The Ultimate Android Themeing Guide
By Jairomeo, Manup456, ArmyRanger251, Stericson, Brandenk, SirMex, Beagz, david1171_
post from xda http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=667951
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AcdxIJRSH9ypZGZzc2pxNDlfMjdnazk4OHNxZA&hl=en&pli=1

Awesome find!!!! I really like the AXMLPrinter GUI.

Never knew someone posted this here, cool, thanks.

needs a sticky

if it can get a sticky, I'll copy over the info Ive posted in my original OP, and post when I get the next update out.

I found this while looking last night, looks like the same guide but in a PDF file.

I removed the PDF file

Yeah I PDF'd it because when I first uploaded the document to Google Docs, it blew out some formatting, since then I've fixed that. The PDF isn't as up to date as the Google Doc

Question: I think I understand the mechanics of customizing the theme, but am unclear where I get my hands on the theme .zip file to use as my starting point.

To be specific, I wanted to try a theme for Lithium (what I am currently running) but I don't think there are other theme's available to start with, can I start with the whole stock rom's .zip file? If I do, when I zip and re-sign, will the .zip file reflash the whole rom?

Thanks for any guidance,
C

You can start from the stock rom and get rid of everything except the /system/app and /system/framework-res.apk and /system/framework/services.jar and META_INF. You then can go into META and go down to the update script and modify it.

Easier way is you can take any theme, replace the apps with the ones from your ROM, and replace the stuff in framework with the ones from your theme and now you have a Lithium template with the setup and script already done for you.

Hey im new to this and i would like to know which eclipse, smali and baksmali would be best for windows vista with a 32-bit OS. In addition, is everything in the ultimate extractor and GIMP is safe for your computer.
Thanks in advance

You need the 32-bit version of Eclipse IDE, I used the one for Java devs, but the EE one would be fine too.

smali and baksmali are fine, just get the newest ones from JesusFreke's google code page.

Yes Ultimate Extractor is safe.

Another tool that is good to get from Google code is apktool by BrutAll

GIMP is safe to use, you could also use Paint.net on Windows, it can do most of what Photoshop can so, lacks some nice features like batch but its free,

Most of the items downloaded onto my windows vista with a 32-bit OS and Service pack 1 aren't able to be opened. What tool would be best or am i doing something wrong?

In Vista (or Win 7) you need to run the java files as an Admin.