How do I change windows colors/themes in Cinnamon?

[lsc9x]

HI!

I'm brand new to Cinnamon, and just installed Linux Mint 14 w/Cinnamon. I know how to change the "Cinnamon" part of it: i.e. panels and launcher themes, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to change window colors beyond the normal, high contrast or low contrast color schemes. I like the windows in the dark "high contrast scheme", but when I open an application it is ugly as sin! It's all crazy dark purple with bright blue outlines! Not what I want at all.

All I really want to do is to be able to change the windows border, title, etc. to a dark grey instead of a light grey. It's easier on my eyes.

Do I need to install some kind of gnome theme and them modify it? I can't find any window color buttons like there are in MATE.

I need to be careful with this because I hosed my last installation by installing some themes which somehow broke my system and I lost my dektop icons and panels completely and had to reinstall.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks.

[Adelante]

You can find some here at Noobslab with easy instructions for installing.

[acw89]

I too recently cutover to Mint 13 Cinnamon from Mint 11 and find it a deffinite improvement except for all the gray I am seeing everywhre.
Does anyone out there know of a good place to find more themes that have COLOR. So many of these seem too dark or still leave a lot of gray in the window and menu format. Are there any apps out there the allow you to change the color of the windows and get rid of all the gray. This seems to one of the few short falls of Cinnamon.
In Gnome you had more ways to customize so its sort of a step backward.

thanks for any ideas...

[lsc9x]

So, if I am understanding this correctly I first have to install

- GTK
- Gnome Shell

and then I can use these settings in Cinnamon preferences?

Or do I access those preferences from some other app?

Thanks!

[bimsebasse]

Snippet from a forthcoming Cinnamon user guide:

4a. Themes explained

Changing theme in Cinnamon is still somewhat complicated though it's getting easier and easier. First of all there are several different UI components you can change theme for:

Cinnamon themes - these affect the shell, Cinnamon proper, i.e. panels, popup menus, overviews and such. Note that changing a Cinnamon theme does not affect your windows, your wallpaper or anything else but the shell.

Window theme - these change your window decoration. Visually what you see changing are window buttons (minimize, maximize, close) and window title bar - the window "frame", sort of (technically, what you change is the metacity (window manager) theme).

GTK+ theme - this changes your windows' appearance, widgets, colour, style - the "body" to the "frame" set in "Window theme".

Window theme and GTK+ theme belong together, so, if you want to change to Faience or Adwaita or any other theme, you need to select it under both "window theme" and "GTK theme" to fully apply the theme (you can of course mix-match if you want, using e.g. Adwaita window decoration with Mint-X GTK, but they're not designed to go together). In Gnome 2, GTK theme and Window theme were joined and changed simultaneously by the click of a theme thumbnail. Hopefully it will be as simple in Cinnamon Settings at some point. Right now it does feel a bit like an effort was made to make changing a theme as awkward to newcomers as possible, but you'll get the hang of it.

You do NOT need to install gnome shell in order to install/change theme in Cinnamon.

[lsc9x]

OK, that makes a lot more sense now.

One problem I am having getting themes to work is that when I download themes and put them into my themes folder using cp -r *, some of them only have 1 folder, so I get the buttons, but not the windows, or vica versa. I think I can start figuring that out.

thanks again!

[Dngrsone]

Okay, maybe I am being dense or something... I have downloaded and installed several themes for my Mint 14 Cinnamon (64-bit) installation, but when I change themes, about the only thing I see changed is the menu bar.

I do not like white.

Let me rephrase that-- I DO NOT LIKE WHITE. It physically pains me. I am downloading dark themes like Delorean Dark and Loki, which are Cinnamon compatible, right? Why do I still have white background panels in every window I open?

How do I get rid of the freakin' white?

[lsc9x]

Okay, maybe I am being dense or something... I have downloaded and installed several themes for my Mint 14 Cinnamon (64-bit) installation, but when I change themes, about the only thing I see changed is the menu bar.

I do not like white.

Let me rephrase that-- I DO NOT LIKE WHITE. It physically pains me.

Dngrson,

I completely agree! I too tried those themes and they didn't work, but I FINALLY figured out the problem. Any theme that you want to install into Cinnamon has to be GTK+ 3.0 (Maybe even 3.6 only,..not sure) compatible or higher. Gnome 2 themes will NOT work, at least not the ones I tried. I finally found a great dark theme called "GnomishDark" that I like.

http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=147290

You'll also need to download the icon pack:

http://tsujan.deviantart.com/art/nouveG ... -300365158

Basically, you have to have the theme, it has to be GTK+ and Gnome 3 compatible, and you have to have any icon sets or windows styles with it. Older stuff just doesn't work out of the box.

Also, DO read the "readme" files in the theme folder. There are a lot of instructions for installing the theme correctly and also fixing specific application "bugs".

Once installed, make sure you pick both the window theme, GTK+ theme and the icon theme in "other" settings in cinnamon settings/themes.

Once you get this theme to work, the others should be similar.

Hope this helps!

[acw89]

Thank you bimsebasse for your "Themes explained" .. it does clear up some of my confusion. And a thank goes out to lsc9x for providing helpful info as well. That dark theme is not bad at all. Now I do not normally like GRAY, but this darker gray is really nice ... especialy if you are working in subdued light, which I do a lot. I am getting braver and will try other Themes as I find them

Love this Forum and all you can learn from others...

[Dngrsone]

Oh, much better! Thanks, lsc9x!

[lsc9x]

No problem. Happy to help!

Gnome 2 themes aside, I still really like Mint 14 with Cinnamon.

Peace!