****** Updated on the 18th of March, first post now includes links to other schemes/themes by other users, and the latest css file is also attached (last attachment named "latest"), I also added a link to a post that mentions some add ons/extensions for gnome shell ******
I (like a lot of people) have been trying out Gnome Shell (incase you didnt know - http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell )
Myself and some others have been making themes for Gnome Shell, which is relatively easy if you know a bit of css (which is how the main look of gnome shell is controlled)
It has been noted by some that the default black theme isnt to their (and others) tastes, so I decided to make some more themes for gnome shell, and other people have started making their own as well.
Now at present there isnt a way to actually install multiple themes, so you will have to overwrite some files, so the thing to do before installing any of the themes is to back up certain folders, the location of these folders will depend on how you installed gnome shell, for example if you have used the testing ppa then the theme folder is located here - /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme
if you have built from source then it will be in your home folder - /home/<user>/gnome-shell/source/gnome-shell/data
So before installing any of the themes, which will hopefully get included here so they are all in one place, backup the folders in those locations, you can save them to your home folder or where ever you want.
next you can download the archives (i will include the ones ive done in this post) and extract them.
some of the archives will only have the css file, and some may have the icons as well (a couple of my themes have edited icons)
you need to copy the contents over to where ever the theme folders are, the way i do this (if you have installed from source then you dont need to be root to copy the files over)
open a terminal and typethen browse to where you extracted the archive, then right click and select copy, next browse to /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme and paste the files (or the whole folder) and select replace.Code:sudo nautilus
once thats done press alt + f2 and type restart and then hit enter, and providing the files are in the right place the new theme should load.
A couple of things to note, firstly every time you update gnome shell it will revert to the default theme, so you will have to go through the steps above again.
I have been adding extra comments to the css to help with seeing which bits do what, in my opinion more comments are needed, and I'm still working on other themes, so I will add comments as I go.
The other thing is that at present the search feature of the over view mode is partly controlled by a javascript file, all the file does is change the colour of the cursor and the text, it probably won't need to be touched, but if for some reason the theme interferes with the colour of the text then a couple of lines in the dash.js file can be edited, this file is in - /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui or where ever you installed gnome shell.
Please note there might be differences between the dash.js file on compiled from source installations, so make back ups, or alternatively I can point you in the direction of the lines to edit in the dash.js
I believe that the idea is to increase the amount of control that the css has, so there may well be a lot more that can be done with the css in future releases.
Some helpful sites - http://html-color-codes.info/
http://www.drpeterjones.com/colorcalc/ and this one if you want to get into editing css files - http://www.w3schools.com/css/
have fun.
screen shots can be seen here - http://twitpic.com/15mujl these are the current themes, there are some more I think in this thread - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...05154&page=125 you may have to scroll about.
I have added this post from augias as it was pointed out that if you have built gs from source you should be able to preserve your theme.
Code:Re: The Gnome Shell themes thread... ... By the way, It just occurred to me that this might be important to mention. If the tip is useful, I recommend the OP add this info to his first post. If you're building gnome-shell from source using jhbuild tools: You can keep the theme you're currently using (without having to re-do everything on updates) by committing your changes to your css file to git, like so. Code: $: cd ~/gnome-shell/source/gnome-shell $: git commit -a This will open a changelog file in nano (terminal's text editor) that asks you for a breif commmit message. Code: Commit changes to the CSS file. # Please enter the commit message for your changes. Lines starting # with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts the commit. # # Committer: Fernando Mora <fernando@homework.(none)> # # On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit. # # Changes to be committed: # (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage) # # modified: data/theme/gnome-shell.css # [ Read 14 lines ] ^G Get Help ^O WriteOut ^R Read File ^Y Prev Page ^K Cut Text ^C Cur Pos ^X Exit ^J Justify ^W Where Is ^V Next Page ^U UnCut Text^T To Spell Just write something obvious like "CSS changes" where the cursor is (at the top where i wrote the same message) and press ctrl+o to save, enter to confirm and ctrl+x to quit. This will let any updates from git take place without bugging you about your weird CSS file, but i doubt it's foolproof. If you're daring, use Code: $ git reset HEAD~X where X = number of commits to revert.
Update - just adding the other themes/schemes that other gnome shell users have posted, in link form, should make them easier to find.
forest by keth - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...80&postcount=3
smoke by me (techno-mole) - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...5&postcount=12
a radiance type scheme by suboxide - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...3&postcount=23
another scheme based on the radiance themes by suboxide - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...3&postcount=28
ice by me - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...6&postcount=29
ode to humanity by me - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...8&postcount=30
light grey by augias - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...9&postcount=35
light grey by augias - updated for latest version of gs - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...7&postcount=83
human theme by mudrain911 - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...2&postcount=75
also i have attached my latest css file (which is currently ode to humanity) to this as well (with the name as latest) it should be fine to run on your versions of gnome shell (works for me, with the latest gs update from the testing ppa)
there is also this version of the gnome shell css by agrh - it has a different layout to mine, and the comments are also different, people may find this one easier to figure out than mine, i never actually considered making it more understandable, so cheers to agrh
my advice would be to go through the css file (the newest one) and compare with yours, just to be on the safe side, or just edit the one i attached and change the colouring to suit your tastes.
augias linked to some gs extensions that people may or may not know about, heres the link to his (assuming he is male of course, erm sorry if your not by the way ) post - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...4&postcount=64
have fun
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