Want to create homescreen, what to use?

[Guest mrrippey]

There are so many nice homescreens but I want to create my own (based on alot of things I have seen). What tools do you all use to create these nice screens and plug-in's?

Thanks

Rippey

[Guest drblow]

The best tool a homescreen designer has is the modaco search function. All the questions you could think of have already been asked & you'll find the answers in this forum somewhere.

:lol:

[Guest mrrippey]

I did a search and I am using homescreen designer, just wanted to know if there was anything else, like plug-in designer or integrator.

Rippey

[Guest lighthouse82]

the microsoft designer is rubbish. ruttensoft makes a more advanced homescreen designer but i haven't tried it.

failing that, it's just about incorporating plugins and editing the xml code...

[Guest BrAGoL]

i guess this can also help you guys...

http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/srn/Home...Design.html#Top

Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest Pigo]

oooh... Nice link. very usefull

pigo

[Guest scott2eyes]

The link in my sig. goes to the same guide- just a slightly more up to date version. (And will become even more comprehensive and up to date if my girlfriend gets a C500 this weekend!)

[Guest mfioble]

This does bring up a topic I was going to ask though. What picture editing software would be good to use for editing some of these background images? I like the layout of some of these home screens but don't necessary like the backgrounds that come with them and would like to create a new image behind it.

[Guest lighthouse82]

cheers for the links guys.

as for picture editing, personally i have been just using paint, and making a selection 176 by 180. but it's very crude. some way of creating the frame and dragging it over the right area would be much faster and easier - is there a program which does that?

[Guest scott2eyes]

This does bring up a topic I was going to ask though. What picture editing software would be good to use for editing some of these background images? I like the layout of some of these home screens but don't necessary like the backgrounds that come with them and would like to create a new image behind it.

I would just change the background images for blank black/white, then take a screenshot and use that as a basis for creating the images.

as for picture editing, personally i have been just using paint, and making a selection 176 by 180. but it's very crude. some way of creating the frame and dragging it over the right area would be much faster and easier - is there a program which does that?

Paint is alright if you know what you want to do. Microsoft Photo Editor is also useful if you've got it installed (I think it's part of MS Office- it's on my work computer anyway.) You can do things with transparency in that (eg. put black boxes where you want text to be, make everything else transparent, then put something behind as a background.)

If you want something with a bit more flexibility, special effects etc. you could try Paint Shop Pro- they do a month trial or something if you don't think you want to spend any money. Or Adobe Photoshop, which tends to be an expensive option.

[Guest mrrippey]

thanks for all of the information!! I think this will give me a good start to where I want to go. I will most likely take another screen and modify to my taste.

Great site, great people, thanks y'all

Rippey