Using Dark Themes in Ubuntu (Gnome 2.2x)

Using dark themes in Gnome has always has some issues. Due to issues in Gnome and GTK apps, some application have problems like dark fonts on dark background, text areas grayed out, and multiple issues with OpenOffice. Here is a quick guide to solve many of the problems I encountered using dark themes in Gnome.

1. Firefox Fixes
Firefox has issues display certain CSS field properly with dark themes. This is a big problem in Firefox 2, but can still happen in Firefox 3. Install this userContent.css to /home/username/.mozilla/firefox/RandomProfile_name/chrome and restart Firefox.

2a. Dark System Themes (Ubuntu Studio)
The easiest solution for a dark theme in Ubuntu is to install the UbuntuStudio-theme package.
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme
or if you want the full metapackage with icons, GDM theme, etc..
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-look
The Ubuntu Studio theme is a beautiful theme created by the Ubuntu Studio team, which fixes many of the problem with dark themes in Gnome.

2b. Other Dark Themes
Since Linux is all about choice, we want to use other dark themes for Gnome and workaround issues these themes have. First, we still want to install the ubuntustudio-theme package.
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme
Then we will use UbuntuStudio theme on certain applications that have problems with dark themes (OpenOffice, Banshee, Thunderbird,etc…).

To get an application to use another theme you want to add the following to the command the launches a program “env GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/UbuntuStudio/gtk-2.0/gtkrc“. Right click on the gnome menu applet and choose Edit Menus. Goto the application you want using a different theme (in this example OpenOffice Writer), right click the application and select Properties. Change the Command from
ooffice -writer %U
to
env GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/UbuntuStudio/gtk-2.0/gtkrc ooffice -writer %U
OpenOffice Writer should now use UbuntuStudio theme instead of the system theme you have set.

If you have any comment or suggestion for this guide, please comment on this thread on the Ubuntu Forums.

Dark Theme
Theme Details:
Theme: Moomex Ultimatum 0.4
Font: UnDotum Bold
Icons: Jungle Black
Wallpaper: Radiant from http://interfacelift.com

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Posted on June 24, 2008 at 2:26 pm by Mike · Permalink
In: Ubuntu Linux · Tagged with: ,

7 Responses

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  1. Written by linuxshot
    on June 24, 2008 at 3:17 pm
    Permalink

    Wouw nice dark theme. Would you be interested to submit it on http://www.linuxshot.org screenshot gallery ?

  2. Written by Stéphan K.
    on June 24, 2008 at 3:23 pm
    Permalink

    A lot of the Firefox’s problems I encounter don’t seem to be problems with Firefox itself, but with the websites I’m viewing. (as it always turns out to be)

    For example, on many websites, w3c’s CSS validator will complain a lot about the following when the warnings option is set to ‘all’:
    “You have no background-color set (or background-color is set to transparent) but you have set a color.”
    At the time I started learning CSS, triggering this warning didn’t require raising the warning level of the validator. It was on by default. I thought it was one of the dumbest warnings. But now that I use a dark theme, I know better.

    My theme colors input boxes with a dark background, and bright text. The website only overrides the text color and I get dark on dark. It’s really annoying.

    Finding a good dark theme is a challenge anyways. I’m not a big fan of Ubuntu Studio’s theme, but I found another beautiful theme that has not shown too many issues yet. It’s Elegant Mine:
    http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Elegant+Mine?content=77491

    I do hope posts like this get people more interested, and that we eventually get increasingly better dark theme support everywhere. :)

  3. Written by Conor
    on June 24, 2008 at 4:20 pm
    Permalink

    For instance, I can’t even see the comment I’m typing right now! The color disappears in the text box. Ah, well.

    Usually what I do is use Stylish (Firefox extension) to correct any funky CSS mishaps. I’ll do the same for this site if I find myself needing to write more comments. ;)

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