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#1 2013-01-30 09:17:23

whoops
Member
Registered: 2009-03-19
Posts: 891

Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

Hi!

I've tried many dark themes...
- Some only work in gtk3, leaving gtk2 windows stand out
- Some (not all!) leave me with light grey text on white background in many places or similar bad combinations
- I had invisible "selection colors" in many programs with some themes
- Indiscernible primary + secondary table rows color (p.e. in clawsmail)
- Unreadable Menu text in inactive windows
- Overall colors all too dark and not enough contrast
... aaaand the list goes on. It's a mess.

Any hints on what themes / engines to try?

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#2 2013-01-30 09:38:45

illusionist
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From: localhost
Registered: 2012-04-03
Posts: 498

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

I am using greybird theme. It is not that dark but quite soothing to the eyes and haven't had any problems you mentioned.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=46022


  Never argue with stupid people,They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.--Mark Twain
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#3 2013-01-30 10:03:48

whoops
Member
Registered: 2009-03-19
Posts: 891

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

Thanks, but I'm really looking for a dark theme here ATM. Normal / "light" themes that look ok and work fine aren't really hard to find, there are a lot of those.

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#4 2013-01-30 10:13:54

kaszak696
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Registered: 2009-05-26
Posts: 543

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

FlatStudioDark is quite nice.


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#5 2013-01-30 10:37:55

whoops
Member
Registered: 2009-03-19
Posts: 891

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

That theme seems to use the same color for several elements that should have different colors, certain elements are not discernible. You can already see it in lxappearance: the top half which is a very different color than the lower half of the preview with the normal FlatStudio Theme has the same color with the dark version. Application example: In Transmission-gtk, all rows have the same color. Should be lighter / darker color alternating for each row. Also, in elements that have focus, the "progress bar color" matches the "focus background color", making full progress bars invisible and incomplete ones look weird.

Last edited by whoops (2013-01-30 10:40:40)

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#6 2013-01-30 12:36:49

Onyros
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From: Lisbon, Portugal
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 307

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

I would recommend OMG-Suite (OMG-Dark is what I use), it's in the AUR, but the latest upgrade from cairo-1.12.8-2 to cairo-1.12.10-2 broke the theme for me in some applications. Other than that it's absolutely gorgeous. (I just froze cairo for the time being and while the theme's not updated)

Last edited by Onyros (2013-01-30 12:37:57)

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#7 2013-01-30 12:50:28

whoops
Member
Registered: 2009-03-19
Posts: 891

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

Thanks, but what exactly is broken ATM? With OMG-Dark, I have the same problems I have with "FlatStudio" (gtk3 apps: uses same color for both backgrounds in "alternating color rows"). Could this be part of that bug? Also some of it is really low contrast - p.e. in Claws-Mail (gtk2) I also can barely distinguish the "alternating row colors".

edit: OMG standard (without "Dark" seems ok so far, going to try that one for a while, thanks!)

What has worked best for me so far is still Equinox (Midnight), but that doesn't have a gtk3 version + none seems to be planned hmm


Hmm, lets see which ones I tried recently:

Look sort of "broken":
- Adwaita-X-Dark: Not actually dark.
- atolm with equinox: Features white text on light grey background mixed with black text on white background which is neither really a "dark theme" nor... readable.
- atolm with murrine: Looks very very very broken and messy.
- Boje-(color): Very low contrast for "alternating row colors" in both gtk2 and gtk3 (but at least it's using different colors). Colors are too close together to make correcting this with gamma or brightness control even remotely feasible.
- Darklooks: Looks ok'ish but no gtk3 support.
- Delorian dark: Very low contrast for "alternating row colors", messy textures
- Elementary-Dark: Looks "slick", but too much "information" is lost because almost everything has the same color. Can't distinguish many GUI elements.
- Equinox Evolution Dusk: White text und light grey background in many places... can't read shit
- FlatstudioDark: Very low contrast for "alternating row colors", same colors for multiple elements resulting in invisible elements
- Gnomish (Dark & Light): Sort of ok & working but bad "weighting" (too high contrast for some "shiny gradients" make stuff hard to read... too low contrast for others does the same thing), overall messy - unimportant GUI elements (p.E. horizontal bars) stand out way too much and some are very big
- OMG-Dark: Very low contrast for "alternating row colors" (gtk2), same colors for multiple elements resulting in invisible elements (gtk3)
- marples-black: Not sure this is an actual working gtk theme. Only saw it do something in a preview application.
- Xfce-Albatross: Not actually a dark theme, just has white text in some places (only some of which are dark'ish).
- Xfce-Dusk: Rather low contrast for "alternating row colors" (gtk2), same colors for multiple elements resulting in invisible elements (gtk3)
- Xubuntustudio:  Features white text on light grey background mixed with black text on white background and has no gtk3 support

"Suboptimal":
- OMG (standard version): grey font on grey backbround / contrast sort of low (mostly gtk2: p.E Transmission + Claws-Mail) but still readable; some things look "greyed out" / inactive when they shouldn't (p.e. pavucontrol)
- Equinox Evolution Midnight: Works great, everything clearly visible, but no gtk3 support at all
- Overglossed-(Variants): Everything visible / Looks fine (despite the "gloss" being a bit to "over" for my taste). No gtk3 support though.
- Plasma-(color): low contrast for "alternating row colors" in both gtk2 and gtk3. Turning alpha correction up a bit helps, but then some dark scenes in images/movies etc look bad.


Am I doing something wrong / do those all look better on your machines for some reason?

Last edited by whoops (2013-01-31 09:17:56)

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#8 2013-01-30 13:21:32

GordonGR
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From: Thessaloniki, Greece
Registered: 2011-11-07
Posts: 276

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

What about Boje or Plasma Shock?


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#9 2013-01-30 13:50:38

whoops
Member
Registered: 2009-03-19
Posts: 891

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

Added to my list above... Have the same problem with both of those...: low contrast for "alternating row colors" in both gtk2 and gtk3.
Tried to make them distinguishable by adjusting my gamma/brightness... results weren't too great.

Can you clearly see the difference of those shades in those two themes? Maybe my monitor is just bad in that color range, as I have this problem with almost all dark themes (except "Equinox Midnight" where it's exactly right) hmm
Almost looks as if I won't get around editing / customizing a theme...

Last edited by whoops (2013-01-30 13:55:12)

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#10 2013-01-30 14:38:55

drcouzelis
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From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 4,092
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Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

I appreciate this thread. I, too, have been struggling to find a non-buggy dark theme over the past month. hmm I made a thread about my frustrations with Equinox Evolution Dark here, and still haven't quite settled on a theme yet.

One thing that has helped in my quest is that I removed all GTK3 applications from my system and replaced them with GTK2 applications (transmission-gtk2, deadbeef-gtk2, galculator-gtk2...).

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#11 2013-01-30 15:02:05

alphaniner
Member
From: Ancapistan
Registered: 2010-07-12
Posts: 2,810

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

I'm mostly pleased with elegant-gtk (gtk-theme-elegant-gtk from AUR) in XFCE. The only significant problem I can think of is white text in a white box with google search hmm

Though, I recently made a local clone (same machine; just copied everything to a new set of LVs) of my install for testing purposes. When I switched from nouveau to nvidia drivers, I was reverted to the default theme. I only did a cursory investigation, but IIRC the theme had disappeared from the list.

Last edited by alphaniner (2013-01-30 15:06:31)


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#12 2013-01-30 18:08:13

ronmon
Member
Registered: 2011-04-15
Posts: 48

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

I also like a dark theme and have run across the same problems as the OP. The one I like best is XubuntuStudio.

It's an old gtk2 theme (I have it installed in ~/.themes and the file dates go back to 2007), but works okay with an up-to-date xfce4. You can check it out here.

http://xfce-look.org/content/show.php/X … tent=65776

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#13 2013-01-31 09:02:14

whoops
Member
Registered: 2009-03-19
Posts: 891

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

Tried that...: Features white text on light grey background mixed with black text on white background and has no gtk3 support

Best results I got so far (still not great though hmm ) :
Installed Equinox and OMG; Using "midnight" for gtk2 and OMG for gtk3.
( Did it with symlinks and not with separate manual settings, because theme switchers tend to overwrite those gtk3 settings with "standard theme" every time I try a gtk2 theme without gtk3 support )

mkdir ~/themes/mix
ln -s 
ln -s /usr/share/themes/Equinox\ Evolution\ Midnight/* ~/themes/mix
ln -s /usr/share/themes/OMG/* ~/themes/mix

What bothers me most with this combination is the way that gtk3 sliders look (in OMG)... they are barely visible and pavucontrol looks like a flat / inactive wall.


"Plasma Bolt" instead of OMG sort of does the job, too, but has lower contrast and stands out more.


Guess I'm going to replace the gtk3 apps that look worst with gtk2 versions from AUR now, but that's not a solution hmm

Last edited by whoops (2013-01-31 09:27:49)

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#14 2013-01-31 15:29:48

drcouzelis
Member
From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 4,092
Website

Re: Least buggy dark theme (gtk2+3)?

whoops wrote:

low contrast for "alternating row colors" in both gtk2 and gtk3. Tried to make them distinguishable by adjusting my gamma/brightness... results weren't too great.

Can you clearly see the difference of those shades in those two themes? Maybe my monitor is just bad in that color range, as I have this problem with almost all dark themes

I tried FlatStudioDark last night. I only looked at it briefly, but I loaded up GnuCash and Transmission to look at the "alternating rows" colors. Yes, they are similar, but I do think they have enough contrast. So, as you said, maybe your monitor is just bad in that color range. hmm

whoops wrote:

Guess I'm going to replace the gtk3 apps that look worst with gtk2 versions from AUR now, but that's not a solution

Well, at least it's a short term solution, until the GNOME developers get their act together with the theme API. tongue

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