590 themes

[Imskier2]

On the old forum and I don't remember who someone posted some info on how to change the colors on the 590 screen. I did it and liked the theme I made, but I recently had to return my 590 to Garmin for repairs. I will be receiving a refurbished unit soon and would like to redo the theme on it. The member was a regular but I don't remember his screen name so I don't know if he's on here yet. With the info he provided I was able to make the colors darker and thicken the purple route line. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

[alan sh]

I think my mate Malcolm had a hand in that. He’s not on this forum but I will ask him to join and see if he can help.

Alan

[mzeist]

It wasn't me, but this might help anyway:

Check here for info: http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/post ... RUM_ID=172
and here for a tool: http://www.javawa.nl/zumocolors.html
and here for another tool: https://www.pinns.co.uk/osm/theme_maker.html

I'm sure there is more info, for example google for "garmin map themes"

[Steve W]

Guilty, I originated that post. The online tools are still available as mentioned above. It's a good idea to keep a copy of any theme you build, renamed is best. Just a note. The gentleman who originated and maintained the software on the javawa site had a stroke and is no longer able to maintain his software. Might be a good idea to archive anything you need.

[Imskier2]

Thanks to all, as soon as I get my refurb unit I'll play around.

[patrickg450]

Man I am playing with mine now. The many many colors makes this unit almost a brick. Does someone have some files that wanna share? I have one I am playing with.

Why does the City change color? Out on the county the background goes to a much lighter color. any ideas?

[Moose]

try this rename the kmtf to original.ftmk so you could just rename to what it was originally incase you want it back once you load the new file in then reboot garmin and select moose kmtf and it will change your colors


change the file extension on moose.jpg to moose.kmtf trying to attach file pm me and I'll send it to you seems that I can't attach it here it wount take a kmtf file extension

[patrickg450]

so I have successfully made a few changes, the original colors are brutal. Now they are better, I still think it could be better but I have not been able to make a better improvement than the current.

you can email me

patrickg450@yahoo.com

[paulk]

I deleted all the themes that came installed with my 590. My unit is mounted quite high with 2 ram mount extensions. Then I tilt it a bit downward so it doesn't reflect back directly to my eyes. I also build a homemade sun shade. Even with these changes, there isn't a single Garmin theme that can be seen easily. The use of light colors leaves no contrast so the screen is washed out in sunlight. I experimented with various colors and created a number of different themes. I find the easiest to see are what I call a dark yellow, and a dark blue. I also thickened some roads and experimented with colors. I have attempted to attach them all as a single ZIP file. They can be opened as simple TXT files to see whats in them. I do have a naming convention that gives a hint at the changes so I know what to look for when I loaded them. For example the file: Blu-Blu-IY-RO.kmtf: Blue for urban areas, Blue for non urban land, Interstates yellow, roads orange. In this file I also altered the active rout to Red. I ended up only using one or two files Blue-Blue.kmtf or Yellow-yellow.kmtf. I also noticed that what Garmin considers urban or other land varies in different regions. For example it's different in Ontario where I live, than in the USA.

Ktmf files.zip

(10.83 KiB) Downloaded 689 times

[Steve W]

I modified one to be closer to the look of older auto club maps and the original MapSource colours. Only reason was familiarity, I knew what the colour meant. This is the one I had originally used for the example in the thread on the old site. I still use it.

Personal.kmtf.zip

(1.89 KiB) Downloaded 739 times