Templates and Tips?

[smolnar18]

Hi, All,
I am not a developer and recently began learning WFS to design watch faces just for myself (not for sale). I’ve gotten some awesome help on this forum as I stumbled through the process (special thanks to russellcresser, Peter, Gondwana).

My question is this. Is there a subcategory where non-developer folks like me, who are learning, can post helpful tips they’ve learned and also post template watch faces that they have created and verified to work on their watches?

[imrulanwar836]

Hi smolnar18,

I couldn’t find a subcategory. But I found a few posts. Here is one of them. Hope this would help.
Useful tags, tips, tricks etc. cheatsheet - Watch Face Studio - Samsung Developer Forums

Or you can search manually:
Search results for ‘tips #watch-face-studio’ - Samsung Developer Forums

[russellcresser]

Good Idea @smolnar18 Perhaps that is a Good topic for a WiKi . I am not sure if we can make them . May be at the top it could have a Glossary . A list of Downloadable examples would be wonderful .

[Gondwana]

I think this is an outstanding idea, and I agree with some of the concerns that this forum may not be ideally suited to holding reference information.

The ‘normal’ place to host public domain templates would be github, although github isn’t ideally suited to binary files such as .wfs.

A Google Drive or equivalent could be used. Permissions would need some thought so that the files would be accessible to all while avoiding vandalism. Someone may need to act as gatekeeper. Google Drive could also host tips in .docx or .md documents.

There’s also this. I don’t think it’s got any WFS-specific stuff so far but, technically speaking, WFS falls within its ambit. Someone could contact the maintainer and discuss.

[imrulanwar836]

Also smolnar18,
If you are learning I hope these tutorials would be helpful.
Code Lab | Samsung Developers
Blog | Samsung Developer

[smolnar18]

Thanks, Gondwana, I appreciate the ideas. I don’t want to get into a situation where I’m having to monitor/manage content, etc., and I want it to just share what works for me and anyone else who is using WFS on a less technical level.

[smolnar18]

Thank you, imrulanwar836. I did do that search and had read that one, but found it to be on topics I am not needing at my early stage (date + 1 to account for leap year?? - doesn’t our watch/phone account for leap year?). Thanks for the ideas, though!

[smolnar18]

Well, here’s what I kind of had in mind. This is one of the topics I’ve learned from helpers on this forum plus my own trial and error.

WATCH FACE STUDIO TIPS

Disclaimers: I’m not a developer or a WFS pro. These tips work for me, but they may not work for everyone or may not be the best way to accomplish the task.

My watch is a Galaxy Watch 7, Phone is Galaxy S23 Ultra, PC is Windows 11, WFS version 1.7.13

TAP-ONLY COMPLICATION ICONS

These tips only cover the Complication Icon portion of the design. They are for a watch face design that shows complication icons only (not complication info) and where you want to tap the icon on your watch face to display a full-screen info panel. For example, you see only a battery icon on your watch, and when you tap it, the battery info panel opens with all the battery info.

• Add Complication Icon Images
  • If you have icon images, select “Add Component > Image” at top and navigate to image
  • Drag image where you want it and size it to fit
  • Add color if you wish
• Add Complication Box or Circle
  • Create one for every Icon you’ll show on the watch face
  • Rename to identify one for each icon (e.g., Battery Complication, Steps Complication)
  • Make no changes to the sub-sections under these layers (seen if you click the down-arrow to expand them)
  • Properties Panel:
    • Type = Editable
    • Supported Types = (check all)
    • Default Provider = Empty
    • Radio Button Image can be set to ICON+TEXT or just ICON
    • Everything below is not used
  • Move the resulting box or circle over the top of its Icon.
  • IMPORTANT - Size this box (not the icon image) with your watch face in mind. This box determines the area on your watch face that will respond to your tap to open the app. If you make it too small, it will be difficult to activate. But don’t make it so large that it overlaps other complication tap areas.
  • Once you have the box or circles properly sized and placed, click the eyeball icon next to each of them in the layers panel to hide them.
    • If you don’t do this, you will end up with BOTH the watch’s default icon and the icon image you used showing on the watch face.
    • This is a hint that if you want the watch to use whatever it has as default icons, you can skip Step 1 … SOMETIMES. Not all complications you can create in WFS have a corresponding default icon on your watch.
• Layer order of Complications
  • The order in which you place the Icon Images and Complication Box/Circles will determine the order of the Complication choices when setting up the watch face on your watch.
  • The WFS layer order for Complications is “reversed” from the Complication numbers on your watch. For instance, if you have 4 icons, the first one at the top of the layer stack on WFS will be the 4th Complication on your watch, and the 4th one down on WFS will be the 1st Complication on your watch.

DESIGN TIPS

• If you create your own icon images (or download them from a source, etc.), you might want to make them white so you can add color in WFS to match your face design.
• The reason I often use “Tap Only” complication icons on my watch faces is because I typically design artistic backgrounds for my watch faces and do not want lots of complication text or colorful icons disrupting my design.
• Because of my fancy designs, I usually want my complication icons to blend in, making them difficult to see on the watch. To solve this, I create all my fancy watch faces with the same complications in the same positions. So, for instance, even if I can’t see the battery icon, I know it is at 9 O’Clock.
• I use my own photography, photo-art, or AI to make some of my watch faces. Use your imagination - there are lots of things around you that could make beautiful watch faces!

[Redacted]

FYI, using copyright images for personal use is still against the law, unless it falls under specific fair use guidelines. You may want to edit your post so that you aren’t promoting illegal activity on Samsung’s forum…

Trying not to be a Debbie Downer lolol

[smolnar18]

Thank you! I revised the text and used my own design in the example.

[smolnar18]

Thanks! I had found some of these myself when I first started working with WFS, but now that I have your links to these lists of topics, I will use them! I appreciate your info!!