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How do you save your custom graphics to a theme?

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:35 am
by No_Name
Hello, I just really want to put some of my graphics skills to work by creating my own desktop themes in Xfce, but I cannot seem to find any clues which lead anywhere on how to go about creating a new theme file, or where they are installed to. For an old phone I owned 6 years ago, I used a Windows program, but I don't see any theme-creating software available through the Linux servers - is there anything like this available which people who create the existing themes have used, or if not then how would I go about making one from scratch? At this point all I can do is save my graphics as backgrounds for my Xfce panels, and it's just killing me that I can't find a way of saving them to a theme somehow and somewhere. Please help!

Re: How do you save your custom graphics to a theme?

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:51 am
by austin.texas
Your themes are installed in the /usr/share/themes folder.
To edit a xfce theme, you would edit the themerc file in the xfwm4 folder in each theme, or replace the graphics files with your own.
There is no easy way to do it.

Re: How do you save your custom graphics to a theme?

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:04 pm
by No_Name
austin.texas wrote:Your themes are installed in the /usr/share/themes folder.
To edit a xfce theme, you would edit the themerc file in the xfwm4 folder in each theme, or replace the graphics files with your own.
There is no easy way to do it.
Thanks!

Just out of curiosity, is it like this with all of the Linux interfaces (I would be running Cinnamon or KDE if they weren't giving my hardware issues)? I just find it incredibly interesting that no Linux devs want to create theme-development software. Somebody did this for a large number of phone interfaces such a long time ago, and if you ever had that then you may wonder too.

Re: How do you save your custom graphics to a theme?

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:11 pm
by austin.texas
No_Name wrote:Just out of curiosity, is it like this with all of the Linux interfaces (I would be running Cinnamon or KDE if they weren't giving my hardware issues)?
For Cinnamon, yes. KDE is somewhat easier.

Re: How do you save your custom graphics to a theme?

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 1:04 pm
by No_Name
Ok, I was going to learn more about programming some day, but I really don't understand most of what these gtk files do. Can you name some good resources to start with for graphical/GUI-specific programming?
austin.texas wrote:
No_Name wrote:Just out of curiosity, is it like this with all of the Linux interfaces (I would be running Cinnamon or KDE if they weren't giving my hardware issues)?
For Cinnamon, yes. KDE is somewhat easier.

Re: How do you save your custom graphics to a theme?

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 2:18 pm
by austin.texas
No_Name wrote:Ok, I was going to learn more about programming some day, but I really don't understand most of what these gtk files do. Can you name some good resources to start with for graphical/GUI-specific programming?
I don't have any xfce-specific links, but these tutorials will certainly point you in the right direction.

http://www.mediafire.com/view/egq7qwlhb ... PART-1.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/view/9tvs6ys9n ... PART-2.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/view/3uo9mueq8 ... PART-3.pdf

How to create a basic GTK3 theme on Linux Mint - http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1518

Re: How do you save your custom graphics to a theme?

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 2:59 pm
by No_Name
Thanks - that should help a lot, and believe me I needed help. I know it looks stupid when there's a tutorial for that, but I couldn't find it for some reason or other, but I did try pretty hard. Maybe the basic coding isn't really so Xfce-dependent? I was searching for help with Xfce themes, not being aware that they're all done in gtk.
austin.texas wrote:
No_Name wrote:Ok, I was going to learn more about programming some day, but I really don't understand most of what these gtk files do. Can you name some good resources to start with for graphical/GUI-specific programming?
I don't have any xfce-specific links, but these tutorials will certainly point you in the right direction.

http://www.mediafire.com/view/egq7qwlhb ... PART-1.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/view/9tvs6ys9n ... PART-2.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/view/3uo9mueq8 ... PART-3.pdf

How to create a basic GTK3 theme on Linux Mint - http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1518

Re: How do you save your custom graphics to a theme?

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 3:07 pm
by austin.texas
No_Name wrote: Maybe the basic coding isn't really so Xfce-dependent? I was searching for help with Xfce themes, not being aware that they're all done in gtk.
I don't have any experience with xfce, but I suspect that very little of the theme is controlled by the xfwm4 files. Mostly it would be gtk. So most of those tutorials would apply.