[G1 Themes and Wallpapers] SolemnWishing:
After seeing various wallpapers with docks on G1's, I noticed how good they looked and how they made the phone simply seem more comfortable and nice. Since then, I have been looking for ways to add a dock to my own wallpapers, but I never knew how. After lots of experimenting, I have finally found out a way to add docks in a very simple way that would only take a few minutes. You will need the a program called GIMP, an advanced image editing program very close to Photoshop, except its free! An example is at the bottom of this post.

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Download it here:http://www.gimp.org

I recommend that you have your G1 on hand and your wallpaper already in 640 x 480 format.

1. Open up GIMP, and drag and drop your picture into the GIMP window, it should now open up.

2. Click on the Rectangle Select Tool, in the top left corner of the toolbar.

3. Select a region about half an inch above the bottom of the picture that touches the left and right sides of the picture. It should look like a rectangle spanning the full length of your picture, make the rectangle about one inch thick. (This is assuming your picture is in 640 x 480 / VGA format) This rectangle will be where your dock will be.

4. On the toolbar, select the Blend tool, it looks like a square with the color black fading into white. Set Mode to Normal, Opacity to 20, Gradient to

Flare Sizefac 101, Offset to 10, Shape to Linear, Repeat to None, and check Dithering.

(NOTE: READ GUIDE PART 2 FOR EVEN MORE GRADIENTS, IT IS 2 POSTS DOWN.)

You are now ready to create your dock!

5. Using your hand, hold down the Ctr button on your keyboard (This will enable angle correction) and click near the bottom of the inside of the rectangle and draw the line to the top of the rectangle, try to stay inside the rectangle. Repeat this a few times until you have reached a dock with the gradient that you would like. If you are to mess up at all, GIMP has a history window which you can revert ANY actions you do. Alternatively, you can use Edit> Undo (action).

6. Hit Select in the window with your wallpaper and hit None. This will remove the rectangle, leaving only your gradient dock.

7. Hit File>Save, and save the wallpaper. Check the file extension to make sure the image is being saved in .jpg format, not .xcf. If it is in .xcf, simple erase that and change it to .jpg, you will receive a dialogue box asking to confirm your choice, hit Export. You will now have a final window with additional save options. Move the quality slider all the way to 100, and hit save to save the wallpaper.

8. Finally, transfer the wallpaper to your G1 and apply it. NOTE: Due to the G1's wallpaper compression, it is extremely likely that once the wallpaper has been applied, the wallpaper will have very poor quality. This is because the image was exported in 100% quality, and now Android is trying to compress it. In order to get around this, go to the Market and download and application called Wallpaper Set and Save. Using this program, re-apply your wallpaper. With that, it allows your wallpaper to not have to go under data compression, allowing very good image quality.

- Note, if the Dock doesn't seem to be in the right place, it is because you applied the gradient in the wrong place. Simply see where the icons are on your G1 and recreate your dock in the right location.

Tried this out? Questions? Wanna show off your wallpaper or something new you have discovered? Please, post! Sticky please?

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Guide Version 1.3.5

Recent Updates:

-Added guide part 2! Look 2 posts down.

-Added Screenshots for step by step help

-Added Before and After