How to create a PS3 XMB theme

• Compiling a Theme
• Installing a Theme
• Customizing a Theme

To create a XMB theme for your PlayStation 3, you will need the XMB Theme Creator program. Unzip the contents of the zip package to your hard drive and you are ready to begin. A sample theme can be found in folder "/sample/01". You can compile this into a theme using the below instructions.

Compiling a Theme

1. Open Command Prompt and go to the folder where p3tcompiler.exe resides. To open command prompt, go to Start > Run and enter "cmd".
2. Once at the directory, enter
   p3tcompiler sample/01/sample.xml
   and press enter to compile the theme.
3. Once the theme is created, the "sample/01" folder will contain several new files. Copy the "sample.p3t" file to a memory card or external hard drive. The theme must be put in the "PS3/THEME" directory of the memory card or hard drive.

Installing a Theme

1. On the PlayStation 3, go to [Settings] > [Theme Settings] > [Theme] and select Install.
2. Select the device and then select the theme you wish to install.
3. You can set, delete or view information about the theme by clicking on the installed theme from the same menu.

Customizing a Theme

Creating your own theme requires several hours of work depending on how much you wish to customize the theme. The easiest way to customize a theme is by modifying the images in the "sample/01" directory. The "sample.xml" file can be modified to change the theme name, font, theme colour and icon names. See the below example on how to modify the XML file.

<infotable>
	<info
		name="theme name"
		icon="icon.png"
		url="author website"
		author="author name"
		authoricon="authoricon.png"
		genre="genre information"
		version="version information"
		comment="comment on theme"
		preview="preview.png"
	/>
	<localizedinfo
		locale="en"
		name="theme name"
	/>
	<localizedinfo
		locale="jp"
		name="theme name"
		comment="comment on theme"
	/>
</infotable>

<font selection="font number {1, 2 or 3}" />

<color selection="color number {1 to 12}" />
    

You should only change the information shown in green. The icons should not be modified unless you have modified the file names of the images. Also, the locale should not be changes. This information is used to display the theme name in different regions, namely English and Japanese, which is denoted by "en" and "jp" respectively.

The remainder of the XML file should also not be modified unless the icon file names have been modified. The easiest way to modify a theme is to edit the images and the "<infotable>" part of the XML file only. Once you have modified icons and/or the XML file, you must recompile the theme file.