Hello, All,
I’m not a developer and I’m just a beginner in WFS, and need some help. I have created my first test watch face (analog), successfully added a Steps complication, and successfully used Run on Device to test it. Now I’d like to figure out three things:
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How to allow users of my watch face to select different options for complications and complication colors.
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When using Run on Device, should I expect complications, and complication choices and colors to work on my watch?
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When I finish my watch face (which is for my own personal use), do I use Run on Device to download it to my watch as a “permanent” watch face?
I have tried looking up these topics in this forum, but have found them to either be difficult to find altogether, for older versions of the software, or difficult to understand for a non-developer/WFS newbie.
Any help or advice is much appreciated!
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Changing the colour of things is a big Subject . you can Tap and hold a face e then go to customisation . Colours of elements can be changed by the preset STYLES there . Basicaly you can have any element one of three colours but in many combinations .
Look up STYLE in the documents or in the Community . If you get really stuck we can show you some tests to play with .
Well done getting Faces on your Watch . Yes that is your permanent version of your Face . As long as you have the File on your Drive . So remember to back up your work .
Aldo you will see that you can make an Image layer into a Tap area . You can set the action to swap the image to one of several . You can also do this trick with animations .
If you do not get any of this we can make you a test . ENJOY .
Thank you for answering! Color customization sounds complicated, so I’ll work on more useful (to me) things now and get back to it later.
I find that once a watch face has been sent to my watch, when I go to watch faces on my phone it does not bring up the customize button. I’m guessing that may be because I didn’t create the face with any customization options??
You mentioned backing up the faces I download to my watch. I’m not sure what I need to do to accomplish that. Where are my custom faces stored? Are they on my phone (FYI, it’s a Galaxy S23 Ultra)? Currently, under Settings > Accounts and backup, I have the Save backup to Samsung account storage turned off. I did that because I assumed “Samsung account storage” was one of those cloud storage spaces that are initially free, but as soon as they fill up to a certain point, they want to charge you for the space. Is this the backup you were referring to?
You’re so kind to answer my newbie questions, but I’ll totally understand if you don’t have time to answer any more questions.
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Oh . I am so sorry to reply so late . So the Faces you create on WFS are stored on your Laptop . Along with your Keystore folder . You must look after that . YOu might need it one day . All I was saying is that it is a good Idea to have a backup of these files somewhere off the PC . Like anything else that is important to you . Yes there is a lot to learn . I will post a test for you to look at . You will delete the .ZIP part of the file name then you have something that will open automatically in WFS . Remembering to move it to the place where your other .wfs files are kept .
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You will see at the bottom of the space two images you can tap on thos to change them . Put it on your watch and see there how the Style is selected . Have a little play you can not break it . As long as you keep an original copy . But even then you can come back here and get it again . Forever . 
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Colors_Selection_RC.wfs.ZIP (2.2 MB)
Hey smolnar18,
You can follow this blog to learn about how to implement theme colors and let the user customize it.
Watch Face Studio: Theme Color Implementation Basics | Samsung Developer
There is another code lab I could find on how to let the users customize and choose from different styles.
Customize styles of a watch face with Watch Face Studio | Samsung Developer
Regrads,
Imrul
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Thank you for sending the file! I downloaded it and took a quick look but, as I said, I think first I’ll work on design elements (icons, complications, hands, etc.) and how to make them work on my watch.
I am good on backups, as I use BackBlaze to backup my PC and all my connected external drives, but thanks for the reminder!
I have a version of my test watch face that I’ve downloaded to my watch. It is very simple (3 complications, custom hands, and a face I already use as a photo watch face). HOWEVER, I have lots of questions about the differences between how the face looks in WFS versus how it actually looks on my watch. Can I ask you my questions? Just ignore if I’m being a pest!
I’ve attached a zip of my WFS project, if that will help you understand my questions.
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I created custom icons (png files) for Heart Rate, Battery, and Voice Recorder.
a) HR and Battery show up as designed on the WFS design panel and show up white in the run panel. On my watch, HR shows up as a red heart, but Battery shows up white. I read in some posts here that complication icon appearance is a function of the watch and whatever complication system it is using. OK, I get that concept, but I see lots of watch faces with custom complication icons. How do I get my watch to use the ones I design?
b) I made the voice recorder an editable complication with all Supported Types checked and Default Provider empty. That allows me to choose from among many complications offered on my watch. I chose Voice Recorder when customizing the face on my watch, but the icon for that was also white. Same question as above - how can I get it to use my custom designed icon (and why are some white while others use some default like the red heart)?
c) For the Voice Recorder, I did not include any text for it in WFS (since it is editable), but by default on my watch, there is white text “voice recorder.” How can I make it have no text on the watch?
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I have a feeling I’ve done many things wrong or the hard way.
a) For instance, I had a heck of a time centering my custom watch hands.
b) It seems to me that some things are “off kilter,” such as the date text at the bottom.
c) Any tips, hints, advice on how to do things properly would be much appreciated!
d) Keep in mind that the faces I make are for my own use only, and I can only use the WFS UI for my creations. I am not wanting to learn any code solutions!
I am sure I will continue to have questions as I work in WFS. And, believe me, I do try to find answers in the forum or in the instructions provided on the WFS site, but often the instructions are beyond my current level of understanding of the software. Anytime you’ve reached your limit in terms of answering my questions, I’ll totally get it and I thank you for the help you’ve given so far.
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Hmmm, how do I attach my WFS project file here?
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Append .zip to the filename (I think).
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I just type .ZIP to the end of the file name . Others put it in a zipped folder . I prefer to see the name . The paste it here Click the Drive with the up Arrow to Attach something . I look forward to seeing your work . The complication rules changed recently so Title and Text are confused with many . I use the things Hidden . Wit voice recorder for example there is nothing to display permanently . Just put you Image in for an Icon and that is your Tap Pad as I showe dto run the app on your watch. When I see or work we can work on one thing at a time .
I zipped up the file, but the zip file is 24mb and when I try to attach it, it says files cannot exceed 8mb. Not sure why my file is 24mb and yours was only 2 something. Is there a way to reduce its size enough to attach it here?
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If it’s that big, it’s probably because you have larger-than-necessary images or animations in your project. Ideally, such resources should be scaled down to the size they’d appear on a 450x450 pixel display, before being added to the project. So, for example, if you’ve got an image that should fill half of the display, scale it down to 225x225 pixels first.
Tip: don’t overwrite your original images, etc!
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Yes . Heavy Graphics can be a problem . If you open and save a Face to the sam location twice that strips out the Working files you may notice it reduced . There is a Memory usage plugin to test the memory size during the Making of the face . up in the top right corner of the IDE there is a n Icon like an Integrated Circuit . Click on that and download the memory tester .
Okay, I duplicated my project, reduced the size of the image I used for the face background, saved it, then appended .zip to the end of the filename. Let’s see if I can send it to you now. 
Analog_Icons_Sized_SM.wfs.zip (3.6 MB)
Yeaa! It uploaded! Hopefully, you can download it.
Doing this raised another question. I had changed the location of the WFS project files to a more convenient place for me. However, when I duplicated my project to swap out the face background, then tried to save it, it wouldn’t let me. However, I CAN open the project files I put in that new location and save changes, which save to that new location just fine. Not sure why??
Looking forward to any answers or advice from you, russellcresser, or anybody else who wishes to chime in. Thanks again!!
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I don’t use WFS much any more, but I have had some experience with complications (both creating in an app and displaying in a watchface). Complication services can provide their own icons. If you use WFS’s complication icon, you’ll get the icon provided by the complication service. You can resize it and (if you’re lucky) tint it, but that’s all.
If you want your own icon instead, you’ll have to NOT display the complication’s own icon (which is easy enough), and display your own icon as an image in WFS. Your icon isn’t structurally a part of the complication, but you may be able to position it so that it looks like it is. A risk of this approach is that it won’t make sense if the user selects some other complication for that slot. You may want to try to restrict the complication slot from being user-selectable.
I don’t think I explained this very well…
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Thanks, Gondwana,
Can you explain how to NOT display the complication’s own icon and instead display my own? I’ve tried, but I must be missing some important information on what to select, etc., because so far it won’t use the icons I made.
I’m not worried about it not making sense, since I’m making watch faces just for my own use.
This forum is great - thanks for your help!!
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Re not displaying a complication’s own icon, this might help. Basically, delete any layout that contains an icon by clicking X in top right of layout.
To display your own icon, use ‘Add component’, ‘Image’ which I’m sure you’ve already met. To start with, I wouldn’t bother positioning this correctly; that can happen later.
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@smolnar18 Here is your Zip Back . You do not need to use a Customisable complication to show Battery and Pulse . I have included an example of using an image as a custom Complication . I always Make , Chose or Modify Hands so that the Pivot point is in the Centre of the image . Your offsetting was jolly well done . Bit if you change the image size a little you have to go through the whole process again . If you post your minute hand I will fix it for you .I just used one I had hanging about . Have a good look through my MODS and get back if you are not sure . That Face looks Lovely . I think it might look nice with a Vinette .
It is in the white space below .
Analog_Icons_-Sized_SM - Copy_RC.wfs.ZIP (1.2 MB)
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Oh, my! Everything you did worked perfectly (of course)! I substituted my own images and pushed your edited face to my watch. All 3 of my custom icons are there and the tap works for all of them.
I see that I was making it way more complicated than it needed to be! Thank you so much for your excellent help!
I’ve attached my minute hand, as you suggested.
I do realize there’s a whole lot more to learn, but this is a great head start. Naturally, I have some more questions but, as always, please feel free to ignore if I’m being a pest!
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I don’t understand what I’m seeing with the sizing and placement of the background image for my face. I create my image at 450x450, yet when I bring it in, it doesn’t seem perfectly centered over the black circle and I end up having to nudge it around or drag the size handles to completely cover the black. The result is the placement being at -2 x -2 and the dimensions being 457 x 453. I assume I’m doing something wrong.
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I don’t understand the whole AOD issue. At first, I tried going to the AOD tab and reducing the opacity of my background image, but when I returned to the regular tab, the opacity was reduced there, too. Finally, I made a separate image for AOD, then made it Hidden. That seems to work in terms of being able to pass the analyzation so I can send it to my watch, but once on my watch, if I turn on AOD, it’s a totally black background with hands and complications. What is the correct way to manage AOD in WFS?
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I see that you used Actions with Tap/Open App/Custom for each icon. I had not used Actions, but Tap still worked on my watch. Can you explain why you used Actions for that? Does that have anything to do with why my custom icons appear on my watch instead of the default icons?
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In that Actions section, is the Interactions field just a free-form label field for your own info? I.e., am I right in assuming you can type anything you want there with no impact?
Haha, that should be more than enough questions for now. I so appreciate your training sessions!!
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You are not being a pes . But one might be doing other stuff. Never feel you are being ignored . I must read though your questions again .
One trick for passing the AOD test . Cover the whole face with a black square that is switched on by AOD adjust the opacity down till you face passes then take it another 2 down .
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Use these to centre an image .
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