[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] QQNoob:
NOTE: I'm probably not going to make any new versions of this. There are simply too many rom versions. Instead, I have provided complete instructions in this post on how to do this yourself. Check the DIY section.

This is a modification of the framework-res.apk that turns the green check marks into black ones. The green ones don't have enough contrast and are very hard to see with the phone held at a normal distance from your eyes, or in bright sunlight. I made a point not to change the aesthetics of the existing icons. I just wanted to make them darker.

I tested the new icons in a variety of apps, and every app I tested that used the old icons now shows the new ones. Some apps like Gmail use square, holo-style check marks and aren't affected by this mod. The check marks in the HTC settings are also not affected. I'm not sure where those icons are stored, or else I would change them, too. Those ones can be changed by picking a different HTC skin. The "Matte" skin, in particular, makes those check marks dark blue.

I have created different versions for different Sense-based roms here on XDA.

CleanROM 4.5

CleanROM 4.2 LE/SE

I have not tested the versions for Sick Sense or Xi40 r119, however, there's not much that could go wrong with them. I extracted the framework-res.apk from those roms, stuffed in the new PNGs, added them to my flashable mod structure, zipped them up, and signed them. Please let me know if you try them out. Make a nandroid backup first, though!

If you are currently running a theme that already modifies framework-res.apk for your rom then this mod will eliminate those changes. This is meant to be applied over the default theme of the specific versions above. If your rom gets updated then this may or may not work with the new version. These best way to check this is to compare the MD5 hash of the unaltered framework-res.apk from one of the above rom versions to the unaltered framework-res.apk from whatever new version has come out. If the checksums are the same then the rom maker hasn't updated framework-res.apk and you can freely overwrite it again with the Black Check Marks Mod.

Screenshots

Here's a set of 25% resolution before and after screenshots. This sort of simulates difficult viewing conditions, and shows how hard it can be to see the green check marks, and how much easier it is to see the black ones.

Here's a large screenshot from Windows showing the icons in detail:

I also edited the smaller "zzzhtc holo" version of the icons which are used by some apps. They aren't shown here, but are used by "reddit is fun" in the screenshot above.

Notes About Flashing

This is a flashable mod. I've only flashed it with TWRP 2.2.0, but it doesn't use Aroma or anything particularly unusual, so I don't see why you couldn't flash it with CWM. Obviously, you are flashing this at your own risk. Do a nandroid backup first!

Undo

If you want the ability to easily undo this mod, then just backup your current /system/framework/framework-res.apk. If you forget, you can always extract it again from the rom itself without having to reflash the whole rom. Or, just restore the nandroid backup you obviously made before applying this!

Source Graphics

I have included a zip file containing the source graphics. This will let you modify the icons further to make your own, or to add these icons to a different version of framework-res.apk. This includes the PSD files I created to make the icons. The PSD files use adjustment layers with masks. It would be quite easy to make versions that were some dark color instead of black by only changing the adjustment layers.. All the icons for a given size are in one file in layers. (Two PSD files total.)

DIY!

There are simply too many roms and rom versions for me to keep up with them all, so from now on, I'm not going to provide any new versions. I might provide versions for the ROMs I use, but starting with 2.23.707.2 the size of framework-res.apk is 18MB. Even when zipped it's still 12MB and too big to attach here on XDA. So, you can make your own mods from now on. It's super easy! There are a lot of steps here because I want to explain it in enough detail so everyone can do it. This whole process takes under two minutes once you know what you're doing.

Things you will need

A Windows PC.

7-Zip

Java (to sign the zip file at the end.)

The attached template file, "BlackCheckMarksMod_Custom.zip", which contains the source PNGs, the updater-script, and testsign.jar.

Step by step instructions

1. Extract framework-res.apk

You need a copy of framework-res.apk from your rom. Most of the time you can simply open the rom zip file in 7-Zip, navigate to /system/framework and drag the file from there to your desktop. Some rom makers use an Aroma installer with multiple versions of framework-res.apk and none of them are in /system/framework until after you install the rom. You can either find the right file somewhere inside the rom first, or wait until you install the rom then extract it from your phone. The second idea is the most foolproof. You just need a file explorer on your phone capable of navigating to your /system/framework folder, and you copy framework-res.apk from there to /sdcard. Then mount the SD card on your PC and copy the file to your desktop.

2. Copy framework-res.apk into the template

Download and unzip the template zip file, "BlackCheckMarksMod_Custom.zip". (When unzipping there is no need to unzip it into a containing folder because the root of the zip file only contains one folder.) This contains everything you need to make a flashable zip. Inside you will find the following structure:

(Directories in bold)

BlackCheckMarks_Custom

____BlackCheckMarksMod

________META-INF (contents not shown)

________system

____________framework

________sign.bat

________testsign.jar

____PNG files

________A bunch of check mark icons

Copy your framework-res.apk into BlackCheckMarks_Custom\BlackCheckMarksMod\system\framework. At this point, this is still the unaltered version from your rom.

3. Replace the stock check marks

There are two ways to open the APK with 7-Zip.

The easiest way to do it -- but hardest to demonstrate because of differences in versions of Windows and their various dialog boxes -- is to simply associate the .apk extension with 7-Zip. This involves using the Open With... command from the right-click menu on the APK file, or just double clicking it then selecting 7-Zip as the app to use for APK files.

The second way to do it is to launch the 7-Zip File Manager and then navigate to the APK. This is the process I will show here.

In your Start menu, locate and open 7-Zip File Manager.

When it opens, navigate to the folder where you placed the APK: BlackCheckMarks_Custom\BlackCheckMarksMod\system\framework

Alternatively, you can just paste in the path that you copy from the Explorer window.

It should now look something like this:

Now, double click on framework-res.apk. You will see a file listing from inside the APK.

Double click on the "res" folder and you should see more folders.

Double click on the "drawable-xhdpi" folder and stop there.

You should now see a bunch of icons. Now we need to copy our custom icons over the ones inside this folder.

In Windows Explorer, go back up to the root of the "BlackCheckMarks_Custom" folder and you should see a "PNG files" folder.

Open the "PNG files" folder.

Make sure you can see both the 7-Zip window and this Windows Explorer window.

In Windows, Press Ctrl-A to select all the files in the "PNG files" folder, or just select them all manually.

Drag and drop the PNG files into the 7-Zip window.

7-Zip will confirm that you want to add these files to the zip. (It doesn't always come to the front, so you may have to click on 7-Zip to see the prompt.)

Click "Yes" to confirm adding the files.

After a split second it should be complete and you can now close the 7-Zip window.

4. Make the mod zip file

You are ready to make the flashable zip file.

In Windows, navigate to the BlackCheckMarks_Custom\BlackCheckMarksMod folder.

Select just the META-INF folder and the system folder. (If you don't know, to select both you click on one then hold down Ctrl and click the other.)

When they are both selected, right click one of them and choose 7-Zip > Add to "BlackCheckMarksMod.zip" (See screenshot)

After a few seconds you should have a BlackCheckMarksMod.zip in the BlackCheckMarksMod folder. (See screenshot)

5. Make sure the batch file can find Java

You may or may not have the Java binary path in your PATH environment variable. If you don't know what this means, it doesn't matter. I will tell you how to find out, and what to do in either case.

How to find out if Java is in your PATH:

Press WindowsKey-R, or chose Start>Run... from the Start Menu.

Type in cmd and press enter. This will open a command line.

In the command window, type in java and press Enter.

You will see one of two things. See the screenshots below.

This output means Java IS in your PATH variable:

This output means Java is NOT in your PATH variable:

If Java is NOT in your path variable then you need to edit the batch file in step 6. Otherwise, proceed to Step 7.

6. Edit the batch file only if Java was not in your PATH in step 5

We need to edit the batch file so that it points directly at your copy of java.exe which is probably in your Program Files folder. (Or perhaps your Program Files (x86) folder if you are on a 64-bit machine.

The likely places to find java.exe are:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_22\bin\java.exe

C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_22\bin\java.exe

Perhaps you will have a slightly different version number, or maybe you installed Java in some other location. To modify the batch file:

Go to the BlackCheckMarks_Custom\BlackCheckMarksMod folder

Right click on Sign.bat and choose Edit. This should open the file in Notepad.

In Notepad, replace the first word, java, with the full path to your java.exe. It should look like one of the two paths above.

You must surround the whole path to java in double quotes! See the example of the whole batch file below:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_22\bin\java.exe" -classpath testsign.jar testsign BlackCheckMarksMod.zip BlackCheckMarksMod-signed.zip
pause

Once you've edited the file, save it and close Notepad.

6. Sign the zip file

Now that you've made sure the batch file is OK, you just double-click it. This will run testsign.jar on the zip file you made. The command window that opens will pause to let you see any errors that occur. You will have to close it manually when it finishes.

If it worked, you won't see much:

If all went well you should now see BlackCheckMarksMod-signed.zip in your folder.

You are done! Stick this file on your phone, do a nandroid backup, then flash this zip and see if it works!

MD5s

CleanROM 4.2: 445d07b8112bce8a090d43940951ae9b

CleanROM 4.5: 993c96203d895d97c02e66a69ec39080