[General Topics] Menneisyys:
I’ve promised in my ThemeGenCE review & tutorial that I would quickly compare & evaluate the current theme editors so that you know which one to pick. My previous, direct comparison of the then-available theme editors is severely outdated (for example, FunnySnake’s developer’s homepage isn’t any more accessible and ThemeBuilder 2003 is no longer available, either) and doesn’t even address WM5+-specific issues. (Nevertheless, you’ll want to read at least the second, not-that-technical part of the previous article.)

Note that I’ve reviewed the latest version of all the apps.

First, Benoît Thonnart’s already-reviewed ThemeGenCE is, despite being free, is a VERY powerful product (as of the current, 2.5.0 version). It, unless you need to create Microsoft Smartphone (touchscreen-less phones) themes or absolutely need in-program paint / red eye removal tools, is, in my opinion, the best tool for theme management. Please head over to the review & tutorial for more info on using it.

Netwasp.net Limited’s ThemeMaker lineup is one of the most important tools. There’re several, differently priced editions of them; of them, TM X (current, tested version: 3.6.1) is the most powerful one. (See the capability list * the comparison of the four versions on their homepage.)

Its image editing capabilities, on the whole, are slightly better than those of the free ThemeGenCE. For example, the latter doesn’t allow for paining at all; the same stands for it not allowing red eye removals. Selections can’t be done either (Except for, of course, effects like radial blur / zoom, where, in ThemeGenCE, you are allowed to select the center).

However, ThemeGenCE does have some advantages over TM X. First, the price: in that, it’s absolutely unbeatable, particularly because TM X costs US$ 30. Second, you can freely set the JPEG saving quality; this way, you can control the size of the output. You can’t do the same with TM X: in there, you only have three pre-defined output formats: JPG, PNG and (256-color) PNG. Third, it has some other niceties TM X doesn’t offer; for example, you can freely set several parameters for some visual effects like hatching and patterns.

If you do need freehand painting in pictures (one of the biggest advantages of TM X), you’ll want to pre-edit your imported images with, say, the free GIMP (or any other desktop tool you already have – Photoshop etc.) If you do want this at all, that is: in my opinion, painting is very rarely used and if you do need it, you may want to go for an (even more) powerful, external paining / image editing tool. All in all, I don’t think painting (and red eye removal) itself warrants the high price when compared to the free and, in many respects, still superior ThemeGenCE.

Of course, should you want to create MS Smartphone themes, you’ll want to go for either TM X or its Smartphone-only, much less pricey (and, of course, much less capable: no image editing capabilities) sibling, TM SP.

Finally, the demo version of the TM X is absolutely useless: you can navigate the menus but are only allowed to do very simple tasks (importing images – where not even the parameters may be set - and creating TSK files from them). In this regard, the commercial alternatives are definitely better: VITO ThemeEditor has a full-working 14-days version (without(!) any demo watermarks on the output images); ThemeMaker McDeb puts a huge DEMO watermark in the Today image, but still allows for accessing all the functionalities. (Note that the trial version of TM X also watermarks the output.)

VITO ThemeEditor (current version: 1.11) is a cheap ($7), but really simple product. For example, it doesn’t support non-QVGA themes. It doesn’t have image editing capabilities either. What is more, when importing the image file, it doesn’t resize it (unlike all the alternatives). Color setting-wise, it only lets for setting the today text / lines, menu text and tap&hold dots color – in addition to the WM5+ BaseHue when creating WM5+ themes. All in all, it’s, while certainly very easy to use and cheap, can’t hold a candle to the even cheaper (free) ThemeGenCE. I don’t really recommend it unless you don’t want to learn how ThemeGenCE should be used. (VITO ThemeEditor is certainly easier to learn.)

Finally, ThemeMaker McDeb (current, tested version: 4.2.0 – note that it’s still denoted as 4.1.1 on their homepage) is another “also-run” product. While its price ($18.00) isn’t particularly high, it certainly lacks functionality otherwise existing in both TM X and ThemeGenCE. For example, it has almost absolutely no image editing capabilities (except for transparency setting, flipping and resizing when importing). It, on the other hand, has much wider color setting capabilities than VITO’s ThemeEditor. Not that this helped a lot: both TM X and ThemeGenCE have excellent color setting capabilities. All in all, I don’t recommend it: go for ThemeGenCE or, if you absolutely need the additional capabilities of it, TM X.

In addition, on desktop Windows machines using Large DPI fonts - for example, on (extra) high-resolution ((W)UXGA etc. on 15(.4)”, SXGA+ on 12” monitors etc. - , the GUI is messed up. And, of course, changing the DPI setting, at least under Windows XP, does require a reboot. That is, it’s better to forget it altogether if you use large fonts on your (compared to the resolution) small-screen notebook.

Verdict

You can’t go wrong with ThemeGenCE. Make sure you give it a try – it’s certainly worth it. Again, don’t forget to check out my review & tutorial. You may also want to check out TM X but, again, I don’t think you’ll want to prefer it to ThemeGenCE, unless you need its specific features like MS Smartphone support or painting / red-eye removal functionality.