We covered different icon themes for Ubuntu; most of them being icon themes inspired by material design and flat design. It has been a while since our last theme article and I figure today will be a day to present you with a somewhat mega list.
My compilation includes a few themes already featured on FossMint together with others you probably haven’t heard about yet. If you are keen on personalization and UI beauty then I’m sure that my compilation will blow your mind.
Theme Installation
The following installation instructions are similar for every other theme available in a compressed format with the only difference being the specific theme you select.
- Download your preferred variant theme.
- Extract the zip file to
~/.themes/directory in your home folder. - Use the GNOME Tweaks tool to select the theme.
1. ArcMPD Theme
ArcMPD is, as the name implies, an Arc-based translucent GTK theme for Minimalists.
2. Flat Remix Gnome Theme
Flat Remix Gnome theme is currently my favorite shell theme on this list. It is a modern, beautiful, and simple theme inspired by material design with modern “flat” colors with high contrasts and sharp borders.
It comes with its icon pack! and also available in Light and Dark versions.
Install the Flat Remix Gnome theme using the following PPA in Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:daniruiz/flat-remix $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install flat-remix-gnome
On Fedora-based distributions.
$ sudo dnf copr enable daniruiz/flat-remix $ sudo dnf install flat-remix-gnome
3. Ant Theme
Ant theme is a modern flat GTK theme with an eye candy UI and 3 color variants, Ant, Ant Dracula, and Ant Bloody.
4. Canta Theme
Canta theme is an eye candy flat Material design theme with glossy eye-candy tabs and windows with rounded border-radius.
5. Paper Theme
The Paper theme, being of the Paper project, is one of the best themes available today and you can set it up together with its icon set and custom cursors.
Install the Paper theme using the following PPA in Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
$ sudo add-apt-repository -u ppa:snwh/ppa $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt install paper-icon-theme # if you want to install the icons and colors $ sudo apt-get install paper-icon-theme $ sudo apt-get install paper-cursor-theme
6. Arc Theme
Arc theme, is arguably the most popular and modern flat GTK Theme with transparent elements and 3 variants, Arc, Arc-Darker, and Arc-Dark.
Install the Arc theme, clone the repository, and install manually as shown.
$ git clone https://github.com/horst3180/arc-theme --depth 1 && cd arc-theme $ ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr $ sudo make install
After the installation is complete the theme can be activated with the gnome-tweak tool.
7. Matcha Theme
Matcha theme is a beautiful flat Arc-based theme with transparent elements. It is the perfect dark mode GTK theme with even multiple ARC variants for window control buttons.
8. Pop Theme
Pop is an eye candy Adapta-inspired theme reminiscent of Unity’s color scheme with its brown and orange color settings.
Install Pop theme using the following PPA in Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:system76/pop $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install pop-theme
9. Vimix Theme
Vimix is a flat material design theme based on nana-4. Its beautifully crafted icons will give your desktop a glossy look which comes in 3 variants, Grey, Doder, and Ruby.
10. Qogir Theme
Qogir is a flat design Arc-based theme with a blue and white overall color scheme and a dark shell theme variant. As far as I’m concerned, Qogir is the cooler sibling of Blue Face and is bound to improve your overall desktop experience.
11. Materia-Theme
Materia (formerly Flat-Plat) is a beautiful Material Design theme that has built-in compatibility with Oomox theme designer.
What makes it even more awesome is its support for Ripple effect animations and it comes with 3 color variants and 2 size variants.
Install the Materia Remix Gnome theme using the following PPA in Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
$ sudo apt install materia-gtk-theme
On Fedora-based distributions.
$ sudo dnf copr enable tcg/themes $ sudo dnf install materia-theme
You can also install three variants (Materia, Materia-dark, Materia-light) via Flathub using the following commands.
$ flatpak remote-add flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo $ flatpak install flathub org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Materia $ flatpak install flathub org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Materia-dark $ flatpak install flathub org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Materia-light
12. Sierra Gtk Theme
Sierra is a perfect shell theme GTK 3, GTK 2, and Gnome-Shell which supports GTK 3 and GTK 2-based desktop environments like Gnome, Pantheon, XFCE, Mate, etc.
To install the Sierra theme, use the following PPA on Ubuntu and its derivatives.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dyatlov-igor/sierra-theme $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install sierra-gtk-theme # point releases $ sudo apt install sierra-gtk-theme-git # git master branch
13. Minimal Conception Theme
Minimal Conception’s aim is to provide you with a simple interface that will keep clutter away from your workspace and maintain minimalist beauty at the same time.
14. Windows 10 Light Theme
How would you like to experience Windows? with this Windows 10 Light Theme’s latest UI on your GNOME or Unity desktop? Download this one and see if it doesn’t win your heart.
15. Copernico Theme
As you might have guessed, Copernico Theme is inspired by flat design and you can edit and compile its SCSS files for further customization.
16. T4G-Shell-theme III
T4G-Shell-theme III is a transparent dark shell theme variant of the T4G Shell theme, however, you can use it as a stand-alone shell theme. This is a good choice if you’re a fan of Windows’ translucent UI feature.
17. Human Shell Theme Collection
The Human Shell Theme Collection features a grey semi-transparent color scheme and layout that remains true and yet modern to the typical Gnome look.
It is available in 3 variants, default, mobile, black, and next; and works best with macOS-like icons and macOS-like docks.
That concludes my list! Did I mention your favorite picks? Did I blow your mind? Perhaps I left out awesome shell themes that you’ve enjoyed using.
Let me know your suggestions in the discussion box below.
Divine, I realize this article is over four years old. I came across it, just now, and thought I would mention a couple of themes you may want to check out. First, check out the work of “nestort” on pling (dot) com, and also look up “Aravisian” on GitHub. Both these guys have great looking themes. (Aravisian’s themes are based one the dark grey colours which I don’t like but they make up for it by their styling.)
Can I get the background for the Flat Remix theme?
Two groups of themes I have learned to despise – those bright, white, 60-watt-bulb type, and those that use variations of grey as their predominate colour. Hate them. I prefer a black, or, if I really need a colour, a very dark teal as a background and then go from there – but never, ever grey! However, since I discovered the “Oomox Theme Builder”, man, theming has become a whole new game. Loving it!!
Cool.
Have you built any themes to share with the community yet or you own the tool to theme only your system?
To be honest nothing blowes my mind here. That same flat, boooooring as hell material inspired styles. Nope.. nothing for me. Except one.. Vertex.. this can be even okay.
Choosing just one could eat up hours oneso life.
Well, I hope everyone has a field day then 😉