How to install new themes

• Window decorations
• GTK+ interfaces
• Cursors (4.4 and 4.6)
• Additional resources

There are 5 different themes you can adjust in Xfce: the window decorations, the GTK+ interfaces, the cursors, the notifications, and the icons. You can find themes on various websites, here are some of them:

• deviantART: Xfce-section
• Xfce-Look: XFCE/XFWM4 Themes
• Xfce Forums: Mostly window manager themes
• GNOME Wiki - Personalization: GTK-themes for GNOME desktop environments

Wallpaper websites with good quality and high resolution images:

• http://wallpaperswide.com/
• http://interfacelift.com
• http://alpha.wallhaven.cc/

See also: xfce4-artwork

• Extract the theme in ~/.local/share/themes or ~/.themes
  • System wide installation in ${sysprefix}/local/share/themes
  • Or /usr/share/themes
• Make sure the directory layout looks like this: ~/.local/share/themes/<theme_name>/xfwm4/
• If the theme contains scalable images (~/.local/share/themes/<theme_name>/xfwm4/*.svg) it's better to install the librsvg package
• Select the theme in the Window Manager Settings

You can find more information about how to create a window manager theme here.

A GTK+ theme is the theme of the toolkit (buttons, textfields, etc). Most of the GTK+ themes need their own theme engine, make sure you have that theme engine installed with the same prefix as the GTK+ toolkit. To install and use a theme, follow these steps:

• Extract the theme in ~/.local/share/themes
  • System wide installation in ${sysprefix}/local/share/themes
• Make sure the theme contains the following file: ~/.local/share/themes/<theme_name>/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
• Select the theme in the User Interface Settings (Xfce 4.4.x) or in the Appearance Settings (Xfce 4.6.x)

• Extract the theme in ~/.icons
  • System wide installation in ${sysprefix}/local/share/icons
• Make sure the directory layout looks like this: ./icons/<theme_name>/cursors
• Select the theme in the Mouse Settings. If there is no tab with cursor themes, make sure xfce-mcs-plugins (Xfce 4.4.x) is compiled with Xcursor support

• Extract the theme in ~/.icons
  • System wide installation in ${sysprefix}/local/share/icons
• Optional: run gtk-update-icon-cache -f -t ~/.icons/<theme_name> to create an icon cache ¹⁾
• If the theme contains scalable icons (~/.icons/<theme_name>/scalable) make sure you have librsvg installed
• Select the theme in the User Interface Settings (2nd tab, Xfce 4.4.x) or in the Appearance Settings (2nd tab, Xfce 4.6.x)

When you have icon theme problems, it's also recommended to install the hicolor-icon-theme package.

How to make a xfwm4 theme ( for windows using the window manager )

How to make a Gtk theme (for windows using client-side windows (like calculator))

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