Glassbuntu: design a dark crystal Gnome theme for Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

SlicknessX, Glass Icons and Debian Glass

The Gnome user interface used by Ubuntu and Linux Mint allows a huge amount of graphical customization, but these features are rarely used. Part of the problem is that to make an aesthetically appealing theme you need to blend various elements: windows decorations, widgets, icons, backgrounds. Although many of these are available online, it is not easy to find some that work well together to deliver a consistent look.

To allow you to easily design a kick-ass theme for your Gnome, Ubuntu or Mint desktop I started this series of posts. in each I will suggest various windows decorations, widgets icons and background that follow one unique theme and blend well together. I will then suggest a few ways to combine them to make an aesthetically pleasing desktop. This weeks them is Glassbuntu: design a dark crystal theme.

Dark glass window decorations and widgets

SlicknessX: This gtk theme comes with one interesting feature: the glass effect actually spans both the windows title and menu bars. The effect is quite interesting on large windows but can sometimes look strange on narrow ones. the drop down menus also benefit from the glass effect, making this theme very slick indeed.

Smoked Glass: If you would prefer to have your title bar and menu bar clearly separate, this gtk theme is for you. The title bars only have a slight glossy effect, but this is more than made up by the superb tealish effects on the menu bar, which clearly stands out. In this theme the title bar is very much overshadowed by the menu bar, so I would recommend it if you use your menus a lot.

Wii Black: The Wii console menus are a superb example of a crystal / glass theme, so it is no surprise that it would become the inspiration source for a gtk theme. What has been changed here is that the theme is much darker, with aqua highlights. The glass effect is more subtle than on the two previous themes, so this is easier to fit into any desktop.


Dark glass icon sets

Glass icons: This gnome icon theme is designed to make it look like your icons are made of transparent glass. The advantage is that this icon set blends itself with almost any color. The inconvenient is that if the rest of the theme is not very colored the desktop may look too monochromatic.

Darkglass icons: these stylized, colorful icons may not be to everyone's taste, but they succeed at one thing: adding a dash of color to a dark theme.

Wallpaper suggestions

There are too many wallpapers that would fit this theme to make any kind of exhaustive list, but here are two suggestions to get you started:

The Debian glass wallpaper will complement nicely any dark glass theme for which you may want a lighter background. It also adds a dash of red to the desktop, something that may bring some balance to a lightly colored theme.

If you would prefer a dark background I would suggest Gnome machine. The exterior of the wallpaper is dark to allow colored icons to stand out, but the center will give the desktop nice blue highlights. This brings balance to the desktop and avoid that the center of the screen become too dark compared to the edge where the icons are.

Blending it all together

SlicknessX, Glassicons and Debian glass: this combinations give a very classy, black, white and gray desktop. The Glass icons complement well the gray of the slicknessX widgets. The lighter Debian glass wallpaper allows the nice window decorations of SlicknessX while bringing a touch of color to the desktop.

Smoked Glass, Oxygen refit and Gnome machine

Smoked Glass, Oxygen refit and Gnome machine: The theme is really built around Smoked glass. To complement the teal menu bar and widgets I chose to combine a greenish icon set, Oxygen refit with the blue of the Gnome machine wallpaper. Since this theme is very dark the colors of the menu bar and icons really stand out, ensuring that this theme is still very readable.

These are of course only a few of the possible combinations: part of the fun of theming your Gnome, Mint or Ubuntu desktop is playing with all the elements to design a combination that works for you. In the next installment we will look into the Apple universe with Macbuntu: design an OSX inspired Gnome theme for Ubuntu or Linux Mint.