Guide: The Best CyanogenMod 12 Themes

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In the past few years, a heated debate has been waged – and goes on to this very day – about the superiority of mobile operating systems, and because of different perspectives, there is no clear victor in the arguments pitched, save for one – customization. Google’s Android operating system is known far and wide for its limitless and flexible customization options, and goes wholly unchallenged in this domain. System themes, custom bootanimations, recovery themes, icon packs, APK mods – Android has it all, and more importantly, Android has a vibrant and enthusiastic community supporting each of these design disciplines, and today we look at some of the best CM12 themes that the community has to offer.

A considerable number of system themes choose to completely redefine the underlying stock design and start from scratch, proving arduous and not necessarily successful, but the materiaL theme has chosen to build on top of the stock experience. Combining classic Material Design with a pleasing green on black aesthetic augmented by subtle additions in some places, this theme checks most of the boxes and is a must-have for dark theme lovers.

“Color gives life” is a phrase often thrown around by people from all walks of life, and it holds true in most cases and applications. Elixium is one of the rare manifestations of design where a monochrome interface has an innate appeal. Made up of mostly of stark white interfaces and high-contrast gray accents, Elixiums beauty lies in its simplicity and it straightforwardness.

Before Google introduced Material Design at I/O 2014, Holo was the primary visual language governing Android Design. While most of Holo’s elements have faded from memory by now, its iconic color palette lives on in this theme. Dark Holo, as it is aptly titled, imbues the Material Design skeleton with Holo colors on an absolute black background, resulting in a beautiful, AMOLED-friendly look.

Opting to steer away from the generic standard of a dark primary color and a light accent color of system elements, Rho is made up of vibrant red on purple interfaces, and provides a much needed color refresh on all system elements. The theme is extensive and covers a lot of third-party apps, in addition to packing custom fonts, wallpapers, icons and bootanimations.

Roams icon very appropriately depicts a sunrise, as it designs the system to be a virtual embodiment of an early morning. Using pastel colors derived from light blue skies and yellow sunbeams and other sources from nature, Roam themes the system with a fresh, optimistic style complemented by the condensed variant of the Roboto font, and pays great attention to detail, not missing a single element across system apps.

Almost every digital design is built around a specific color palette, picked around a central primary color and one or sometimes two accent colors. Forto ventures into uncharted territory as it uses a blue-gray primary color and a host of secondary accent colors, and instead of coming off as gaudy, the theme has a bold and colorful personality. Forto themes a large number of apps, and includes custom sounds, icons, bootanimations, softkeys and wallpapers, satisfying every aspect a system theme could have.

An array of adjectives like beautiful, pleasing and breathtaking can be used to describe a design, but one that is rarely used but is appropriate in every way for this theme is “badass.” Sporting a Darth Vader-esque design, Darkout themes the system with dark backgrounds and crimson accents, giving it a strong and bold personality. The theme covers the system apps as well as a number of third-party apps, and comes with custom wallpapers and an impressive icon pack containing over 1000 icons.

Some system themes choose extensiveness, while others choose uniqueness and yet others choose quality, with more than some opting to combine one or more defining factors. While one may endlessly opine about the quality or beauty of a theme, the appeal of design is largely dependent on perspective, and may vary from person to person or even time to time. What part of a system theme appeals to you? Which theme are you using? Let us know in the comments below!