The vanilla Android user interface has always been known for its rich colors and animations. If your eyes hurt from the rich color display on your Asus Nexus 7′s user interface, why not make your tablet's screen simpler by using a black-themed UI. The ParanoidAndroid ROM has a new version called the Dark ParanoidAndroid that lets you use a dark-themed user interface on your Nexus 7.

XDA Developers member DaXmax is behind the creation of this dark ROM. The developer was the one who created the Dark ParanoidAndroid ROM for the Galaxy S3. You can check out our guide on  how to flash the ROM to the Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300.

Flashing this ROM will convert your tablet's user interface to black. You can also flash the inverted GApps package together with this ROM. All your stock apps, such as SMS, phone dialer, Gmail, and music player, will be all black. Also, this is ParanoidAndroid, which is better known for its hybrid mashup of phone and tablet UIs that made this ROM popular.

This guide shows you how to flash Dark ParanoidAndroid for the Nexus 7.

Warning

• The instructions in this guide are intended for use with the Asus Nexus 7. Applying these instructions on another device or model may produce undesired outcomes.
• The information in this guide is provided for instructional and educational purposes only. There is no guarantee that these instructions will work under your specific and unique circumstances.
• Use these instructions at your own risk. We shall not hold any responsibility or liability for whatever happens to you or your device arising from your use of the info in this guide.
• Read and understand the whole guide first before actually performing the instructions.

Requirements

• Asus Nexus 7 with ClockworkMod Recovery and running a custom kernel.
  • You can use this toolkit to easily flash ClockworkMod Recovery to your tablet.
• Download the Dark Paranoidandroid ROM (darkpa_grouper-2.52-27OCT2012-191400.zip, md5sum: 40bca6f2f631bb90d6ba70f50865f124)
• Download the inverted GApps (Google Apps) package (gappsinverted-jb-20121023-signed.zip, 88.5 MB)
• Backup all personal data on your tablet to make sure you have a copy of your personal data (e.g., contacts, SMS, MMS, Internet settings, Wi-Fi passwords, and the like) in case the procedure in this guide erases such data.
  • For backup tips, check our guides on how to sync your data to the cloud and how to create local backups of your mobile data.

Instructions

1. Copy the Dark ParanoidAndroid ROM and inverted GApps package to your tablet's internal SD card.
2. Turn off your tablet.
3. Reboot your tablet to ClockworkMod Recovery. Connect the tablet to the computer via USB cable. Hold down Volume Up, Volume Down, and Power until you see an Android robot lying on its back. Using Volume Down, highlight Recovery mode and select it by pressing Power. After a while, the icon of Android with a red triangle appears. Hold down Power, then press Volume Up to enter Recovery Mode.
4. Create a NANDroid backup of you current ROM. Go to Backup and Restore and select Backup on the next screen.
5. Select Wipe data/factory reset and confirm the action on the next screen.
6. Select Wipe cache partition and confirm the action on the next screen.
7. Go back to the main menu and select Advanced. From there, select Wipe Dalvik cache and confirm the action on the next screen.
8. Select Install ZIP from SD card.
9. Select Choose ZIP from SD card and locate the Dark Paranoidandroid ROM ZIP file. Confirm the action on the next screen to flash the ROM to your tablet.
10. In a similar way, flash the inverted GApps package as in steps 8 and 9.
11. Go back to the main menu and select Reboot system now to reboot your tablet.

Congratulations! You have successfully flashed the Dark ParanoidAndroid ROM to your Nexus 7.