SolitaryGeek

Disclaimer:
This blog is intended to help those who are new to the linux world (like me). So if you are a long time linux user, you might perhaps know/used the concepts explained here, but you can help me by providing your valuable comments and suggestions.

I recently installed Ubuntu 8.10 in my notebook using Wubi. As a result I started using Ubuntu regularly at home and Windows XP at office. But as I used my Ubuntu more and more, I felt the pain of living with Ubuntu’s default font rendering, especially when I browse using firefox. I tried all the options available under the “fonts” section in “Appearance Preferences” with no fruitful result.

Then when I started looking around for solutions, I came to know from this nice article that certain “font rendering features” were turned off in Ubuntu by default due to some legal reasons. The article went ahead and suggested a solution, which I successfully implemented in my Ubuntu. So, if you are struggling with fonts in your Ubuntu, please follow the steps mentioned in the article “Enable Smooth fonts on Ubuntu Linux“.

Ok, now my fonts look great and the web pages I surf looks the same as it use to be in Windows. But I don’t like the default brown theme of my Ubuntu. So I looked for other options in the “Appearance Preferences” window but none could satisfy me. So I started surfing around to find some alternatives.

But luckily I came across a great site called “www.art.gnome.org” which contains tons of themes for the gnome desktop. There is a section called “Desktop Themes” which contains so many options. I quickly found out that there are so many things you configure in your desktop like “Application” or “Control”, “Window Border”, “Icons”, “Login Manager”, “GTK Engines” etc. By making use of these themes you can customize the look and feel of your Ubuntu desktop much like how you configure firefox with various themes.

Application Themes or Controls:

They are responsible for the look and feel of buttons, tabs, scroll bars, progress bars, tables etc.

Some popular “Application Themes” available in art.gnome.org are:

- Aero-ion (For those dark theme lovers)
- Glossy P (For those who want Mac OS like looks)
- Cillop (A graphite theme)
- Water Vapor (Another mild grey theme)

You can also find some great themes from gnome-look.org as well.

How to install? – Open “System->Preferences->Appearances” and just drag and drop the downloaded file.

(But my current favorite is a theme called “Murrine“, which can be found in the “Synaptic Package Manager” of your Ubuntu. To install it, open System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager and then search for “murrine”. You need to install the murrine gtk2-engine if it is not already installed.)

Window Borders:

Window borders are responsible for how the title bar of a “window” (frames/dialogs/model panes) looks.

Some popular “Window Borders” available in art.gnome.org are:

- Vista Basic (Almost an exact replica of Vista window borders)
- Almond (My favourite window border)
- Graphite (Mac OS style window border)

How to install? – Open “System->Preferences->Appearances” and just drag and drop the downloaded file.

Icons:

Good icons can make a ordinary theme look better. So selecting the appropriate icon pack of your choice is very important.

Here are some popular icon packs available from art.gnome.org:

- Dropline Neu
- Unofficial Tango
- Gion

You can also have a look at some great icon collections from gnome-look.org.

How to install? – Open “System->Preferences->Appearances” and just drag and drop the downloaded file.

All the above three provide a rich set of icons, but my favourite is “Ubuntu Studio” icon pack. It is not found in art.gnome.org but can be found in your “Synaptic Package Manager”. Just search for “ubuntustudio” in your package manager and proceed further.

Login Managers:

Login managers define your login screen. So if you don’t like your default login screen, don’t worry, there are tons of options available from art.gnome.org.

Some popular Login Managers are:

- Brasillinux Eye
- DarkClean Linux (My current favourite)
- Blue Swirl

How to install? – Open “System->Administration->Login Window” and then navigate to the tab “Local”. Drag and drop  the login manager you downloaded.

GTK Engines:

You won’t need this most of the time but some themes work only with the respective GTK Engines.

Putting it all together. Creating a custom theme:

Once you have downloaded and installed the necessary components, it is very easy to create your own custom theme. Open “Sytem->Preferences->Appearance”. You can see the “Theme” tab by default.

Click “Customize” button. Now you can see an “Customize Theme” window.

Select the “Controls” tab and choose the appropriate “Application Theme” you installed previously. Notice how Ubuntu applies the changes dynamically.

Select the “Window Border” tab and choose the appropriate border. Your new custom theme is almost ready now.

Follow the same procedure by clicking the “Icons” tab as well.

Once you have finished your configuration, click the “Close” button. Now you can see a new theme called “Custom” in the “Appearance Preferences” window.

Now click the “Save As” button and give a suitable name and description for your theme. That’s it, your Ubuntu desktop now has a new cool theme.

Feel free to blend different combinations that suite your taste. So here’s how my desktop looks when I combine MurrineBlue control + XColorsLite window border + GNOME-Color Blue Bravo icons.

These screenshots might not amuse some of you , but there are so many great options available from sites like www.art.gnome.org, www.gnome-look.org.

CAUTION:
You can even customize your splash screens and boot up screens, but please use these options with caution as they can have some nasty effects on your system.

Conclusion:

There are still many options available but I haven’t tried them, so I cannot recommend it to you. One important thing to note is you need select appropriate combination of “Application Themes” + “Window Borders” + “Icons” to get a really pleasing and sometimes stunning looks.

So, don’t get bored of how your Ubuntu looks or renders your fonts. Ubuntu is extremely flexible and you can customize every bit of it to suite your taste. If you have already customized your Ubuntu desktop, kindly share your experience.

Resources:

- www.art.gnome.org

- www.gnome-look.org

More Ubuntu articles:

Convert audio files in Ubuntu with Sound Converter

Convert video files in Ubuntu with FormatFactory

Related posts:

1. Nimbus – A great theme for Ubuntu
2. WUBI – A wonderful little gem that helps Windows users to try Ubuntu
3. Getting better results with WUBI
4. Stunning OpenSolaris running on VirtualBox
5. Convert video files to mp3 in Ubuntu