Icon Psds

In the last few months I've been using icons on some of my themes that look similar to the Sidekick's default icons but vary in colors. I've decided to share my PSDs so you can edit these icons to your liking. The set includes default like Im, Sms and Apps icons. I did not include Pim & Games icons because those can simply be switched with any pen and controller images. The PSDs come in three sizes SM, LG and XLG. The regular sizes are SM & LG but I've been using XLG icons lately on some of my themes so I decided to include those too. The PSDs are meant to be edited on Adobe Photoshop and the icons may look different if edited with GIMP.

Baseball Cap Fitting

I've done a few baseball themes with the instant messaging icon wearing your favorite baseball team's cap, this video shows you how I do it. This video is not meant to be a tutorial, I'm just sharing some of my tricks for new Photoshop users who might be interested. My baseball themes can be found at Sklxthemes.com by searching for Baseball Icons.

Matching Shell Phone Splashes

One of the most annoying things about the new Sidekick 08 is the default yellow shelled phone splash, for those not aware the phone splash is the image you see when you have "Phone" selected on the main screen. Although the yellow shelled phone splash matches perfectly with the shell that comes with the Sk08, I'm sure that most Sk08 owners have already gotten new shells. The custom shells sold over at Sidekickshells.com have Black, White or Pink base (Not Yellow), that means if you have a custom shell most likely it doesn't match your phone splash. I believe T-Mobile/Danger did this to be able to sell more themes on the catalog since I've seen a lot of themes now that come with the custom phone splash. I figured it wasn't fair they have matching phone splashes on their themes and we are stuck with the default yellow shelled phone splash so I've made a set with the three base colors for custom shells (Black, White & Pink). All you have to do is copy the desired PhoneSPLASH.png file into your theme's folder and make sure you have the string below on your Theme.txt file.

bitmap chooser-phone-splash-screen phonesplash.png

Leave me a comment if you're interested in different colors.

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How To Make Sidekick Icons

Making icons for the Sidekick is the same as making icons for any other purpose. Icons are just small images used to represent a program, file, and etc. therefore any image can be converted into an icon. The only difference between regular images and icons is that regular images do not contain an alpha channel. The alpha channel is used to represent up to 256 levels of transparency. When you add the alpha channel to a regular image you can make parts of that image be transparent or semi-transparent. If you look at the default instant message icon image on your Sidekick you will see a yellow smiley, but if you open the image in Photoshop or GIMP you will see the yellow smiley inside a squared transparent background. If you were to save that same icon in JPG or BMP format the transparent background will become white, that is because JPG and BMP do not store alpha channel information.

I've seen many themes posted with icons with a squared black/white background, that is becuase they have uploaded JPG or BMP files to the theme creator on the SkLX/SkSlide websites. The theme creator does not remove backgrounds for you, so do not expect to get an icon with a transparent background from there unless that's what you're sending. Formats that support the alpha channel include PNG, ICO, PSD, GIF and others, for Sidekick themes you only need to work with the PNG format.

In the video below I will show you how to add the alpha channel to regular images so that they can be saved in PNG format and used as icons. Part 1 of the video shows how to do it on Photoshop & Part 2 shows how to do it on GIMP. If you're watching this video I assume you already know Photoshop/GIMP basics and I will not go into detail about resizing and fitting the images. This video is no way near a tutorial on how to extract images (remove backgrounds), there are hundreds of ways to extract images, If you do not know how to extract images, I suggest you watch videos on how to do it because in this video I'll use the simplest method which does not necessarily yield the best results. If you're watching this video to learn how to make icons for your Sidekick themes, you should download one of the theme templates below:

Sk Slide Template

Sk LX/2008 Template

The icons made in this video can be found in my PACMAN theme.

Free Sidekick Icons Pack

These icons are free for your personal use but don't forget to give me credit for my work if you decide to post any of the themes you make using these icons anywhere. If you don't feel like renaming the icons to match your Theme.txt file just add or replace these lines on your Theme.txt file:

bitmap chooser-category-im-large imlg.png
bitmap chooser-category-im-small imsm.png
bitmap chooser-category-games-large gameslg.png
bitmap chooser-category-games-small gamessm.png
bitmap chooser-category-apps-large appslg.png
bitmap chooser-category-apps-small appssm.png
bitmap chooser-category-pim-large pimlg.png
bitmap chooser-category-pim-small pimsm.png
bitmap chooser-category-sms-large smslg.png
bitmap chooser-category-sms-small smssm.png

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