have no clue about themes. Dunno where you can get them,  or even how the theme works.

In this write up ill try to explain in engrish.

First and foremost your phone needs to be jail broken.  More about jail breaking over at http://greenpois0n.com/ 

Once you are jailbroken you will have a new store added to your springboard. (Springboard is where your icons sit) the new Store/App is Cydia. 

Cydia is a store that contains modifications for your iPhone. From themes, fonts, ringtones, apps, tweaks. Tons of stuff. Right now we will talk about Themes. 

You can purchase and download Themes for your phone, through this store. 

If you have found one you would like to purchase it is as easy as entering your paypal and accepting the charge.

iPhone Themes. What are they? How do they work? 

Iphone themes use a tweak called Winterboard to show graphics over the stock images of the iphone. 

When you install a theme, it does NOT overwrite any stock images! 

It simply uses winterboard to display these images instead of the stock images. 

If something is not themed by the developer then that image will stay stock when the theme is selected. 

Most every theme has  a certain order which files need to be in winterboard.  Anything at the top overwrites anything below it. 

So let's say we have a theme with two icon sets. If we have both icon sets turned on in winterboard. Only one will show. The one that shows is The one on top. 

Usually when I do my themes I try to simplify the folders so it doesn't get confusing. I make a 

ThemeName LS

ThemeName SB

ThemeName HD

The LS is the Lockscreen

The SB is the Springboard

The HD just stands for High Definition.  This is the main part of the theme. 

The main theme will be on the very bottom of winterboard 99% of the time. The LS, SB, Alt icon sets, and color mods go on top of the main theme. 

Where does a theme install? This is very important If you are going to alter anything with the theme. A lot of themes require the user to change things inside code. Most common is your zip code. 

When a theme installed it is installed in Library/Themes

Useful tools like ifile make it where you can edit files from your phone. It is a must have IMO.

Other "Popular Tweaks" to use GridLock, FiveColumnSpringboard, FiveIconDock, MultiIconMover, ThemeReady, Iconoclasm, FolderEnhancer, Cydgets, iWidgets, SpringJumps, SwipeSelection..

If you buy any theme and it comes with a image you don't like. You can go to ifile go to Library/Themes find the theme and look for the image you want to delete or replace. To replace just name it the same as the image your replacing and overwrite it.  Thats it.

How to theme unthemed Icons

1. Use ThemeIconMaker

2. Do it manually