Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

ar5007eg · 2012-12-30 23:35:04

I've been away from Linux for some years. I installed Arch, but didn't installed any Desktop Environments and I'm currently working with awesome-wm, which is like xmonad, but with an editable config file.

Great. But applications looks very very ugly, Win98-ugly. Everything is so gray and dark that I found myself constantly trying to increase the brightness of my monitor. I know this has something to do with gtk. I installed some gtk-chtheme but changing the theme doesn't help a lot; everything is still dark, I mean, Windows applications **shine bright** when compared to applications I use on Arch.

So, how can I have nice-looking applications without installing a DE?

bohoomil · 2012-12-30 23:41:06

Read me.

ar5007eg · 2012-12-31 00:13:32

Well, which information is important for me in that page? I've already used gtk-chtheme and installed many themes from the repository but they ALL seem to me like variations of gray-win98-like themes. So, I guess I don't understand what's going on:

A) The themes (I have) themselves are ugly.
or
B) There is also something else to do (besides gtk-chtheme) to make everything less grayish.

Last edited by ar5007eg (2012-12-31 00:14:45)

bohoomil · 2012-12-31 00:15:36

Have you installed gtk-engines (for gtk2 themes) and / or dedicated themes for gtk3 applications (if you're using any)?

Trilby · 2012-12-31 00:16:00

Aside from "ugly" and "grayish" you haven't really described a problem.

You seem to assume that everyone has the same idea of what is ugly or what is "nice-looking". That is clearly not the case. Can you give specifics? What applications do you not find sutiable, and how (objectively/specifically) would you like them to change?

ar5007eg · 2012-12-31 00:27:41

I've installed only gtk2 themes because I'm testing them on firefox and firefox's appearence changes after changing the theme. I don't know, maybe it's just the themes themselves but, for instance, using ANY of those themes make the titlebars gray (there are different grays, but they are all grays). Those themes I mentioned are

Adwaita Cupertino L Nodoka-Aqua Xfce-b5
Adwaita Cupertino SL Nodoka-Gilouche Xfce-basic
Aurora Nodoka-Looks Xfce-cadmium
Bluecurve Nodoka-Midnight Xfce-curve
CleanIce Nodoka-Rounded Xfce-dawn
CleanIce-Dark Nodoka-Silver Xfce-dusk
CleanIce-Debian Nodoka-Squared Xfce-kde2
CleanIce-Marble OkayishChicken Xfce-kolors
Clearlooks Raleigh Xfce-light
CortlandChicken Redmond Xfce-orange
Crux ThinIce Xfce-redmondxp
Default Tiger Xfce-saltlake
Emacs Xfce Xfce-smooth
Industrial Xfce-4.0 Xfce-stellar
MagicChicken Xfce-4.2 Xfce-winter
Mist Xfce-4.4 oxygen-gtk
Nodoka Xfce-4.6

Is this the intended look of those themes?

EDIT: For instance Xfce-orange doesn't make the titlebars orange (they are still grayish). It only changes, for instance, the current selected item on a context menu to orange.

Last edited by ar5007eg (2012-12-31 00:30:13)

Trilby · 2012-12-31 01:23:40

Titlebars are drawn by (some) window managers, and are customized through the WM customization, not gtk.

You said you use awesome wm? There are no classical window title bars, just the title region in the status bar, right? You need to look into your awesomewm configs and do the theming there.

EDIT: link: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Aw … figuration If you are more specific with your questions in the future, you will likely get the information you need much faster.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-31 01:27:23)

jwatte · 2012-12-31 01:30:35

Or change to a different window manager that is more to your liking. Window managers with transparency and 3D effects seem to be sprouting up right, left and center these days...

ar5007eg · 2012-12-31 02:03:59

No, no, I'm sorry I didn't mean the titlebars themselves, I didn't even enable it on awesome (and they're off by default). What I'm talking about is about menu's background, I guess. Like in firefox the background color of the menus, or the tabs background color, etc. They DO change when I change the gtk theme, but they just don't feel nice like in Windows or OSX.

Anyway, I get this MacOS theme from gnomelook.org; it's still ugly, but less than the others. I feel like it's not the THEME's fault but the graphical toolkit itself can't make things as pretty as the ones I've got used to while away from Linux. Still, I appreciate ur help.

Trilby · 2012-12-31 02:07:01

*headdesk*

I quit.

ar5007eg · 2012-12-31 02:35:30

Ah ha, one thing that can actually *cover* the uglyness consists on using a composite manager, like Cairo. It's better than nothing. I will try to configure it properly later..

Last edited by ar5007eg (2012-12-31 02:37:19)

drcouzelis · 2012-12-31 03:47:47

ar5007eg wrote:

Like in firefox the background color of the menus, or the tabs background color, etc. ...they just don't feel nice like in Windows or OSX.

Will you please post a screenshot and the corresponding GTK2 configuration file (~/.gtkrc-2.0) that explains how the colors don't "feel nice"?

Arch Linux

#1 2012-12-30 23:35:04

Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#2 2012-12-30 23:41:06

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#3 2012-12-31 00:13:32

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#4 2012-12-31 00:15:36

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#5 2012-12-31 00:16:00

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#6 2012-12-31 00:27:41

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#7 2012-12-31 01:23:40

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#8 2012-12-31 01:30:35

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#9 2012-12-31 02:03:59

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#10 2012-12-31 02:07:01

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#11 2012-12-31 02:35:30

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

#12 2012-12-31 03:47:47

Re: Applications looking ugly (Win98-like)

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