Spice Up Your Desktop With These 5 Cool GTK2/3 Themes [PPA]

January 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Are you bored with your current theme? Here are 5 cool GTK2/3 (some also come with a Shell theme) themes that are optimized to work on any “shell”: Unity, GNOME Shell or the GNOME 3 fallback session.

The themes are GTK 3.2 compatible and to install them in Ubuntu 11.10 or 12.04, you can use the WebUpd8 Themes PPA – add it using the commands below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/themessudo apt-get update

Then simply use the install command listed for each theme.

The PPA packages only install the GTK2, GTK3 and GNOME Shell themes (if available); some of the themes also come with AWN themes, Conky configs and more – to install them, visit the theme page.
1. Zukitwo Colors is a theme pack that comes with GTK2, GTK3 and GNOME Shell themes in 7 colors from Shiki-Colors (Brave, Dust, Human, Illustrious, Noble, Wine and Wise), as well as a color-neutral GNOME Shell theme (Zukitwo-Colors) and Metacity/Mutter themes for Dust (Zukitwo-Dust).
zukitwo colors theme

To install Zukitwo Colors in Ubuntu 11.10 or 12.04:

sudo apt-get install zukitwo-colors-theme

Or download via Gnome Look.

2. A New Start is a theme pack that comes with GTK2/3 and GNOME Shell themes and can be used in Gnome-Shell, Gnome-Fallback and Unity.
a new start theme

To install A New Start in Ubuntu 11.10 or 12.04, use the commands below:

sudo apt-get install anewstart-theme
The theme author recommends using this theme with AwOken icon theme, colored with 99/15/00 color combination. Also, the theme only ok when placing the window buttons on the right – to do this under Unity, use MW Buttons (or Ubuntu Tweak).
If you want to further customize the theme, like replacing the Unity Launcher images, the Conky theme you can see in the screenshot, AWN theme, etc., see the theme page on DeviantArt.


3. A New Start Blood is a beautiful dark GTK2/3/Shell theme which uses the ANewStart guidelines and just like A New Start, it’s optimized for any “shell”: Gnome-Shell, Gnome-Fallback and Unity.
a new start blood theme

To install A New Start in Ubuntu 11.10 or 12.04, use the commands below:

sudo apt-get install anewstartblood-theme

Just like A New Start, this theme comes with replacement for the Unity Launcher images which you can apply manually – more @ its DeviantArt page.

4. Adwaita Cupertino is a GTK2/3 theme pack based on the colors of Snow Leopard and Lion, each with variations optimized for either GNOME Shell (borderless) or Unity.
Adwaita cupertino theme

To install Adwaita Cupertino in Ubuntu 11.10 or 12.04, use the commands below:

sudo apt-get install adwaita-cupertino-gtk-theme

Or download the theme via Gnome Look.

The theme author recommends using Adwaita Cupertino with Faenza Cupertino (also available in the WebUpd8 Themes PPA – search for it in USC) or Faience-Azur.

5. Gnomish Dark is another beautiful dark theme pack based on Adwaita which includes GTK2/3/Shell themes.

To install it, use the commands below:

sudo apt-get install gnomishdark-theme

Or download the theme via Gnome Look.

Using a new theme

To use one of the themes in this post, you can use GNOME Tweak Tool (available in the repositories) or Ubuntu Tweak 0.6.
When changing the window theme in GNOME Shell, you’ll have to reload it to apply the new theme (sometimes this is required for Unity too): press ALT + F2 and enter “r” or log out and log back in.
Important: some GTK themes may look 100% correctly until you log out and log back in!!

Also see: 4 Beautiful GNOME 3.2 Themes


Web Upd8 – Ubuntu / Linux blog

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