Mint-Yz v4.1 (2022-10-12) GTK Theme For Your Whole System: Colors, Contrasts, And Design

[sebastjava]

Mint-Yz GTK themes:
Colors, Contrasts, and Design

This is a new pack of various colour themes. 11 different colors, in both light and dark variants. That makes 22 new GTK themes. This will change the look of your entire LinuxMint system. These 22 colour variations are all packed into one package. One download, one double-click, and then you can choose some new, fresh colors for your entire system.

This Mint-Yz is a fork from the standard, reliable Mint-Y theme. It is renamed "Mint-Yz" and is a separate package. Your good old Mint-Y will not be removed or changed. You can always switch back and forth from these Mint-Y and Mint-Yz colors and variants.

There is a lot of work into this new Mint-Yz. Over 200 commits. Build onto the latest stable Mint-Y, version 1.9.8. A lot of work got into creating, modifying, and testing those colors over and over again. But that's not only some new, nice colors here. There is much more than that here. There are also many subtle contrasts improvements. Making things more readable, and clearer. And then, there are also some subtle design improvements on top of all this. But not too much. You already like your Mint-Y theme, so this is just a bit different: this little "z" added to "Mint-Y", renaming it "Mint-Yz".

These GTK and icon themes should work well on Linux Mint 19 and 20 (GTK+ 3.22 or newer). They have been entirely tested and retested on the latest LinuxMint Cinnamon 20.3, and also quickly checked on the latest LinuxMint Mate 20.3 and LinuxMint Xfce 20.3.

Note: The colors and design you see here reflect the latest changes made to this repository. It is the future you see here. See the images on the releases page for an exact match to the themes you are installing.

Download and Install Mint-Yz-theme
First, check your system is not too old for this theme to work properly. This theme works well on Linux Mint 19, Linux Mint 20, and newer versions. (GTK+ 3.22 or newer) Entirely tested and re-tested on LinuxMint Cinnamon 20.3, and quickly tested on Mint Mate 20.3 and Mint Xfce 20.3.

1. Go to the latest release
2. Click on the mint-yz-theme_X.x.x.zip package to download.
3. README for easy instructions on how to install the themes.
4. Select your new themes in Menu > Preferences > Themes or Appearance

More info: https://github.com/SebastJava/mint-yz-theme#readme

Download and Install Mint-Yz-icons

1. Go to the latest release
2. Click on the mint-yz-icons_X.x.x.zip package to download.
3. README for easy instructions on how to install the icons.
4. Select your new icons in Menu > Preferences > Themes or Appearance

More info: https://github.com/SebastJava/mint-yz-icons#readme

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Colors (zoom on this top picture ▲)
Colors according to everyone's needs.
Subdued, flat or shining colors.
Sufficiently contrasted colors.

Contrasts




Mint-Y-Dark-Blue vs Mint-Yz-Dark-BlueElectron :




Design

• Square window corners everywhere. I like round corners, but not when the top ones are round while the bottom ones are square. Additionally, on the official Mint-Y, the design keeps changing all the time. You get round top corners when the window is in the middle of the screen, and they turn square when you push tile. I don't like that. More over, there is a small rendering bug with Metacity round corners. All these problems are simply avoided by making all window corners square. Everywhere.
• No backgrounds on window close buttons. Round red background on hovering. That's nicer, and more logical. Before, with the default Mint-Y color, the close button was... green !? And we are also avoiding an old bug in the theme chooser !
• Accent color on active button background. That's a revert, setting it as it is on the old Mint-Y-Legacy. Things are more consistent that way, in my opinion. Small buttons such as radio and checkbox are coloured, and the same rule applies for bigger buttons, here on Mint-Yz.
• Subtle rounded corners on buttons and entries (3px -> 5px).
• Solid and coloured outlines on focused buttons and entries: more visible and nicer.
• No dashed outlines on other elements. This was unneeded and ugly. (Same as Mint-X here.)
• Message colors are better. That's for things like that green save button in the Xed text editor, or this red Logout button.
• And there are some small bug fixes. Et cetera.

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Credits

This theme is based on the Mint-Y theme, which is based on the Arc theme:

https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-themes
https://github.com/horst3180/arc-theme

[sebastjava]

There is also a new set of mint-y-icons with these colors coming up... Stay tuned!

[MrEen]

Very nice sebastjava!

One comment; On the Releases page I read this:

This is a fork from the Mint-Y theme. A theme made specifically for the three Linux Mint distributions. Complete and universal: Gtk-2.0, Gtk-3.0, Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce.

Yet on the main page you have this:

First, check your system is not too old for this theme to work properly. This theme works well on Linux Mint 19, Linux Mint 20, and newer versions. (Gtk+ 3.22 or newer)

Us 18.3 users need to know with our ancient 3.18 version (and 2.24) which statement is correct?

[sebastjava]

Thanks for showing this misleading information. It is now corrected.

Please don’t try this on Linux Mint 18.3. It does not work properly on this "old" system version. This theme was successfully tested on Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.3 and Linux Mint Cinnamon 20. It should also be okay with any Linux Mint version 19 and up. On Cinnamon, MATE, or Xfce.

[MrEen]

Thanks for showing this misleading information. It will be corrected soon. Please don’t try this on Linux Mint 18.3. It does not work properly on this "old" system version. This theme was successfully tested on Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.3 and Linux Mint Cinnamon 20. It should be okay with those same versions in MATE and Xfce. Or any Linux Mint version 19 and up.

Ahh, thanks. Another reason to get my butt in gear and get switched over to my 19.3 install. With my procrastination, I probably wouldn't have gotten around to it until 20.3 is out!

[sebastjava]

Color updates are coming up for Mint and MintFresh.

[sebastjava]

Big color updates! I have thought about all of these colors (again!) and several have been improved.
See the updated image on the OP.
New release now available: v1.3

[Mick-Cork]

Hi sebastjava,

Just downloaded and installed out of curiosity (LM 19.3). You have been busy - a lot has gone into this.

Very nice - the colours are 'refreshing' for want of a better description and I personally like the clarity. I've opted for 'Yz-Darkest-Mint' for the moment although I'm sure I'll be trying the others as well. Look forward to seeing the icons when you release them. Great work.

Cheers, Mick

[sebastjava]

Small color update: MintFresh color got changed. (OP image updated.) Version 1.4 is now available.

[Hugh Neutron]

I LOVE THESE THEMES! I can't kick my old unproductive habit of ricing.

[sebastjava]

Added color: PurpleDeep. (OP image updated.) Version 1.5 is now available.

[sebastjava]

PurpleDeep hue 275->270 and Purple saturation 50->67.
(OP image updated.) Version 1.6 is now available.

[sebastjava]

Version 2.0 will be available sometime this week-end...

• New colors
• Rounded corners on buttons: was 3px, now 5px
• Accent color on focused buttons (So now, when you press "Enter", and the focus is on "Close without Saving", you know what you are doing...)
• Etcetera

[sebastjava]

Version 2.0 is now available. Click on the link on the original post (OP) above. See the updated images on this same OP.

Changelog:

• Dark accent colors are not much darker, 10% darker or customized.
• Color updates. Mint, MintSparkling, BlueDeep.
• Buttons and entries rounded corners are a bit more rounded, 3px->5px.
• Focused buttons background=selected_bg_color, to see what Enter key does.
• Etcetera.

Buttons and entries rounded corners are a bit more rounded, 3px->5px. I never liked this 3px border-radius. This makes button’s rounded corners so subtle, it just looks like a rectangle with one missing pixel on each corner. Now this 3px->5px is not a radical change, you still get approximately the same flat design, but the corners on interactive elements are now just a bit more rounded. See the preview image above.

Focused button background = selected_bg_color, to see what Enter key does. Example: When you close an unsaved document, you get a dialog asking whether you want to Close without Saving, or Cancel, or Save. One of those buttons is already focused, so you can just press Enter key to make that choice, or press Tab to move the focus to another button, and then press Enter. But before it was hard to routinely press the Enter key without having some doubts, because the focus was very subtly indicated with a thin dashed grey line. This line is still there, but now the whole focused button is also colored, highlighted, so you know what you are doing when you press that Enter key.

[ajgringo619]

Really like the darkest ones; great job!

[Mick-Cork]

Nice work sebastjava,

I'm still using Darkest-Mint since July and like the new slightly darker tone as well.

Are you still planning to create and release a new icon pack?

Thanks for the great themes.

[sebastjava]

Are you still planning to create and release a new icon pack?

Yes! I am aware there must be some people waiting for this. And this includes myself: i am just using the Mint-Y-Grey icons right now...

It is taking a long time because... I didn’t want to work on August. But i did. I was obsessed with these colors that i kept changing, being not totally satisfied. And i finally moved on onto some other improvements that were planned long ago. So i may finally be moving on to other things. I am a perfectionist, i couldn’t move to the next project before the current one was truly completed. I am receiving positive comments, so i guess i should stop changing these colors, and now move on to the icons project. But, huh, i may want to spend some time outside on this September. Hey, i feel i missed a great part of this Summer time, working on this. So i don’t want to miss this Autumn that is coming up. But those icons should be ready, some time this Autumn.

If you can’t wait, maybe you would want to try it yourself? Take a look at this: https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-y-colors. There is a script there to generate both the themes and icons. I prefer my way of making themes, as explained here: https://github.com/SebastJava/mint-yz-t ... ourself.md But i will probably use this linuxmint/mint-y-colors to make the icons. And while we are at it, could you please tell them we prefer colourful themes? You can express your color preferences there on https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-y-colors/issues. Thanks.

[sebastjava]

ISSUES:
Togglebutton does not "work" anymore, visually, since there is no difference in color with "Selected" and "Focused" !
This will be fixed today.

[sebastjava]

FIXED button focus having same color as selected. Now focused buttons only have their borders being coloured.
Version 2.0.1 is now available.
https://github.com/SebastJava/mint-yz-theme

[sebastjava]

Button focus is now indicated by a solid coloured outline. This colour is the standard selected_bg_color.

This replaces the coloured border in v2.0.1. There was already an outline on focused buttons, but it was a dashed pale grey. Now the coloured border is gone, and this outline is made solid and coloured, thus more visible. So you will know what button is focused and what happens next time you press that Enter key! It also looks nicer, in my opinion.

Version 2.0.2 is now available.
https://github.com/SebastJava/mint-yz-theme