Customizing The Appearance of Ubuntu

[Dennis N]

Many current themes package GTK 3 and GTK 4 parts together, so you have to break them up manually to put them into the correct folders. GTK 4 themes should handle your main menus and the most up to date apps.

No need to break these up. I never do. You can leave the gtk-3.0 and gtk-4.0 folders inside the parent theme folder.

gtk-3/4 themes you download will not theme Gnome Core Applications (such as Files, Disks, etc) that are using libadwaita to control their appearance. If you want a uniform appearance for all your applications, you must use one of the Adwaita themes for the Legacy applications theme choice.

gnome-shell theme versions should match the gnome-shell version in order to appear as intended. Check before downloading.

"Extensions" is not the best tool to manage gnome-shell extensions, since it will not install them. Use "Gnome Shell Extension Manager" instead.

You can control accent colors when not using a Yaru theme with "Custom Accent Colors" gnome-shell extension.

[springshades]

No need to break these up. I never do. You can leave the gtk-3.0 and gtk-4.0 folders inside the parent theme folder.

gtk-3/4 themes you download will not theme Gnome Core Applications (such as Files, Disks, etc) that are using libadwaita to control their appearance. If you want a uniform appearance for all your applications, you must use one of the Adwaita themes for the Legacy applications theme choice.

gnome-shell theme versions should match the gnome-shell version in order to appear as intended. Check before downloading.

"Extensions" is not the best tool to manage gnome-shell extensions, since it will not install them. Use "Gnome Shell Extension Manager" instead.

You can control accent colors when not using a Yaru theme with "Custom Accent Colors" gnome-shell extension.

I think that we're probably talking about the same thing with gtk 4. I'm probably just using the wrong words to describe it since I'm only going off of a handful of online sources. The system apps are not considered "legacy apps", so choosing a different gtk theme via the old methods doesn't affect them. The only way to override the appearance of new apps, according to the Flat Remix instructions and a few explanations I've come across online, is an ugly hack to overwrite the appearance of the Adwaita theme itself. You have to copy a chunk of the gtk 3/4 theme's files into the Adwaita themes local settings folder at ~/.config/gtk-4.0 to override the look of gtk 4 apps.

The last little hiccup that I had that wasn't completely clear to me was that you have to then choose the "Default" appearance out of the main settings to make sure the main systems apps are fully using Adwaita. After reading an online explanation of the ugly hack being pulled off, I think I understand the gist of it now. I wasn't originally aware of *why* I was copying a folder full of files into a new place in my local settings as the directions didn't really go into it. I'm going to test this now, but with this hack combined with the "Dark" appearance from Ubuntu's settings, I ended up with Frankenstein apps where parts of the systems apps were using each theme, lol.

The true answer is apparently much closer to my original sentence. Now that I've spent more time digging, the official responses that I've seen is that if you don't like the way anything looks in Gnome, you should switch to a different DE. Major updates to Gnome break most themes. New GTK apps are prone to breaking to the point of being unusable from even minor changes to their appearance. You end up in unstable and unsupported territory pretty much immediately. KDE apparently had to be built from the ground up to be theme-able, and Gnome went with a more "you get what you get" approach. That's fine. It's their choice.

EDIT: Wrong again! Changing between the two different appearance options in Ubuntu's appearance settings did nothing. Frankenstein system apps is the result of all of this. No one should do any of this. Just learn to live with the default look.


Linux is my nemesis.

[Dennis N]

Correct. if you have a gtk.css file in ~/.config/gtk-4.0 then those settings are used instead of the code in libadwaita, which you cannot edit directly. The only thing I change is the accent color by using the "Custom Accent Colors" extension to have a color other than blue.

I do use a number of Gnome Shell extensions to add to or improve the functionality of the system. The Gnome shell extensions prove to be a very important and attractive feature you don't see in other desktop environments.

Attachment: Appearance > "Styles" on this Ubuntu 24.04.

[tea for one]

If you like the Window Control Buttons similar to the Flat Remix theme, have a look at this css solution.

This is highly experimental. A set of buttons is drawn over the existing ones. For a purely css solution (Gtk3 & Gtk4 apps only though) see these files:
https://github.com/icedman/gnome-she...r/window-theme

In essence, you copy the gtk-3.0 and gtk-4.0 folders and replace the existing folders in /home/username/.config
I use this with the built-in Ubuntu Dark theme and red (device colour profile)
Unfortunately, the snap packages ignore the Window Control Buttons.
Screenshot herewith - Ubuntu 24.04