I’ve never been one that is much for customizing Ubuntu themes. Generally the most I do is switch to Clearlooks and call it good. Recently, however, a theme was pointed out to me that I really like. Its called Shiki-Colors, and can be downloaded from gnome-look.
One nice thing about this theme release is that it includes a script to configrue everything for you. You can download the install script via:
wget -c http://zelut.org/dropbox/colorizeme-shiki-0.2.tar.gz
tar xf colorizeme-shiki-0.2.tar.gz
./install
This script will download and install the icon sets, themes, etc and update your theme as it goes. To get the full effect you will likely want to logout or reboot.
I also like this in combination with the ttf-liberation font set.
note: the author is definitely an artist and not a programmer. The shell script is pretty ugly and could use some cleanup, but thats another story..
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this theme.
I’ve been using this theme (the Shiki-Brave variant which gives it a bit of blue) for a while now and it’s the first darker theme I’ve managed to stick with. All in all it’s a great theme and I’ve recommended it to a few other people already.
Bad download link.
Definitely one of the most polished GNOME themes. However on smaller screen resolutions, the large titlebar takes up way too much space. I’m happier with the Clearlooks Colors suite which uses the same icon sets with a simpler Clearlooks Metacity theme, although I’ve become rather fond of DarkRoom lately.
I like it! I was expecting something like this from Ibex, but hopefully the Jackalope will deliver. I do find that the gray used really stands out in a bad way. I’m using the Human colored theme and it looks a lot better when you replace the gray with a very desaturated orange. I’m using #F2E7D5
Wow – nice theme! I think I just found my new setting for a while.
I have been wanting something dark and elegant that doesn’t make the computer too difficult to use. Thanks!
The download link gives a 320 error and so it is not possible to complete the tutorial.
Hey, I’m the author for the themes. I’m glad you posted this, although I think the link you posted is incorrect (perhaps Mediafire changed their url shortcuts or something)
This works for me now:
wget -c http://download88.mediafire.com/19kvu9r3qylg/eyymgtyk0tc/colorizeme-shiki-0.2.tar.gz
And you’re right, I’m by no means a programmer. It’s pretty messy code and you have to read and follow the instructions for it to work correctly, but it’s safe and removable (and I’m always open to input from others on how to improve the script).
@all – the link should be fixed at this point. Looks like mediafire uses some dynamic changing urls. If anyone else has issues I’ll make the .tar.gz available on my DropBox.
The link is broken again, Dropbox?
Perhaps it’s easier to just go to the Theme’s site and click on the “Ubuntu Download” link. That way it shouldn’t matter if Mediafire cycles the url’s and you get more information about the themes before installing.
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Shiki-Colors?content=86717
Using gnome-look works, The tutorial should probably be changed to reflect that using gnome-look is probably a better way of doing it.
Nice theme. Thanks for the recommendation.
The link I got from tje gnome-looks website for download was: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?eyymgtyk0tc for those whom the above doesn’t work
Sorry, this is for a web link, not wget! And also I didn’t refresh the post before commenting, so people seem to have already solved it. Silly me!
@all – Ok, I’ve updated the link to use my Dropbox URL. It works with wget by my testing.
Beautiful, nice find.
When I first saw it, I’m like,” That’s a cross between Intrepid’s DarkRoom and OSX’s Aqua.”
But then again, is that a bad thing?
Everything fits together so nice and clean.
to the original author: Please become part of the Ubuntu Art Team! They’re good, but they need to include this in the default theme-set!
I have never seen a better complete theme. It may be the only one I keep for more than two weeks.
Kudos to both of you.
Thanks for the tip! I like the new theme 🙂
this is a great theme. thanks for the info!
The theme seems to be working OK, in spite of a flock of errors reported by the script. One little glitch is that, every time I boot, I get an error message that the Arc-Wise theme is missing.
@lane lester
Perhaps it didn’t download the GDM’s correctly. One thing I have to fix, is that it will keep going regardless of wether the files downloaded correctly (because of deviantart downtimes, etc). One way to fix it is running the script a second time, or use the login preferences and select the GDM theme yourself.
Another thing to note, is that this script is only meant to run in ubuntu and will not run in any other distro.. in that case, you’ll just have to go to the gnome-look page and download the themes separately.
@truefire
Thanks for the compliments! although I would never join any kind of art team since I rarely have time to deal with all the bureaucracy involved. All my artwork is open source, so if the leaders of any project want to use them they’re welcome to.
Damn this theme looks awesome! Anyone working on a .deb package or anything? I’ve been trying to learn to make .debs and use Ubuntu’s PPA and this would be a cool package to start with (if I get the time).
That’s a cool theme. I never really change Ubuntu’s default but I love this one. I just made the change and I’ll add the template to my work laptop.
Now to find a really cool background.
Is there a logon screen that matches this?
to Geekboy:
If you ran the script, it installs the GDM themes too, but you have to select them yourself.
To kindofabuzz:
Thanks, I didn’t know that. It looks nice. I really like this theme.
I love the theme… i’m sing it a long time…
The only problem is that the gdm theme give a error… 🙁
No idea why…
It’s my default theme, and I guess it will take a lot of effort from theme makers to convince me to change.
I’m using the Brave variant with Tango Icons, and it looks awesome.
In my laptop I have the orange version with the default Human icons and the Ibex wallpaper, and it looks beautiful.
That combination would be great for the next Ubuntu release (orange theme with Human icons and a similar wallpaper than the Ibex one).
That would match the new GDM and notifications theme, and would look elegant and polished.
Thanks. A nice change from DarkRoom. The readability is a welcome improvement.
Beautiful, nice find.