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White Icon Text on720, for Use on Dark Wallpapers?

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Willdao
Willdao Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 2:51 AM
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Greetings,

This is my first post (although I've lurked to great effect for a few months...) What a tremendous resource! I'm a "new" j720 owner, and LOVE this thing! Have a 1 GB CF card, Orinoco Classic Gold Wi-Fi- Card, and a TON of ebooks and apps (the card is nearly full). Simply CANNOT figure out why these things aren't mainstream hits/continually developed. There's nothing remotely as competent AND relatively compact. Amazing beasts! Now...about a new $50 browser--count me IN!) Anyway,

The only thing that has me scratching my head is how to make the icons on my desktop both transparent AND white--for use with dark wallpapers. I am using DeSappear--and also am comfortable with the (even hex) reg and other tweaks--if I can figure out the right one(s). I've seen, on wallpaper forums, posts from people who apparently have managed this, but I can't figure it out.

Will any changes I make automatically be global (i.e. elsewhere, off the desktop itself?) I'd like the changes to apply ONLY on the desktop, with (mostly) run-of-the-mill Windows themes elsewhere.

Thanks for any answers; I'm sure they're probably easy solutions. (Why is it the simple stuff that always throws me...it's like after having assembled a Ferrari engine blindfolded, I can't figure out where the gas goes?!)


P.S. Off-point in my own post: Fave App=RemoteControllerII v 1.13Beta, now available at: http://www.wincesoft.de/index.html and with a snazzy version specifically for j720s. May need some tweaking, but that's half the fun! Control your whole home theater like a fancy (expensive) touchscreen system does. Fully compatible with Philips Pronto develpments. THIS is how I justified my j720--instead of a crippled, remote-control-only device, I got a fullly-fledged computer that does all that and so much more--and holds some 3,000 e-books, a few albums, and all my productivity stuff. Surfs the web (wel...) But, I digress! I just so love this thing, and all the cool, talented people that devote such time, love and attention to it, long after it was abandoned so precipitously by its evil parents (MS and HP). So, thank you all...
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Snappy! Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 8:39 AM
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Welcome to HPCFactor Wils!

If I am not wrong, the desktop text color is specific to only the desktop. The transparent effect basically make the desktop (its really just another window, albeit a special one!) not do a owner draw paint thingie. hmm ... not sure if it is to draw or not, but either way, that's the trick to have the text appear as transparent via the registry setting.

Other apps will follow the standard appearance settings you have.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 10:19 AM
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Willdao,

Welcome to the boards.

The trans icon names are enabled by using a Alpha channel layer, which unfortunatly itself is White (255,255,255) - they are normally (255,0,255 (RBG)) on mainstream Windows.
So the reason why you only get black icons is that Windows CE will automatically invert the colour of what it percieves to be the desktop background (white) beneath it. So the icon text appears the inverse - black.

We have a review of RemoteControllerII coming soon.
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sophisticatedleaf Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 12:41 PM
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Welcome to the forums. I ran into the same problem a while ago - and as C:Amie says, there isn't anything you can do about it. So I just went background shopping until I found one that goes with the black text nicely.

-Maybe we should restart that screenshot thread...
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Willdao
Willdao Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 5:28 PM
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Thanks, folks, for your explanations...now: how to stand 'em on end?

A few days ago, I found a site with a bunch of different WinCE-formatted wallpapers on it--along with screenshots--a few of which had to be from an HPC (680X240, the right apps on the desktop) and were night and/or dark scenes; these had white lettering. Wish I had bookmarked it, or had my history. Anyway, later that day, I started futzing around trying to duplicate the look.

Nada. I've also reseached the various Boards, looked for tweaking SW, etc. To no avail. Yet--I KNOW I saw it! And, the plethora of "dark" or high-contrast "fantastic" images out there would seem to indicate somebody's using these images...they'd be worthless with a black text limitation, right?

Oh well...man, I paused my browser on one for quite a while, and the text just POPPED in a great way...very dramatic (esp. as the 720 also is dark. The screenshot was full of midnight blues and charcoals, with an off-camera light source barely illuminating stuff from an angle. PErfectly matched the case.)

Thanks for your help! And, I'm happy to be on the boards; you'll see me around a bunch, I bet!. I love all the cool and so-varied things the HPC community does with its favorite go-anywhere toys...

Oh, and since you responded to this, I've tweaked the trial version of RemoteController II quite a bit--well, at least using the default buttons so far. I rather like the default scheme. It appears to be a nice app, but be prepared to tweak for quite a while to get things linked properly--rather like building a web page...Also, some of the placings on the grid from screen to screen in the default settings vary, and everything needs to be bunped around a pixel or two, it seems. No biggie. After I build the logic of the first one, I'll get more creative with creating my own tools in Photoshop. I haven't even plugged any IR codes in yet (must be manually inputed in the trial version), but I'll get around to it maybe this weekend. I'm anxious to see what kind of range vs. angle the 720 will offer. And, I'll let folks know. I'm sure there are others out there like me: my justification for the 720 was that it would be an upper-mid-range Pronto at a fraction of the cost--and so, so much more! (Can you put 3,000+ ebooks on a Pronto? Stream Shoutcast vibes in your favorite bookstore/coffeshop/winebar/wiFi hotspot with its squeaky wood floors, while surfing The Times on a lazy Sunday? Write fiction while sitting on the river? Toss it in your backpack for tunes on the mountain bike? Figure out the amortization of a loan? But, I digress. Preaching to the choir...sorry to get off topic. I just love the little beast. Pity the PPC peons..., n'est-ce pas?
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Snappy! Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 5:59 PM
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I just got an idea ... what if you used not &FFFFFF for your text color but say EEEEEE? Would that work?

EDIT: hehe ... I take that back! there do not seem to be any setting for desktop text font.

Edited by Snappy! 2005-02-12 6:06 PM
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willdao Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 6:01 PM
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I've had my catharsis for the day, so I'll keep this one short!

I found another link to some 680/720/NEC900 wallpaper screen shots--with white text-- here:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t115752-50.html

A ha! So I am NOT crazy. (Well...)

All were apparently done by the same guy, so maybe I can buttonhole 'im. I'll let you know...
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 6:06 PM
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Sorry, but you are crazy.

As it's a fake image
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willdao Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 6:24 PM
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Ooops! Somebody wasn't paying attention. I THOUGHT (obviously in the way-back of my crazy mind) the rez looked a little spectacular!


However--how'd they do it????
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Snappy! Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 6:28 PM
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C:Amie - 2005-02-12 4:06 PM

Sorry, but you are crazy.

As it's a fake image


C:Amie ... you are so cruel!

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Snappy! Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 6:34 PM
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willdao - 2005-02-12 4:01 PM

I've had my catharsis for the day, so I'll keep this one short!

I found another link to some 680/720/NEC900 wallpaper screen shots--with white text-- here:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t115752-50.html

A ha! So I am NOT crazy. (Well...)

All were apparently done by the same guy, so maybe I can buttonhole 'im. I'll let you know...


The backgrounds are really nice!

And no, don't listen to C:Amie ... you are not crazy. ... but if I were you, I might just use SQ launcher instead. It supports jpg as background image, so you don't have huge bmp files and yet still have nice high quality images to boot!
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 7:22 PM
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Yea SQ is the only answer really, the CE shell isn't supporting what you want.

How do I know that's fake... it's a screen cap taken from some code I have / wrote to allow for dynamic preview of the wallpapers in the HPC:Factor themes section.
The alpha-channel image had / has white text (incorrectly).

I also made the wallpaper, it's of the Japanese group 'Move'.
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willdao Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 8:10 PM
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Now I know I'm crazy. Schizophrenic, actually. I'm caught between the two of yourself!
(Do ya know King Crimson's "Three of a Perfect Pair?" Kinda like you and me, apparently!)

Know what I've been doing? Surfing that thread and actually reading it , registering to the forum, blistering through the icons and wallpapers section, and finally trying to find your (other, old, discarded persona from way back) screen name in the members list. Ya know? I REALLY shouldalistened to you before running off in search of flaky" others"...

(Aha! but there MUST be others, as I saw different examples the other day! Oh. Well. NOW, I get it. I'm a little slow; still reeling after that double whammy. So: Just how many damned ARE there of you in this close-knit little group of yours?) <grin>

Thanks for the advice. Hard won is always the best.

And, this is just TOO funny, to boot! ("Whatta the odds, Batman?" ) This is one of the more interesting things that's happened to me recently, and I've had a few intriguing moments. "I run a site dedicated to the Handheld PC class PDA device....it's like a PDA with a keyboard...Check it out." Man,. the kiddies didn't even know whatwas hitting them as they were being pummeled on at least three levels. Tertiary killed the cat, and all that. Karma. They'll pay for it another life, the gobs. Speaking of which,

Gotta go kick the cat,



I'll be back.

May you, too, live in interesting times, and all that... ;>[0
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Snappy! Page Icon Posted 2005-02-12 11:25 PM
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willdao - 2005-02-12 6:10 PM

Now I know I'm crazy. Schizophrenic, actually. I'm caught between the two of yourself!


ok ... can't argue with that one!
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vjurkas Page Icon Posted 2005-02-13 2:09 AM
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