Ubuntu has a “Folder Color” package in system repository, allows to change the color and add emblem for individual folder. However, it’s only available for Ubuntu LTS, and uses the old default ‘Humanity’ icon theme, which looks very outdated.

To fix the issue, a free open-source yaru-colors-folder-color project was created to work along with system default ‘Folder Color‘, so to have folder icon in different colors while keep using default Yaru theme.

The project is discontinued, due to switch to the new “Folder Color” project, which works out-of-the-box with Yaru colors integration. And, not only for Ubuntu LTS, but also supports all current short-term releases, such as Ubuntu 24.04.

With it, user can right-click on any folder, to get the menu to change folder color to ‘Blue’, ‘Brown’, ‘Green’, ‘Grey’, ‘Pink’, ‘Purple’, ‘Red’, and ‘Yellow’. As well as adding emblem such as ‘Important’, ‘In Progress’, ‘Favorite’, ‘Finished’, and ‘New’.

After changing color or adding emblem, the folder will also have a ‘Default‘ option in that menu, to restore to default.

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Want to make a certain folder different to others in Ubuntu? You can change the icon color and add emblem via Nautilus extension.

Nautilus, the default file manager in Ubuntu, has an extension called Folder Color. It allows to change the color of selected folder or folders into: Blue, Blown, Green, Gray, Pink, Purple, Red and Yellow.

You can also add a emblem, e.g., Important, In Process, Favorite, Finished, and New. And reset to default is also available in folders’ context menu.

Install Folder Color:

The extension is available in Ubuntu universe repository. However, it’s not well working with the default Yaru theme.

For Ubuntu 20.04, So you have to first add the developer’s PPA with Yaru integration. To do so, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:costales/yaru-colors-folder-color

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

For Ubuntu 22.04, add another PPA instead:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pakaoraki/yaru-colors-folder-color

Then install Folder Color, as well as Yaru integration via command:

sudo apt install folde-color yaru-colors-folder-color

To apply change, run command to restart Nautilus file manager:

nautilus -q

Finally, open file manager, right-click on a folder and enjoy the new icon colors:

Uninstall:

To remove the Ubuntu PPA, open terminal and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:pakaoraki/yaru-colors-folder-color

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:costales/yaru-colors-folder-color

And, to remove the folder color extension, run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove folde-color yaru-colors-folder-color

Finally, run nautilus -q to apply change.