A Unified KDE-Gnome Desktop -- A How-To for Newbies
Dear friends:
As an experienced newbie but still a newbie, I thought this might interest a
new member of Debian who would like to harmonize his desktop, especially his
KDE desktop by making the Gnome applications look more like those in KDE. I
wrote this little how-to originally when a member of Xandros, which is a
derivative of Debian. I just applied it to Debian and it works just the same.
If you don't like the styles of your GTK applications (e.g. Gnome), it's very
easy to change them. Just go to apt-get/Synaptic and search for
GTK-engines-xxx and GTK2-engines-xxx, where the xxx stands for theme, e.g.
GTK-engines-Geramik and GTK2-engines-Geramic (the GTK/Gnome equivalent to
KDE's Keramik theme). Please note the these themes come for both GTK1.2
applications (e.g. GIMP) for GTK 2.0 applications + (e.g. Pan). Try to get
the same theme for both.
The best (and certainly easiest) eay to create a harmonious thematic and color
design for both KDE (QT) and Gnome (GTK1.2 and GTK2.0) applications is to
select in KDE Control Center, Styles, the Keramic Style) and to download and
install from apt-get the gtk-engine-geramic theme. These themes are
essentially identical. Then, in Mozilla (which is independent of both KDE and
Gnome), I'd recommend installing the Orbit-3 theme (View, Apply Theme, Get
New Themes). And, finally, in KDE, Colors, be sure to check the option at the
bottom "Apply KDE colors to non-KDE applications". You can also set the color
for each individual part of the interface (window background, text,
highlight, etc) just as in Windows. I personally choose for Window Background
the color #C3F8FF, a very light green-blue hue that fits very well (I think)
with the Keramik/Geramik theme.
Secondly, download and install:
GTK-Theme-Switch
Create two short cuts: one for GTK1.2, another for GTK2.0
(under /usr/bin/gtk-theme-switch or usr/bin/gtk-theme-switch2).
Launch gtk-theme-switch or gtk-theme-switch2, then
Click on the + on the right. This will bring up the "install new theme"
option. Navigate to to where the themes are (usually /usr/share/themes) and
select the gtkrc file. Then click apply. While you are there, you might as
well also click on Browse and select the font and font size of your choice,
be sure to check or press in "Font" on the left, hit "apply" and that's it.
GTK1 works fine. For some reason, GTK2 does not. But it doesn't matter
because installing the gtk-engine.xxx theme in Debian will install the them
automatically in your GTK applications, anyway. Remember to install theme(s)
for both GTK1.2 and GTK2.0.
Your.
Benjamin
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