
Source (link to git-repo or to original if based on someone elses unmodified work): https://github.com/WernerFP/Shades-of-gray-theme
A flat dark GTK-theme with ergonomic contrasts. It supports Gnome, Cinnamon, Xfce4, Mate and Openbox. Theme customizations for Firefox, Thunderbird and Inkscape are additionally included. Shades-of-gray is available in seven color variants:
• Gray
• Arch
• Cerulean
• Firebrick
• Harvest
• Orient
• Patina
The following description is contained in the individual theme folders.
Installation:
• Arch Linux
You can install the AUR package:
• Last release: gtk-theme-shades-of-gray
• Git version: gtk-theme-shades-of-gray-git
• Manual Installation
Extract and copy the chosen theme folders either for personal use into directory '~/.themes/' or for common use into '/usr/share/themes/'.
To enjoy the latest commits, you can download and install the Shades-of-gray pre-release version from GitHub.
Customizations:
Each theme folder contains an 'app-gadgets' directory with additional theme files for Thunderbird, Firefox and Inkspape.
• Thunderbird
The folder 'assets' and the file 'userChrome.css' in folder 'Thunderbird-Shades-of-gray' contain a Thunderbird theme adapted to Shades of gray. Copy both to this location:
~/.thunderbird/name-of-your-profile/chrome/assets
~/.thunderbird/name-of-your-profile/chrome/userChrome.css
Select the default theme in the Thunderbird settings to ensure a consistent appearance.
If you change a Shades-of-gray theme color, it is not necessary to copy the file again. You can simply comment the current theme color in 'userChrome.css' (Thunderbird and Firefox) and uncomment the new theme color value.
• Thunderbird Calendar
Thunderbird‘s Calendar (formaly Lightning) uses its own bright colors in default setting. The option for using theme colors is hidden as 'Accessibility'.
Open the Thunderbird settings and activate the checkbox 'Optimize colors for accessibility' in calendar area.
Note: In Thunderbird 68 Calendar (Lightning) there are several bugs that can cause display errors. In'Shades-of-gray-Readme.html' a workaround is explained.
• Firefox
The directory '../app-gadgets/Firefox-Shades-of-gray' contains a collection of Shades-of gray theme modifications for Firefox:
userChrome.css:
This file contains modifications for the Firefox user interface.
userContent.css:
Herein are adjustments of the Firefox Home-Screen. In addition, the following customizations are imported via 'userContent.css':
about.css:
The file 'about.css' contains Shades-of-gray theme customizations for Firefox 'about:'-pages.
Bookmark search plus 2:
The file 'bookmark-search-plus-2.css contains a theme customization for the very useful add-on Bookmark search plus 2 (AMO).
Panorama Tab Groups:
This is a modification for the dark theme of the recommended add-on Panorama Tab Groups (AMO).
Note: in Panorama Tab Groups settings you can toggle between light and dark theme. The Shades-of-gray customizations only take effect with the dark theme.
Bookmarked Speed Dial:
Bookmarked Speed Dial (AMO) is an underrated add-on that offers similar functionality to Vivaldi Speed Dial.
The folder 'bookmarked-speed-dial-images' contains images wich you can choose as 'Default dial image' and 'Default folder image' in the add-on options.
To use the customizations for Firefox you can copy the contents of directory '../app-gadgets/Firefox-Shades-of-gray/' to this location:
~/.mozilla/firefox/name-of-your-profile/chrome/
Note: you should choose the dark style in Firefox to get a consistent dark appearance.
Note: As of Firefox 68/69, you must set the 'toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets' preference to 'true in 'about:config in order to load 'userChrome.css or 'userContent.css files.
• Inkscape
Original colored icons in Inkscape are hard to identify in dark themes. The file 'icons.svg' in folder 'Inkscape-icons' contains bright icons. To use them in Inkscape, the file must be stored in this directory:
~/.config/inkscape/icons/icons.svg
• Syntax Highlighting
Shades-of-gray includes the syntax color scheme Shades-of-pastel for several editors. By using pastel colors on dark background like pastel chalks on a blackboard the Shades-of-pastel scheme provides balanced and easy on eyes contrasts.
Currently Vim, GVim, Sublime-Text and editors with syntax highlighting based on 'GtkSourceView 3' or 'GtkSourceView 4' such as Gedit, Pluma. Xed and Mousepad are supported. Installation notes can be found in 'Shades-of-gray-Readme.html'.
Requirements:
• GTK+ 3.20 or above
• Pixmap theme engine
• Murrine theme engine
License:
GNU General Public License GPL-3
Issues:
Please report bugs, issues and feature requests on Github.
1.2.0 1 month ago
• Link colors for light and dark backgrounds optimized (GTK2, GTK3 etc.)
• Evolution: workaround undeclared link color in HTML messages (gtk3.css)
• Gnome Calendar: workaround poor events contrast with dark themes (gtk3.css)
• Shades of pastel: HTML and XML syntax highlighting improved
• Thunderbird: tag indicators and notifications improved (userChrome.css)
• Lightning 68+: fixes for dark themes, improvements (userChrome.css)
• Enigmail: colors of header box labels improved (userChrome.css)
• Firefox: default scrollbars less intrusive (userContent.css)
• Firefox: new search button in BPS2 adapted (bookmark-search-plus-2.css)
• Firefox 60 ESR: Home Screen fixes and improvements (userContent.css)
• Firefox 69+: modifications QuantumBar to Megabar in FF 71 (userChrome)
• Firefox new: customizations for 'about:' pages added (about.css)
• Firefox: modifications, improvements, regressions up to FF 71 (userChrome.css)
1.2.0 1 month ago
• Link colors for light and dark backgrounds optimized (GTK2, GTK3 etc.)
• Evolution: workaround undeclared link color in HTML messages (gtk3.css)
• Gnome Calendar: workaround poor events contrast with dark themes (gtk3.css)
• Shades of pastel: HTML and XML syntax highlighting improved
• Thunderbird: tag indicators and notifications improved (userChrome.css)
• Lightning 68+: fixes for dark themes, improvements (userChrome.css)
• Enigmail: colors of header box labels improved (userChrome.css)
• Firefox: default scrollbars less intrusive (userContent.css)
• Firefox: new search button in BPS2 adapted (bookmark-search-plus-2.css)
• Firefox 60 ESR: Home Screen fixes and improvements (userContent.css)
• Firefox 69+: modifications QuantumBar to Megabar in FF 71 (userChrome)
• Firefox new: customizations for 'about:' pages added (about.css)
• Firefox: modifications, improvements, regressions up to FF 71 (userChrome.css)
1.1.9 2 months ago
• GTK3: Nautilus floating-bar fixed (gtk.css)
• Firefox 68+: form widgets are obsolete (userContent.css)
• Thunderbird 68+: modifications, improvements, regressions (userChrome.css)
1.1.8 5 months ago
• GTK3: Epiphany urlbar dropdown fixed (gtk-colors.css)
• Firefox: modifications for FF 68/69 (userChrome.css, userContent.css)
• Firefox: about:addons no longer customizable (about.css removed)
• Firefox: Bookmarked Speed Dial for FF 68/69 adjusted (bookmarked-speed-dial.css)
• Firefox: Bookmark search plus 2 for FF 68/69 adjusted (bookmark-search-plus-2.css)
1.1.7 6 months ago
• Thunderbird: Enigmail flat button text color forced (userChrome.css)
• Firefox add-on: background focus group header fixed (panorama-tab-groups.css)
• Firefox add-on: minor fix (bookmarked-speed-dial.css)
• Firefox 66+ home content: blue font in context menu fixed (userContent.css)
• Firefox: customizations identity-popup (userChrome.css)
• Firefox: CSS-code cleaned up (userContent.css, userChrome.css)
• New: Firefox - dark Shades-of-gray theme for 'about:' pages (about.css)
1.1.6 8 months ago
• New: Syntax scheme for Vim and GVim added (Shades-of-pastel)
• GNOME Shell 3.32: close buttons in dash overview adapted (gnome-shell.css)
• GTK3 workaround: gnome-control-center 3.32 ignores '@base_color' (gtk.css)
• Firefox add-on: 0.8.8 update (panorama-tab-groups.css)
• Firefox add-on: color '#searchtext' fixed (bookmark-search-plus-2.css)
• Firefox urlbar indicator: color for validated sites adjusted (userChrome.css)
• Firefox 66+: update CSS corrections for 'about' sites (userContent.css)
1.1.5 9 months ago
• GTK2: entry background color in HexChat fixed (apps.rc)
• GTK3: Gedit document-panel background color synchronized (gtk.css)
• Thunderbird: titles of unread messages are colored (userChrome.css)
• Firefox add-on theme: 2.0.52 update (bookmark-search-plus-2.css)
• Firefox: fallback webextension popup background added (userChrome.css)
• Firefox: width of vertical scrollbar in sidebar reduced (userChrome.css)
• Firefox add-on theme added: Bookmarked Speed Dial (bookmarked-speed-dial.css, userContent.css)
• Syntax color schemes for Sublime-Text, Gedit, Pluma, Xed, Mousepad added (Shades-of-pastel)
1.1.4 10 months ago
• GTK3, GTK2, Cinnamon, Gnome, Openbox: thin dark menu separator lines added
• GTK3: side effect Evolution-CSS in Rhythmbox fixed (gtk.css)
• Gnome: slider and barlevel fixed to version 3.29+ (gnome-shell.css)
• Gnome: better activities icon (gnome-shell.css)
• Gnome: panel less opacity (gnome-shell.css)
• Theme folder: Readme files superseded (new: Shades-of-gray-Readme.html)
• Firefox, Thunderbird: thin dark menu separator lines added (userChrome.css)
• Firefox: overflow submenu improved for add-on content (userChrome.css)
• Firefox: added options to hide context menu items (userChrome.css)
• Firefox add-on theme added: Panorama Tab Groups (panorama-tab-groups.css, userContent.css)
1.1.3.1 11 months ago
• Gnome: volume and brightness slider fixed (gnome-shell.css)
1.1.3 11 months ago
• Thunar, Nemo, Nautilus, Caja: list view improved (gtk.css)
• Firefox: minor adjustments in userChrome.css (places window)
• Firefox add-on theme added: Bookmark search plus 2 (bookmark-search-plus-2.css, userContent.css)
1.1.2 1 year ago
• Xfce4: panel adjusted to gtk3 in Xfce 4.13 (gtk.css)
• Xfwm4: window buttons supplemented (xfwm4)
• Evolution: sidebars adjusted (gtk.css)
• gThumb: sidebar and browser background improved (gtk.css)
• Calendar: gnome-calendar enhancements (gtk.css)
• Firefox: smaller identity box for extensions in urlbar (userContent.css)
• Firefox: menus in about:preferences fixed (userContent.css)
• Thunderbird, Lightning: Shades-of-gray icons added (userChrome.css, assets)
1.1.1 1 year ago
• Openbox: close button modified, window handle and menu improvements
• Thunderbird: minimum column width defined (userChrome.css)
• Lightning 6.2: bright navigation buttons (userChrome.css)
• Firefox: form widgets also adapted for moz-extensions (fixed in userContent.css)
1.1.0 1 year ago
• New: Theme for Cinnamon added
• GTK3: Minor changes
• Metacity: Updated for Cinnamon
• Thunderbird 60: Fixes and improvements
• Lightning: Theme adaptation improved
• Firefox: Fixes and further theme customizations
1.0.4.1 1 year ago
• Fix: gtk3-submenus are positioned closer to the parent menu
• New: Shades-of-gray-FAQ.html (2018-07-29)
1.0.4 1 year ago
• Thunderbird: added theme customizations for color tags in email tree view (userChrome.css)
• Borders and separators slightly less contrast (gtk-colors.css, gnome-shell.css)
1.0.3: 1 year ago
Bug fix: Window decorations of Gnome applications now correctly trigger a resize mouse pointer.
annoyingduck
1 month ago
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442206
1 month ago
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fritz5
1 month ago
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fenyx
2 months ago
Anyway I don't use it yet on my Ubuntu 19.04 because of incompatibility with my very favorite file manager (Double Commander aka. doublecmd-gtk, installed through apt, not by snap or appimage).
I don't understand what makes a dark theme work with this application or not but I see that Starlabs and Adwaita-dark are theming it perfectly. I don't know the difference with a theme like yours nor which files should be included or modified, sorry to be of no help.
Do you think that this issue with Double Commander could be fixed? I would be glad to use this theme as I really like it.
Here's a concrete example:
Shades of Gray Arch > https://i.imgur.com/7kHGd7V.png
StarLabs Dark > https://i.imgur.com/FGDgJHI.png
I've posted a message on application's forum to get more informations about the files to customize but nobody answered for now > https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5769
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WernerFP
2 months ago
Your 1st screenhot shows doublecmd-gtk-0.9.6-beta that is not included in Ubuntu 19.4 repositories. Here the GTK2 theme (Shades-of gray) is broken.
Is that probably the cause? Are shared libraries missing or in inadequate versions?
In Ubuntu 19.4 with doublecmd-gtk-0.9.2-1 everything is fine with me:
https://i.imgur.com/bXAisBF.jpg
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WernerFP
2 months ago
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fenyx
2 months ago
Output:
$ doublecmd
XInitThreads: 1
[lines about theme loading should be here but there's nothing]
Starting GuiMessageQueue
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fenyx
2 months ago
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WernerFP
2 months ago
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WernerFP
2 months ago
Did you install the package gtk2-engines-murrine?
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fenyx
2 months ago
gtk2-engines
gtk2-engines-pixbuf
gtk2-engines-murrine
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fenyx
2 months ago
So now I've tried to copy your theme's directory to ~/.themes on my current system, and... the magic happened ! I've now moved all my installed themes to this directory instead of my unclear symlink trick, so the apps already impacted by these themes before the change are still properly styled, and the only app to ignore the system theme is now as beautiful as the rest.
The solution was so simple. And the cause was just... my own mistake. Apologies. Happy end. And thanks again for your work on this theme ! :)
"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
Albert Einstein
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WernerFP
2 months ago
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fenyx
2 months ago
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WernerFP
2 months ago
The last posts have crossed in order :)
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n1ghtw1ng
2 months ago
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hangman
4 months ago
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rda9000
4 months ago
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marceloaguero
4 months ago
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annoyingduck
4 months ago
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beyonderforce
5 months ago
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beyonderforce
5 months ago
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haertie
5 months ago
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bridnour
5 months ago
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aedrasil
5 months ago
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