Create your own themes with OwnSkin.com

Here is a free web site that allows you to create free themes for your Nokia N73 (Actually, it supports many phones). It is very simple. And yes, now it supports customization of application icons too – That is, you can use your own image or select from a large collection of icons and apply as your application’s thumbnail. (There are some cool Mac OS style icons 🙂 ). You can also create a theme by just uploading one image file. So it is the best place for starters as well. You can also share your theme and/or download themes created by other users.

First you need to register. If you don’t have an account goto http://www5.ownskin.com/signup_login and sign up. If you have an account, then sign in.

Click on the Create tab for creating a new theme. Select Skin Type 3 for creating themes for N73.

Now you can create a theme in three steps.

Step 1: Create Idle Background (The one we see normally)

Upload your image. The site doesn’t support much editing options. So it is better to use your own editor to crop/resize the image to 320X240px and then upload (In this way, you can also save bandwidth too ). Otherwise, using the tools provided,  we can crop an image. Hold Shift key to resize the selection rectangle and select an image area.  Click on the Done button or Preview. 

Step 2:  Create Active Background 

If you don’t need further customization just select the option Use Previous Image and Continue to step 3.

Upload the picture in the same way. You can preview and  once you satisfied with the results, click Done.

Step3:  Advanced Customization

Click on the  Create My Skin Now for  creating a skin with the default  icon set for applications.
Otherwise click on Advance Settings button. Now you have several options. All changes can be previewed on the right side. So experiment with it and you will improve.

1. Add Color Filter :- The image can be a little bit lightened for better readability using this filter.
2. Analog Clock Style:- You can either upload your own clock image or select from an existing collection.
3. Signal/Battery :- Select from gallery or upload
4. Application Icon :- This is the best part. You can select an icon for the applications. Click on change icons. For each of the application listed there, you can either select an icon from the gallery or upload yours. There is a  good collection of icons you can use including some cool Mac OS style icons. If you prefer your own icons, make sure they are of resolution 128 X 128px,
5. Music Player / Calendar / Go to Background
6. Popup Background / Selector / CallerID Background

7. Text & Icon Color :- Finally you can select the  colors

After everything is done click on the Create My Skin Now button.

Now you can give the theme a name, description, tags etc. You can also select the share status. You can make it either public or  private. Now you can Save the skin.

Now you can go to  My themes for editing or downloading themes you have created.

Click on the theme thumbnails to get the download page. You can either download to PC or use your phone’s wap browser for downloading themes.

Upon registration you will get your skin URL like http://www.ownskin.com/home?u=%5Busername%5D  (Replace [username]  with your user name).  You can  send that link to your friends. Users can subscribe to your themes / Message you  or Sign your guest book.

Hope you will start creating themes now. Please don’t forget to share your themes for us. 😉