GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 646556
Possible to match gtk3 theme better?
Last modified: 2012-08-17 16:00:34 UTC
Created attachment 184963 [details] scrollbars As many apps are still using gtk2, the integration with the GNOME3 desktop is a little jarring... I think the most current difference right now is the scrollbars and the slider widgets (see screenshots).
Created attachment 184964 [details] sliders
We should indeed do better. We can probably take inspiration and code from the MeeGo GTK2 theme, whose scrollbars are similar to the one we made for GNOME 3 for instance.
There is a Adwaita theme for GTK2 here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1764856 Implemented using a mixture of the pixmap murrine and clearlooks theme engines.
I am the author of the above theme. It has been updated and now has its own thread here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1772074 It currently uses only the Murrine and Pixmap engines. More information and screenshots are available in the thread.
*** Bug 651860 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The Aldabra theme is also a good candidare for a rebase of the Adwaita GTK2 theme: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Aldabra?content=142247 Its imitation of Adwaita in GTK2, based also on the Murrine engine, is quite impressive.
FWIW, Aldabra is far closer to Adwaita, and more visually pleasing, on Gnome 3.2.
The obvious next step here is to come up with some patches.
Just to be clear, I don't have anything against a more consistent Adwaita GTK2 theme, and will gladly review patches that move towards that direction.
Created attachment 200899 [details] A near-perfect GTK2 Adwaita-alike
For reference: I simply replace Adwaita's gtk-2.0 folder with the one in the attachment I just provided. It's just about perfect, so much so that I have to check to see which apps are GTK2 and which are GTK3. I do not know if this counts as submitting a patch or not. If it doesn't, kindly direct me toward some documentation explaining how to turn it into a proper patch submission.
I think it should be noted that, while this theme is extremely close to Adwaita, it has a few outstanding issues. Notably, the dependencies (Murrine & Pixmap theme engines) and a particular bug in LibreOffice's GTK 2 rendering (the menubar text 'disappears' as it becomes the same white color as the depressed menubar button). Also, if a distribution doesn't have a patched GTK 2, the toolbar and menubar dragging specified in the theme will not be available, causing inconsistent behavior in applications. Aside from these issues, the theme is of sufficient quality to provide a seamless visual experience while we wait for developers to port their applications, some of which may never see the light of GTK 3 due to a lack of maintenance. It's also important to note that QGtkStyle won't be using GTK 3 for its theme compatibility any time soon, and this also impacts how well Qt apps will visually integrate with our platform. If the dependency requirements can't be managed, I'll be glad to provide a patch for the Clearlooks theme that updates the color scheme and some widget sizes to match Adwaita in the meantime.
(RE comment 12) 1. I talked with jimmac about Aldabra in early June on #gnome-design, and he said then that he would prefer a GTK 2 Adwaita theme engine. Until someone creates such an engine, I must depend on an existing engine (such as Murrine and/or Pixmap). 2. Selected menu title text becomes white in LibreOffice because of a bug introduced in LibreOffice 3.4 (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=38038). I have yet to find a workaround. 3. Can the distribution patches that enable menubar and toolbar dragging be pushed into upstream GTK 2?
Another adwaita theme, called bridge: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=151057
I'm the author of Bridge, and I'm highly interested in pushing the theme upstream. I plan to revise the theme to match the GTK 3 version when the GNOME 3.5 beta hits, and continually until GTK 2 becomes less relevant. Unfortunately, like Aldabra, the LibreOffice menu bar text becomes white (unreadable) upon clicking, and buttons and entries in the toolbar area have some unappealing edges. This should be fixable so long as I can target these specific widgets in gtkrc. The theme also has some minor visual issues a keen eye will notice (no focuslines for buttons, no active entry state, rectangular tooltips, separated combobox entry, stretching progressbars). Some of this is due to limitations in the pixmap engine, the sole dependency of this theme. I'm researching alternative engines to see which is the best fit for these particulars, and I'd like to know which options are acceptable for upstream inclusion.
Created attachment 216585 [details] Bridge, recent GTK 2 Adwaita lookalike
Testing the Bridge theme, just installed so I can't really judge it, looks quite good though, good work Jack. Something which should be done is removing the primary-toolbar alike treatment, in gtk2 all the toolbar would get that treatmeant and it's really too much. The scope of the theme should be to go well with gtk3 adwaita not to mimick it in every possible aspect, so gtk3 only features should just be left out.
Created attachment 217056 [details] Your average toolbar. I agree that we should choose consistency over mimicry, especially considering how GTK 3 is progressing in ways we couldn't possibly replicate in GTK 2. The attachment shows the area below the gradated toolbar in file-roller, which could be used for Bridge's toolbars. It doesn't look too out of place and it would automatically resolve the current issue with mismatched background colors in LibreOffice and Qt application toolbars. Any further recommendations? I'll continue to research solutions to the remaining issues in the theme (hopefully without need for a third-party theme engine).
Jack it would be nice if you can get on irc ( #gnome-design on gimpnet) for some "live" chatting about this theme.
Lapo, I've been working with Jack on a series of improvements to Bridge for some time now [1], and I think we fixed most of the issues we had identified. It would be great if you could try it and possibly make it even better :) [1] https://github.com/cosimoc/gnome-themes-standard/tree/wip/bridge
NICE! I'll check it out and report sir
This has now been merged into git master.
cool