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How to Install & Change Themes in Ubuntu 22.04 [Beginner’s Guide]

Last updated: May 17, 2022 — 10 Comments

Ubuntu 22.04 desktop looks really good today, but it’s always better to have choices! And, here is the beginner’s guide shows how to install themes and change the desktop panel, icons, app windows appearance.

Change Themes in Ubuntu 22.04

Ubuntu defaults to Yaru theme in light and dark mode, along with 10 different accent colors. There are a few others pre-installed in the system, and we usually use “Gnome Tweaks” to choose among them.

1.) Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to install ‘Gnome Tweaks’:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

2.) Then, either press Windows/Super on keyboard or click “Activities” on top bar, and then search for and launch the configuration tool.

3.) By navigating to “Appearance” tab, you’ll see the options to change the themes for mouse cursor, icons, shell, sound, and legacy applications.

Since GNOME (Ubuntu’s default desktop environment) is preventing custom themes for GTK4 applications via libadwaita, the GTK theme option in Gnome Tweaks becomes “Legacy Applications“. Ubuntu 22.04 ships few GTK4 apps and avoids libadwaita, so the option works good so far.

Enable Shell theme selection box:

The Shell theme selection box that apply appearance of desktop panel, context menu and notifications, is grayed out by default. To enable it, you have to install “User Themes” extension.

Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to install extension manager app:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

Next, click on the “Activities” on top bar, search for and open the tool:

Finally, install “User Themes” extension from the ‘Browser’ tab in Extension manager application:

After that, re-open Gnome Tweaks. It should allows to change “Shell” theme now in Appearance tab.

How to Install Themes in Ubuntu 22.04

There are many other themes available on the web, such as gnome-look.org. Some of them has installation script but some not.

1. To manually install a theme in Ubuntu & most other Linux, firstly open user home folder from the dock:

Firstly open user home folder

2. Press Ctrl+H on keyboard when file manager opens to view/hide hidden folders, and create the .themes and .icons folders if they are not exist:

  • .themes – use for GTK app themes and shell/desktop themes.
  • .icons – use for icon set.

3. Next, put your downloaded GTK themes and Gnome Shell themes into “.themes” folder. And, put icon themes into “.icons” folder.

A theme folder usually contents a few sub-folders as well as a ‘index.theme’ file. By putting it into the right location, Gnome Tweak will find it automatically and display as choice in selection box.

To install themes for all system user use, put these folders into “/usr/share/themes” and/or “/usr/share/icons“, though you need sudo user privilege to do the copy & paste things.

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A Script to Install Some Top GTK Themes in Ubuntu 16.04 & Higher

Last updated: May 6, 2017

GTK3

Want to change the boring default Ubuntu desktop themes? Well, there’s a script allows to easily install a list of the latest version of nice GTK themes.

It supports GTK 3.18 to 3.24, and will install the correct version according to your system. So far, support themes are:

  • Adapta
  • Arc (Firefox themes: Arc, Arc Darker, Arc Dark)
  • Arc-Flatabulous
  • Arc-Red
  • Breeze
  • Candra (GNOME 3.20+ only)
  • Ceti-2 (GNOME 3.18 only)
  • Cloak (GNOME 3.20+ only)
  • DeLorean Dark (GNOME 3.18 only)
  • EvoPop
  • Flat-Plat
  • Flatabulous (GNOME 3.18 only)
  • Flattiance (GNOME 3.18 only)
  • Fresh-Finesse
  • Greybird
  • macOS-Sierra
  • Minwaita
  • Numix
  • OSX-Arc Collection
  • Paper
  • Plano (GNOME 3.20+ only)
  • Pop
  • Redmond-Themes
  • Vertex
  • Vimix
  • Yosembiance (GNOME 3.18 only)
  • Zuki

1. To get the script, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or searching for “Terminal” from app launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo apt install git && git clone https://github.com/tliron/install-gnome-themes

2. The command clone the script source into your user root directory. To run the script, simply run command:

~/install-gnome-themes/install-gnome-themes

To avoid rebuilding themes, it will delete installed themes with same names, then install some required libraries, finally download and build the themes one by one in your system:

When everything’s done, launch Gnome Tweak Tool or Unity Tweak Tool and enjoy the new themes by selecting one of them:

via:github

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Vimix – A Flat Material Design Theme for GTK3

Last updated: December 19, 2016

GTK3

Vimix is a flat Material Design theme for GTK 3, GTK 2 and Gnome-Shell which supports GTK 3 and GTK 2 based desktop environments like Gnome, Unity, Budgie, Pantheon, XFCE, Mate, etc.

This theme is based on Flat-Plat gtk theme of nana-4. The theme offers:

  • dark theme, dark doder, dark ruby.
  • light theme, light doder, light ruby.

Following pictures are Vimix theme with Numix icons in Unity Desktop (with plank):

Vimix Light with Numix icons

Vimix Light with Numix icons (Unity with Plank)

Vimix Dark with Numix icons in Unity

Vimix Dark with Numix icons in Unity

Install Vimix GTK Theme in Ubuntu 16.10:

The theme project page offers .deb and .rpm packages for Gtk 3.20 and Gtk 3.22. So you need at least Ubuntu 16.10.

Download Vimix Theme (Gtk3.20)

For other Gtk3.22 or other packages, go to github.com.

After installed the .deb packages via Ubuntu Software or dpkg command, launch Unity Tweak Tool, Gnome Tweak Tool, or other configuration tool and apply new GTK themes and enjoy!

unity-tweak-tool-vimix

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Flatabulous – Best Flat Theme for Ubuntu

Last updated: May 27, 2016

theming-ubuntu

Flatabulous is a new GTK theme said to be the best flat theme for Ubuntu and other Gnome based Linux Systems.

The theme is based on the Ultra-Flat theme. It was designed specially for the Unity environment on Ubuntu. Here are some screenshots:

Flatabulous theme

flatabulous-sublimetext

terminal-transparent-back

flatabulous-folder

Like the theme? Below is how to install the GTK theme as well as Ultra-Flat icon theme:

1. Download the GTK theme from the link below:

Flatabulous Theme Zip

Then extract the archive so that you have the result folder shown below:

flatabulous-source

2. Open a new Nautilus (file browser) window. Press Ctrl+H to view hidden file folders, and create .themes folder under user’s Home directory if not exist.

user-themes-folder

3. Move Flatabulous-master folder from the Downloads folder to .themes folder.

install-theme

OK, now apply the theme by launching Unity Tweak Tool (available in Software Center) and navigate to Theme page.

apply-flatabulous

For the Icon Theme, go to:

noobslab icon repository page

Select download .deb package for ultra-flat-icons, ultra-flat-icons-green, or ultra-flat-icons-orange. Finally install it via Ubuntu Software Center.

For those who prefer adding a PPA, open terminal and run below commands one by one to get the icon theme:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/icons

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ultra-flat-icons ultra-flat-icons-green ultra-flat-icons-orange

Also apply the icons via Unity Tweak Tool -> Icons page.

via: github.com/anmoljagetia/Flatabulous

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Arc GTK Theme for Ubuntu 15.04, Elementary OS Freya

Last updated: July 14, 2017

elementaryos-logo

Arc-theme, a beautiful, flat theme with transparent elements for GTK 3 and GTK 2 based desktop environments like Gnome, Unity, Budgie, Pantheon, etc.

Arc-theme is a new theme project still under development. It’s available is in three variants:

Arc theme

Arc theme

Arc Dark

Arc Dark

Arc Darker

Arc Darker

Full preview in Ubuntu Unity with Numix circle icons:

arc-theme-desktop

If you like the theme, try it by installing the .deb package available in the link below:

Download arc-theme .deb

Needs Ubuntu 15.04 (higher), or Elementary OS Freya because it depends on GTK 3.14 / 3.16.

Once installed, apply the themes via Unity Tweak Tool (or System Settings -> Tweaks).

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