Editing iPhone artwork files

From ModMyiFone - Wiki

This tutorial will teach you how to open up the .artwork files in the iPhone, using iPhoneShop 0.4.

It will help you do things like change the keyboard image to a new one, like this:

While I am doing this in OS X, the process is pretty much the same in Windows - you just open the command line (Start>Run>cmd) instead of the Terminal.

Lets get started.

You will need:

> An .artwork file from the iPhone. In this example I will be using the Keyboard-StandardQWERTY.artwork file, which controls the iPhone's general keyboard.
> iPhoneShop 0.4 or greater. (Mirror from their site)

Step 1

In this tutorial, I will be putting everything in a folder called artwork, which I will store on my Desktop. I recommend you do the same, unless you are decent enough at command line stuff to know where to change paths, etc. So put your .artwork file and the iPhoneShop-0.4.jar file in that folder. Also, create a blank folder in there called pngs. This is where the images from within your .artwork file will wind up.

Step 2

Open up Terminal (Applications>Utilities>Terminal), or if you are in Windows, open up the command line (Start>Run>cmd), and type:

  cd ~/Desktop/artwork

and hit return.

(Windows users should go to a directory called \Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop, then enter "md artwork", "cd artwork" This will make a directory on your Desktop called "artwork" and change your prompt into the directory)

If you have multiple users on your computer, type:

  cd /Users/Your_User_Name/Desktop/artwork

and then return.

Step 3

Next, type:

  java -jar iPhoneShop-0.4.jar ARTWORK file-you-are-opening.artwork export ./pngs/

and hit return. Since I am wanting to open Keyboard-StandardQWERTY.artwork in this tutorial, I replace file-you-are-opening.artwork with that.

(Windows users: "md pngs" - This will create a directory called "pngs" - Also you shouldn't need the "./" or "/" in the above command, just use "pngs")

• if you are using a windows machine, you need to create the pngs directory in the artwork folder, before running this command.

Step 4

You may get a couple errors at the front, no worries, then you should see a bunch of lines pass by, each one is an image being pulled from the .artwork file. At the end you will be back to the command prompt.

Step 5

Now you can see all your images stored in the pngs folder we created (Desktop/artwork/pngs).

Now you may edit away, but remember a couple things:

>Transparent images must remain transparent. In Adobe Photoshop please add one black layer and set fill to 1 or 0%
>File dimensions must not be changed!

Step 6

Now, to recompile into an .artwork file again, lets go back to Terminal or the command line, and make sure we're back in the artwork folder by again typing:

  cd ~/Desktop/artwork

and hit return. Remember, if you are using a Mac with multiple users, type:

  cd /Users/your_user_name_here/Desktop/artwork

and hit return.

(Windows users: see the comments in Steps 2 and 3, you should understand this by now)

Step 7

Now type:

  java -jar iPhoneShop-0.4.jar ARTWORK file-you-want-to-create.artwork import ./pngs/

and hit return. I am creating KeyboardGeneralQWERTY.artwork in this tutorial, so I will replace file-you-want-to-create.artwork with that.

This line is telling your computer to use iPhoneShop, a Java (.jar) file to import all the .png's from the folder called pngs and create an .artwork file called KeyboardGeneralQWERTY.artwork.

Step 8

You will again see a bunch of lines going by as it processes each .png file, and will end with a message telling you where the new file is stored (in your /Desktop/artwork/pngs folder).

There it is! You can now upload it back to your iPhone to replace the original. Of course, make sure you keep a backup of your original somewhere, in case you want to go back to it.