Dark panel MATE theme that looks proper in every aspect?

[RytronII]

Hi.

Can someone recommend a theme for MATE that gives a dark panel and looks proper everywhere e.g. in nautilus etc..
I've noticed than many themes (even the ones that come with MATE) don't fully function - they appear fine in parts but look aufwl elsewhere.

Should I opt for GTK2 or GTK3 themes?

Thanks.

[wickyd]

I registered today to ask the exact same question

The look of Cinnamon is great, unfortunately there is simply too much instability with Compiz and GTK on my laptop. If Cinnamon freezes, it locks up my machine completely. The only way to fix the problem is turn the laptop off. The exact same thing happens with Ubuntu.

Looking forward to an answer to this question.

[RytronII]

I registered today to ask the exact same question

The look of Cinnamon is great, unfortunately there is simply too much instability with Compiz and GTK on my laptop. If Cinnamon freezes, it locks up my machine completely. The only way to fix the problem is turn the laptop off. The exact same thing happens with Ubuntu.

Looking forward to an answer to this question.

I prefer the dark panel in Cinnamon but had to leave it for MATE due to too many freezes.

[KoxxBoxx]

I use this combination:

Controls: Greybird (available in the 'shimmer-themes' package from the official repos)
Window border: Zukitwo Dark (from the Webupd8 PPA: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/04/zukitwo- ... dated.html)
Icons: Faenza-Dark (http://tiheum.deviantart.com/art/Faenza-Icons-173323228)

Screenshot:
http://i.imgur.com/POSEt.jpg

[RytronII]

I use this combination:

Controls: Greybird (available in the 'shimmer-themes' package from the official repos)

Thanks for the tips. Do you notice that when Greybird is added for Controls that it causes some of KompoZer & Thunderbird to appear incorrectly? Like so [images]. Is there a fix?

It would be great to have a dark panel and a different theme for Control. Is that possible?

[KoxxBoxx]

I use this combination:

Controls: Greybird (available in the 'shimmer-themes' package from the official repos)

Thanks for the tips. Do you notice that when Greybird is added for Controls that it causes some of KompoZer & Thunderbird to appear incorrectly? Like so [images]. Is there a fix?

It would be great to have a dark panel and a different theme for Control. Is that possible?

Don't use neither Kompozer nor Thunderbird, so I hadn't noticed. But you're right, that doesn't look particularly good.

Re. panel color: I guess you can always play with the background color of an existing theme (right click on panel and select Proporties). Some will look good and others will look bad, so you will have to test them yourself. Here's a screenshot of Zukitwo Dark controls and window border but with an altered panel color (it defaults to a light panel): http://i.imgur.com/HPIot.png. I think it looks pretty good.

[RytronII]

Here's a screenshot of Zukitwo Dark controls and window border but with an altered panel color (it defaults to a light panel): http://i.imgur.com/HPIot.png. I think it looks pretty good.

Does that theme setup look good in LibreOffoce, Kompozer and Thunderbird? How did you change the panel color - Gnome Color Chooser or right clicking on panel?

[KoxxBoxx]

Does that theme setup look good in LibreOffoce, Kompozer and Thunderbird? How did you change the panel color - Gnome Color Chooser or right clicking on panel?

LibreOffice looks similar to Kompozer in my screenshot. Can't really test with Thunderbird without setting up an account, so you'll have to try that yourself. To change the color right click on panel, select Properties - Background tab and choose Solid color. Then click the color "button" and adjust the color to fit your needs (I used the color picker to pick a color that matches the window border).

[soccerz619]

When I install shimmer-themes, where do I go to include them as options? I love this look, and don't see a whole lot of good options for MATE (and can't use Cinnamon due to driver conflict). Thanks in advance!

I use this combination:

Controls: Greybird (available in the 'shimmer-themes' package from the official repos)
Window border: Zukitwo Dark (from the Webupd8 PPA: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/04/zukitwo- ... dated.html)
Icons: Faenza-Dark (http://tiheum.deviantart.com/art/Faenza-Icons-173323228)

Screenshot:
http://i.imgur.com/POSEt.jpg

[TheDynamicHamza21]

When I install shimmer-themes, where do I go to include them as options? I love this look, and don't see a whole lot of good options for MATE (and can't use Cinnamon due to driver conflict). Thanks in advance!

I use this combination:

Controls: Greybird (available in the 'shimmer-themes' package from the official repos)
Window border: Zukitwo Dark (from the Webupd8 PPA: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/04/zukitwo- ... dated.html)
Icons: Faenza-Dark (http://tiheum.deviantart.com/art/Faenza-Icons-173323228)

Screenshot:
http://i.imgur.com/POSEt.jpg

Menu>Preference>Appearance

[soccerz619]

It's not showing any of those as options in there, though. It didn't update with any other themes or anything in there after I downloaded that. I did find some other from linuxmint-art.org that are working now. Thanks though!

[meteorrock]

What other themes are available for the MATE desktop? A quick check through the forums here did not reveal much in the Board index ‹ Main Edition Support ‹ Desktops & Window Managers ‹ MATE category.

I have looked on the interwebs at gnome-looks.org but I did not find much there either. The included theme "aurora" in the appearance options does not seem to be working correctly for me and gives an error on trying to apply it.

The oxygen engine theme in the same options on the Mate 1.4 seems to be working fine though but is not my thing.

Thanks.

[chrnoble]

@meteorrock Any of the GTK2 themes on gnome-looks should work on MATE.

[herbie643]

I installed the Shiki themes and it has some dark themes and the panels look pretty good as well.
Now the one thing I have done is kinda merged themes together. Mint-Z-Improved with Shiki-Nouveau-Dust copying elements of one to the other and then modified the living crap out of the gtkrc file and Panel.rc file. Took some time but you learn a lot about theming that way.