How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Write tutorials for Linux Mint here
More tutorials on https://github.com/orgs/linuxmint/discu ... /tutorials and (archive) on https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial
Forum rules
Don't add support questions to tutorials; start your own topic in the appropriate sub-forum instead. Before you post read forum rules
Post Reply
User avatar
twodogs
Level 4
Level 4
Posts: 320
Joined: Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:18 pm

How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by twodogs »

I love the Shiki-Midnight-Colors theme and I use Wise on my Linux Mint box (this theme should be the default Linux Mint dark theme IMHO). The only problem (?) I found was the font color for the desktop icons. The font color is dark and on a dark background the font is almost unreadable. I need the font to be white.

How to fix:

enter in terminal...

Code: Select all

gksu gedit /usr/share/themes/Shiki-Midnight-Wise/gtk-3.0/apps/nautilus.css
add this text to the end of the file...

Code: Select all

.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item {
color: #FFFFFF;
}

.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item:active,
.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item:prelight,
.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item:selected {
text-shadow: none;
}
Save the file and close.
Log out and then log back in. Enjoy!

This fix works even if you are not using Nautilus and use Nemo instead!
I am using Linux Mint 14 Nadia 64-bit Cinnamon with Nemo! :)

If you want just the Wise theme with this modification already applied,
you can download it here.
jeantout

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by jeantout »

Hello,
I'm interested too by this change, for the same reasons.
But in APPS there is not Nautilus, but Nemo.
I'm not very good with Linux, so I want to ask you if I copy the modifcation in Nemo?

Currently In Nemo there as follows:

/* sidebar */

NemoWindow .sidebar .view {
background-color: #3F3F3F;
color: #EEEEEE;
text-shadow: 1px 1px alpha (#000000, 0.8);
}


/* inactive pane */

.nemo-inactive-pane .view {
background-color: shade(@theme_base_color, 0.9);
}

Sorry but I use the google traduction.

Thank you for your response
User avatar
twodogs
Level 4
Level 4
Posts: 320
Joined: Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:18 pm

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by twodogs »

jeantout wrote:Hello,
I'm interested too by this change, for the same reasons.
But in APPS there is not Nautilus, but Nemo.
I'm not very good with Linux, so I want to ask you if I copy the modifcation in Nemo?

Currently In Nemo there as follows:

/* sidebar */

NemoWindow .sidebar .view {
background-color: #3F3F3F;
color: #EEEEEE;
text-shadow: 1px 1px alpha (#000000, 0.8);
}

/* inactive pane */

.nemo-inactive-pane .view {
background-color: shade(@theme_base_color, 0.9);
}

Sorry but I use the google traduction.

Thank you for your response
Short answer.. no. I originally tried it in Nemo and it did not work. I then applied the code to nautilus.css and it worked. If you don't have a nautilus.css then just try creating a new document (nautilus.css) and put the code in it. I'm not on my computer at the moment, so I will look further into this tomorrow.
jeantout

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by jeantout »

Hello,
I'll try
I'm going to rename Namo in Nanoold, and create Nautilus.
and I have also in gtk3 another file with Namo.css " Unity.css" in gtk3
I forgot, I use Mint Mate 14
thank you
ivanv

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by ivanv »

Hi all,

Few days ago I switched to Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon. I like good old light-themes (Ambiance) from repositories, so I installed it but there was the same problem with unreadable desktop icon font color. Everything else was just fine, though. I tried to edit nautilus.css, but then I realized that this file version is not designed for nemo. There wasn't any "nemo" word in this file, only "nautilus", so I guess nemo doesn't know how to behave according to this theme. Then I tried to find every "nautilus" word in this file and replace it with "nemo".

For example,
".nautilus-canvas-item" should be ".nemo-canvas-item"
".nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item" should be ".nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item"
etc.

After file saving and restarting nemo ("nemo -q", and then "nemo&"), everything was fine, desktop icons font was readable again. I hope that this will help.

Best regards,
Ivan
arcos

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by arcos »

ivanv wrote:Hi all,

Few days ago I switched to Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon. I like good old light-themes (Ambiance) from repositories, so I installed it but there was the same problem with unreadable desktop icon font color. Everything else was just fine, though. I tried to edit nautilus.css, but then I realized that this file version is not designed for nemo. There wasn't any "nemo" word in this file, only "nautilus", so I guess nemo doesn't know how to behave according to this theme. Then I tried to find every "nautilus" word in this file and replace it with "nemo".

For example,
".nautilus-canvas-item" should be ".nemo-canvas-item"
".nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item" should be ".nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item"
etc.

After file saving and restarting nemo ("nemo -q", and then "nemo&"), everything was fine, desktop icons font was readable again. I hope that this will help.

Best regards,
Ivan
Hi Ivan,

This was exactly my case with Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon and light-themes (Ambiance). I've been trying to find a solution for two days. Your solution worked like a charm.

Thanks.
adonis69

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by adonis69 »

ivanv wrote:Hi all,

Few days ago I switched to Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon. I like good old light-themes (Ambiance) from repositories, so I installed it but there was the same problem with unreadable desktop icon font color. Everything else was just fine, though. I tried to edit nautilus.css, but then I realized that this file version is not designed for nemo. There wasn't any "nemo" word in this file, only "nautilus", so I guess nemo doesn't know how to behave according to this theme. Then I tried to find every "nautilus" word in this file and replace it with "nemo".

For example,
".nautilus-canvas-item" should be ".nemo-canvas-item"
".nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item" should be ".nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item"
etc.

After file saving and restarting nemo ("nemo -q", and then "nemo&"), everything was fine, desktop icons font was readable again. I hope that this will help.

Best regards,
Ivan

Hi Ivan,

I have a problem with the Win-Xp-theme. I cannot find where the nautilus is and where the nemo is. Even if I log into the pc as a root, in the win-xp-theme there are no files like that.

Can you please help?

Also, when you said restarting nemo that means with the terminal?

So, in order to clarify this out, do I have to use the terminal in order to make the changes and see the nautilus and memo file?

thank you and I will wait for your reply


p.s I use Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon
ivanv

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by ivanv »

Hi adonis,

there is an explanation in the first post from twodogs. Location of nautilus.css should be
/usr/share/themes/<REAL_NAME_OF_YOUR_THEME>/gtk-3.0/apps/nautilus.css

To edit this file, run in terminal:
gksu gedit /usr/share/themes/<REAL_NAME_OF_YOUR_THEME>/gtk-3.0/apps/nautilus.css
(Use real name of your theme, and you will need admin rights to edit this file.)

Nemo needs to be restarted when you save updated nautilus.css file.

You don't have to restart nemo from terminal (using "nemo -q"), but it is faster way to test changes you've made on your theme and to see their impact on a desktop. When you type "nemo" in terminal or just click Cinnamon's Menu and then Files, nemo will be on again. To restart nemo, you can also restart your computer, or just do logout-login.

Best regards,
Ivan
adonis69

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by adonis69 »

ivanv wrote:Hi adonis,

there is an explanation in the first post from twodogs. Location of nautilus.css should be
/usr/share/themes/<REAL_NAME_OF_YOUR_THEME>/gtk-3.0/apps/nautilus.css

To edit this file, run in terminal:
gksu gedit /usr/share/themes/<REAL_NAME_OF_YOUR_THEME>/gtk-3.0/apps/nautilus.css
(Use real name of your theme, and you will need admin rights to edit this file.)

Nemo needs to be restarted when you save updated nautilus.css file.

You don't have to restart nemo from terminal (using "nemo -q"), but it is faster way to test changes you've made on your theme and to see their impact on a desktop. When you type "nemo" in terminal or just click Cinnamon's Menu and then Files, nemo will be on again. To restart nemo, you can also restart your computer, or just do logout-login.

Best regards,
Ivan

Hello Ivan,

sorry for bothering you again. I try all the steps you told me to do . The theme is the Win-XP-theme from Nooblab. I am formating a friend's pc from Windows to Linux and he told me that he wants his laptop to look like Windows. So the only way was to apply the Win xp theme . I noticed that in the gtk-3 apps there wasn't a nautilus file but I did all the steps

gksu gedit /usr/share/themes/Win-XP-theme/gtk-3.0/apps/nautilus.css

.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item {
color: #FFFFFF;
}

.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item:active,
.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item:prelight,
.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item:selected {
text-shadow: none;
}


saved that file as nautilus.css and replaced the nautilus words with nemo as you said in your example :

.nautilus-canvas-item" should be ".nemo-canvas-item"
".nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item" should be ".nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item"
etc.


Restart the pc and NOTHING change, the desktop icon fonts are still with black color and not with white color.
I don't know what is the problem. Maybe is because there wasn't a nautilus.css file in gtk-3 and I had to create it? Maybe I should try and instead of gtk-3 use gtk-2 or gtk?

Sorry again for bothering you but I have to find a solution to this headache:)

thank you
adonis69

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by adonis69 »

Problem solved:):)

The reason of the trouble was that the Win-XP-theme wasn't compatible with Linun Mint 17. After I changed the them and used the Win7 theme which was compatible, I was able to see the nautilus.css and use all your suggestion on this topic.

The result was great.

thank you very much guys for your help

:D
JosephM
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1458
Joined: Sun May 26, 2013 6:25 pm

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by JosephM »

Ok, I would like to clarify a thing or two here. If your theme doesn't have a nautilus.css file it's no big deal. Not all themes do. Simply open the gtk-widgets.css file and add the following lines to the end of the file:

Code: Select all

.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item {
color: #ffffff;
}
Of course replace the color with whatever you wish to use. Also instead of renaming all the nautilus naming to nemo it's probably a better idea to just do this:

Code: Select all

.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item,
.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item {
<stuff here>
}
I would also recommend that people please file a report with the developers of their favorite themes to inform them of the name change in nemo. Once developers become aware of the issue this will become less of a problem.
When I give opinions, they are my own. Not necessarily those of any other Linux Mint developer or the Linux Mint project as a whole.
adonis69

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by adonis69 »

JosephM wrote:Ok, I would like to clarify a thing or two here. If your theme doesn't have a nautilus.css file it's no big deal. Not all themes do. Simply open the gtk-widgets.css file and add the following lines to the end of the file:

Code: Select all

.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item {
color: #ffffff;
}
Of course replace the color with whatever you wish to use. Also instead of renaming all the nautilus naming to nemo it's probably a better idea to just do this:

Code: Select all

.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item,
.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item {
<stuff here>
}
I would also recommend that people please file a report with the developers of their favorite themes to inform them of the name change in nemo. Once developers become aware of the issue this will become less of a problem.


Thank you very much for your suggestion
gaetawoo

Re: How-to Guide: Change font color of desktop icons

Post by gaetawoo »

JosephM wrote:Ok, I would like to clarify a thing or two here. If your theme doesn't have a nautilus.css file it's no big deal. Not all themes do. Simply open the gtk-widgets.css file and add the following lines to the end of the file:

Code: Select all

.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item {
color: #ffffff;
}
Of course replace the color with whatever you wish to use. Also instead of renaming all the nautilus naming to nemo it's probably a better idea to just do this:

Code: Select all

.nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item,
.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item {
<stuff here>
}
I would also recommend that people please file a report with the developers of their favorite themes to inform them of the name change in nemo. Once developers become aware of the issue this will become less of a problem.
you are amazballs!!! Just doing the first code box worked for me. I'm using Numix Daily.
Post Reply

Return to “Tutorials”