Gradient-blue & Gradient-black

Gradient-blue (light) 48.5 · Gradient-black (dark) 48.6

A GTK theme supporting gtk2,gtk3 and gtk4

This theme was written for the GTK3.20+ and the GTK 3.18 Version and includes a matching gtk2 Version. It is supposed to be the anti thesis of the flat "material design" and has gradients!

The GTK4 Version is finalized and supports up to GTK4.8

Gradient-blue has been extended with Gradient-black, which is based on the gray theme but was completely rewritten...

The theme has been tested with LXDE(GTK), xfce, openbox, cinnamon and gnome (40-48)

How to install

Download the tar.gz file and extract it into one of:

• ~/.themes — classic per-user location (GTK2, GTK3, GTK4 and most DE tools read it)
• ~/.local/share/themes — XDG per-user location (preferred if you use Flatpak apps)
• /usr/share/themes — system-wide, all users

Then select the theme with your desktop's appearance tool (Xfce: Settings → Appearance, Cinnamon: System Settings → Themes, GNOME: gnome-tweaks → Appearance → "Legacy Applications", LXDE: lxappearance).

Can be downloaded via pling:

• GradientBlue
• GradientBlack

Making sure the theme is applied

GTK2 applications

The GTK2 part needs the murrine and pixmap theme engines. Install:

• Debian / Ubuntu / Mint: gtk2-engines-murrine gtk2-engines-pixbuf
• Arch / Manjaro: gtk-engine-murrine gtk-engines
• Fedora: gtk-murrine-engine gtk2-engines
• openSUSE: gtk2-engine-murrine gtk2-engines

The theme name for GTK2 is set in ~/.gtkrc-2.0 — appearance tools such as lxappearance or the Xfce settings write this file for you:

gtk-theme-name="Gradient-blue"

GTK3 applications

Any of these works (the DE tools do it for you):

• GNOME/Cinnamon/Budgie: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Gradient-blue' (Cinnamon additionally: org.cinnamon.desktop.interface gtk-theme)

• Xfce: xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/ThemeName -s Gradient-blue

• No DE daemon (openbox, i3, …): ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini

  [Settings]
  gtk-theme-name=Gradient-blue
  

GTK4 applications

Plain GTK4 applications follow the same theme name and automatically load the gtk-4.0/gtk.css shipped inside the theme — nothing extra to do.

libadwaita applications (most modern GNOME apps) ignore the selected theme. Two ways to theme them anyway:

1. Force the theme globally in /etc/environment (re-login afterwards):

   GTK_THEME=Gradient-blue
   

   This affects all GTK3/GTK4 apps. Note that GTK_THEME is technically a debugging variable: it overrides the light/dark preference, so pick the variant you want by name (e.g. GTK_THEME=Gradient-black for dark).

2. Per-user, without an environment variable — link the theme's GTK4 CSS into your config (both files are needed, gtk.css imports gtk4.css):

   mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-4.0
   ln -sf ~/.themes/Gradient-blue/gtk-4.0/gtk.css  ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css
   ln -sf ~/.themes/Gradient-blue/gtk-4.0/gtk4.css ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk4.css
   

If you use a dark variant, also tell libadwaita apps to prefer dark colors:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme prefer-dark

Flatpak applications

Flatpak apps run sandboxed and cannot see ~/.themes. Install the theme into ~/.local/share/themes and grant access:

flatpak override --user --filesystem=xdg-data/themes
flatpak override --user --env=GTK_THEME=Gradient-blue

Window borders

On Xfce the window border (xfwm4) is selected separately under Settings → Window Manager → Style; pick the matching entry. On Cinnamon/GNOME (metacity/gnome-shell) the theme tool picks it up from the same theme folder.

Hi DPI Versions

The HIDPI Versions provide different resolutions for metacity,xfwm4 and GTK-CSD. They are contained in the download.

Supported desktops

• gnome
• xfce
• cinnamon
• lxde

License

All themes are dual-licensed as GPLv2 or later and CC-BY-SA 3.0 or later.

Versions

Version	Date	Changelog
48.6	11.07.26	Dark theme: readable selection text per accent color, softer turquoise selection gradient, GTK4 treeview hover tint, new WinShine-dark packages
48.5	25.05.26	xfwm4 button size fix
48.3	14.04.26	WinShine decorator packages, color & selection fixes
4.7.3	12.12.25	Ptyxis Tabs, notebook tabs
4.7.2	12.12.25	GTK4 fixes
4.6.2	01.11.22	GTK3/4 Menues/popover refinement
4.6.1	15.10.22	Updated to GTK 4.8, Cinnamon themes
4.6	01.10.22	Created GTK4.6 theme from scratch, Improved gtk3+gnome.shell
420.2	04.06.22	Fixed colors and GTK4 specific widgets
420.0	29.05.22	Gradient-black GTK-4.0 support
325.6	23.10.21	Gradient-blue CSD-shadows,revealer theme 6 round switches
326.6	23.10.21	Gradient-black CSD-shadows,revealer theme & round switches
325	04.12.20	Gradient-blue lightdm & gnome-shell fixes,XFWM4 & metacity redesign
326	04.12.20	Gradient-black lightdm & gnome-shell fixes,XFWM4 & metacity redesign
325.1	29.10.20	Gradient-black with lightdm and gnome shell
325.0	20.09.20	introduction Gradient-black
324.2	24.04.20	xfwm4,metacity and GTK3-CSD new orbs + HI DPI
324.1	27.02.20	Backdrops checkbuttons
324.0	19.12.19	Minor fixes for gtk3 (backdrops) and metacity
323.1	22.03.19	Fixed Backdrop issues & Notebook refactoring
323.0	22.12.18	Fixed some entry geometry (Eclipse)
322.3	10.08.17	Added Gnome-shell on base of the numix theme. Fixed a cinnomon issue. Minor changes one notebooks
322.2	28.07.17	Initial commit

Screenshots GTK3.22+

More pictures on Opendesk for Black and Blue

Gradient-black

Gradient-blue

Gnome 3.24 - Gradient-blue

HiDPI Screenshot on Ubuntu 20.04 - Gradient-blue

Screenshots GTK3.18 (legacy) - Gradient-blue

The widget factory

Nemo file manager

PCmanFM filemanager

Pix photo editor

Screenshot GTK4.x

Ptyxis Terminal