[Android Themes] m1keyb:
Those use the btn_default images in framework-res/drawable-hdpi or xhdpi. There are sets of buttons for each of the themes e.g

btn_default_normal.9

btn_default_normal_holo.9

btn_default_normal_holo_dark.9

btn_default_normal_holo_light.9

The best thing to do when you're starting off theming (imo) is edit those images by putting a coloured edge round them

Do that and use your phone as normal, you'll get an understanding of what's being used where and the themes being used.

Depending on what you're doing with the images you may need to change the text color as well...

If you have a look at framework styles you'll see these

<style name="Widget.Button" parent="@style/Widget">
<item name="textAppearance">?textAppearanceSmallInverse</item>
<item name="textColor">@color/primary_text_light</item>
<item name="gravity">center</item>
<item name="background">@drawable/btn_default</item>
<item name="focusable">true</item>
<item name="clickable">true</item>
</style>

<style name="Widget.Holo.Button" parent="@style/Widget.Button">
<item name="textAppearance">?textAppearanceMedium</item>
<item name="textColor">@color/primary_text_holo_dark</item>
<item name="background">@drawable/btn_default_holo_dark</item>
<item name="minWidth">64.0dip</item>
<item name="minHeight">48.0dip</item>
</style>

<style name="Widget.Holo.Light.Button" parent="@style/Widget.Button">
<item name="textAppearance">?textAppearanceMediumInverse</item>
<item name="textColor">@color/primary_text_holo_light</item>
<item name="background">@drawable/btn_default_holo_light</item>
<item name="minWidth">64.0dip</item>
<item name="minHeight">48.0dip</item>
</style>

Looking at Widget.Holo.Button you can see it uses '@color/primary_text_holo_dark' so looking at that

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:state_enabled="false" android:color="@color/bright_foreground_disabled_holo_dark" />
<item android:state_window_focused="false" android:color="@color/bright_foreground_holo_dark" />
<item android:state_pressed="true" android:color="@color/bright_foreground_holo_dark" />
<item android:state_selected="true" android:color="@color/bright_foreground_holo_dark" />
<item android:color="@color/bright_foreground_holo_dark" android:state_activated="true" />
<item android:color="@color/bright_foreground_holo_dark" />
</selector>

You can see the colors being used for the different states of the button. If you created a duplicate of 'primary_text_holo_dark.xml' and say renamed it to 'my_primary_text.xml' you could use that instead and link to your own colors inside it. That way you've created colors to be used by the buttons and nothing else will use those colors unless you decide so, the changes you've made won't affect anything else. Or you could just direct to one of the other existing xmls.

---------- Post added at 09:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:18 PM ----------

Have a look at values/dimens.xml and the 'preference_...' dimensions

---------- Post added at 09:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:22 PM ----------

This is a good place to start http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=964391