ZLauncher themes are everywhere. There are plenty available for download on at places like PalmGear and Handango. Some are free but many cost money. Often it is not always easy to tell how well a ZLauncher theme has been created and it is what an individual desires. For themes that are free, this is not really a problem, just download them and try them out. For commerical themes here are some tips to help you figure out if the theme is of high-quality and fits your needs.

I have found that two basic types of ZLauncher themes exist: those that allow for customization and those that require a specific ZLauncher setup to work. There is nothing wrong with either approach, the themes I create fall under the former category but some of my most favorite themes fall under the latter category. When selecting a ZLauncher theme that allows for customization, look at several features of the theme to judge the quality of the theme and the amount of customization it will provide you.

I was going to create a sample ZLauncher theme to demonstrate some of the following points but I ran across a theme on PalmGear, “FirstSkin ZLauncher Skin 1″ by Organize Software (shown in the screen shot on a T3), that made the following claim; “There are many Zlauncher skins available today, the difference is in how well they are made. Every image should look professional and be clear and easy to understand. Every detail is important when we build a Zlauncher skin.” Why not then put this theme to the test?

1. Does the theme include the signal and plugin bitmaps and icons?

ZZTechs, the developers of ZLauncher, are constantly adding new features to ZLauncher that require additional graphics. This means that any theme not updated in the last few months will probably not include all of ZLauncher’s features. As you can see the “FirstSkin ZLauncher Skin 1″ does not include the plugin bitmaps. You can still see the information presented but the area appears white on the screen.

2. Will the theme look good on both light and dark backgrounds?

If you like to use custom backgrounds in ZLauncher this point is very important. Most themes will look good with a light background. The exact opposite is true with dark backgrounds. Icons that do not have crisp clear borders will not look good on dark backgrounds. The “FirstSkin ZLauncher Skin 1″ is a perfect example of this (see #2), you can see the jagged edges of many of the icons when using a dark background.

3. How does the theme look when the top or bottom bar of the theme are transparent?

Many theme developers try to get around the issue mentioned above by putting part of the bottom/top bar’s graphic into the background on an ZLauncher icon grahpic. This will make for some funny looking screens if you set the top or bottom bar to transparent. Secondly, you will find that, as mentioned above, may of the icons may have jagged edges (see #3).

4. Will the theme work in both portrait and landscape hires+ mode?

This is only going to apply to hires+ screens. Most themes will work correctly but I have seen some that begin to repeat some of the graphics on the screen when switched from portrait to landscape mode.

5. Do the tabs look good in all four positions?

This may only be a problem under one circumstance, if you like seeing the tabs at the bottom of your screen. If the theme developer is customizing the size of the tabs, in any way, it becomes very hard to line up both the top and bottom tabs correctly. From my experience very few people have their tabs positioned at the bottom of the screen, but if you do you need to take this into consideration.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2005 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Palm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.