Apply changes in “Customize look and feel” everywhere?

[Member fladd]

Two things in “Customize look and feel” are not applied everywhere:

1. Widget
This does only seem to be applied to GTK2 applications, but not to GTK3 ones (and also not to Qt ones of course). How do I apply the GTK widget theme to GTK3 apps as well?

2. Icon theme
This does only seem to be applied to GTK2 applications, but not to GTK3 ones and also not to the IceWM menu and taskbar. How doe I apply the icon theme to GTK3 apps and IceWM menu and taskbar?

[Anonymous]

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“Customize look and feel” (aka “lxappearance” program)

does only seem to be applied to GTK2 applications, but not to GTK3

Your observation is correct.
Many of (may be more accurate to say “most”) GTK3 themes cannot be adjusted by lxappearance (nor any other utility).
Reason: Under gtk3, the styling applied to buttons (and other widgets) utilizes background//border images which were generated when the themeset was “compiled” (by the theme author, prior to its distribution).

opendesktop.org (nowadays affiliated with “pling”)
pling Homepage >> Desktop Themes >> Gnome/GTK https://www.pling.com/browse?cat=366&ord=latest

Via the screenshots, you can “browse” potentially appealing themesets.
Via the details, you can focus your selection to only the themesets which support BOTH gtk2 and gtk3.
If a theme grabs your interest, click the “Files” tab displayed beneath its screenshot(s), and click the Download (i.e. not the “Install”) button.

“What to do with, where to place, the extracted content of the downloaded themeset(s)”
is a topic I have covered in previous antixform posts

“How do I apply the GTK widget theme to GTK3 apps”
“How do I apply the icon theme to GTK3 apps”
similarly, these have been asked/answered in prior antixforum topics

[Member fladd]

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Thanks, I actually figured out that the Clearlooks-Phenix theme supports GTK2 and GTK3!

Any idea about the icon theme? How to apply this to everywhere, and not just to parts of the system?

[Anonymous]

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gtk2 settings are read from this file, which you can edit via a text editor:
~/.gtkrc-2.0

To specify the default iconset, edit the line (or add the line if it does not already exist) & save file.
gtk-icon-theme-name=“IconsetName”

Note: (in case you later use, or have previously used, lxappearance to save any detail) lxappearance inserts a directive into the .gtkrc-2.0 file, instructing the ini parser to “pssst! Look over HERE” causing an overriding set of declarations to be read from an additional file… so you may need to edit that separate file (its filename eludes my memory at the moment) and change the gtk-icon-theme-name line therein.

For gtk3, settings are read from this file:
~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini

Edit, or add, a line anywhere below the Settings section tag
(for gtk3 we can / should omit the quotation marks encasing the name of the iconset, IIRC)
[Settings]
gtk-icon-theme-name=IconsetName

To notice the effect of changes specified within the gtk3 ini, you’ll probably need to logout then login again.

> Clearlooks-Phenix theme supports GTK2 and GTK3

That theme has some quirks, details which I felt demanded customization, and I described those customizatons here: antixforum post# 44873

> everywhere, and not just to parts of the system

Everywhere? Well, theming applied to Qt -based programs is specified in yet another settings file… and the forum search will find the howto’s which have been previously posted.

[Member fladd]

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Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. However, I think it would be nice if setting the icon theme in the GUI tool would correctly set the icons everywhere in the system. Not only in GTK2 and GTK3, but also IceWM. Otherwise, the usefulness of the GUI tool is a bit questionable, if it only applies the settings to specific parts.

Anonymous wrote:

That theme has some quirks, details which I felt demanded customization, and I described those customizatons here: antixforum post# 44873

This links to a discussion about “Clearview-Phoenix”. Do the same issues apply to “Clearlooks-Phenix”?

[Anonymous]

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I’m guessing the linked post #44873 contains a typo, intending to refer to the pre-installed “Clearlooks-Phenix” theme.

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