Concept
Gnome-colors is an icons scheme which provided a plethora of consistent icons which have the potential to bring new life to the Ubuntu; they are provided with 4 color schemes: brave (blue), human (orange), wise (green) and wine (red). Using the gnome colors icon themes in Ubuntu (human as default of course), we would benefit on many levels:
Visual appearances; all of the icons look brilliant and would serve to refresh the Ubuntu desktop.
Consistency; gnome-colors provides more icons by far than human so it would have less risk of exposing default icons (such as in synaptic or logos on the menus) which look atrocious on a modern desktop. It also provides custom icon schemes in extras for programs such as inkscape which make them fit in much better.
Maintainability; gnome-colors, unlike the current human scheme, benefits from active upstream development on google code meaning it is being constantly improved whereas the human icon theme seems to have stagnated to some extent.
Themeability/giving the users what they want; often heard are complaints about how brown the human theme is, almost just as often one hears complaints about any other colour scheme a distro chooses because different colors appeal to different people. If we use gnome-colors this would gives the user the ability to switch between 4 different colourisations of the same icon theme which should serve most users and if we just make 4 recolored versions of the default desktop wallpaper (a simple job in GIMP) and duplicate the metacity theme with different colored highlights we will be able to ship with 4 complete and consistent, color coordinated schemes for the Ubuntu desktop out of the box.
Images
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Fullsize Comparison of color schemes |
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Fullsize Synaptic before and after |
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Gnome-colors human sample icons |
Testing
You can download the icon themes from the gnomelook page (http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GNOME-colors?content=82562), and you must extract all of the icon archives to /usr/share/icons. Next you can download the download one of the themes using gnome-colors from below, extract it and place it in /usr/share/themes:
You can also download the ibex colors wallpapers:
You can add the Launchpad PPA by opening System > Administration > Software Sources, clicking the Third Party tab, and adding the following lines:
deb http://http://ppa.launchpad.net/gnome-colors-packagers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://http://ppa.launchpad.net/gnome-colors-packagers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
and adding their signature by typing into a terminal:
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com E8D31A30
Links
Google code project: http://code.google.com/p/gnome-colors/
Contributions
Guidelines
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Comments
I must say, this isn't to the OP's point, but the mashup like that looks awesome. It would break the monotony and give a first-time user a vibrant display, and it's something nobody else does. If each of 4 sections of the screen were colorized with a different pallet, with icons that changed dynamically as you drag them (even with the polka dot intersections would be nice), the theme may not be a hit at offices, but for a terminal at, say, a library or some similar area, it would give a great impression. -- septiumhashpipe 2024-04-20 06:18:18
I really like your icon-theme. There is one point of criticism I have: The whole theme looks a bit plain because the theme colour (orange, red, green or blue) is too dominant. Orange Folders, orange Desktop, orange here and orange there. I think this is due to the four different colour schemes which reserve each one color that is not available for other symbols. Would it be possible to create one edition for Ubuntu with the Ubuntu-specific orange for folders etc. and all the other colours (green, blue, red) available for the theme itself? --schoggikoenig-lp 2024-04-20 06:18:18
I wholly agree with this point - though I think the effect of the overly dominant base color does worse than make the theme "plain". Take the Places menu, for example. When adjacent icons share the same color/hue, they become less distinguishable from each other. The effect is that the whole theme (even worse when you add the matching arc-colors wallpaper) feels to monochromatic. The other point of criticism I have is that the orange used in gnome-colors-human is much too harsh/bright. A softer orange or light brown would have been a more aesthetically pleasing choice, IMO. On a positive note, this theme is the most complete and tango-compliant icon set I've ever used. --pferraro 2024-04-20 06:18:18
I think that might be possible but not being involved in the creation of the icons I don't know how much work it would be (I think that as it is mainly the folders and key desktop visible icons which are colorized it could be done quite simply). A better idea might be a desktop wallpaper with a wider range of colors (most Ubuntu ones in the past have just stuck to one overriding theme) as a consistent, non-distracting color throughout makes a better work environment while more vibrant wallpapers (non-abstract, maybe some HDR shots) would mark a nice shift in the artwork. --twright-tdw 2008-12-29 15:18:50
I love the colors gnome, I think that is the future of the icons default gnome. but not ubuntu. the look is ideal for tango gnome, ubuntu, but tries to go beyond the gnomish appearance. PS: But it's better than the current human icons. 2024-04-20 06:18:18
Just a note: this is not just a mockup, the themes are completly functional an they provide everything needed to be the default ubuntu theme --twright-tdw 2008-12-29 15:18:50
For a striking difference between the awesome coverage and usability improvements gnome-colors can provide over the current default, check out ubuntu-human.png vs ubuntu-colors.png. Gnome-colors allows you to really easily differentiate between files that require much more visual/information parsing in Human. --mrooney
GNOME-Colors, specifically GNOME-Human, should definitely be considered as a potential replacement or addition to the now-dated default Human icon set. IMO it is the most complete set out of the others featured on GNOME-Look.org, it is light, and it nicely complements other default icons used in other programs such as Pidgin and Evolution. My only reservation is that the orange does not fit well with the default caramel/brown appearance. --mackdieselx27
I think that this is a great idea because 1) It's already made, 2) It looks solid, and 3)It allows "newbies" to easily customtize their desktop, something that I think should be emphasized more in future releases. Good job.
I agree with previous comment, having different yet similar colour schemes is a great idea and lets everyone choose their favourite colour with just 1-2 clicks!! I also encourage everyone to look at the metacity theme, gtk murrine/clearlooks themes, gdm and usplash themes designed by the same author to combine with these icons. You can find them on his gnome-look page. So even people who don't like default brown would be happy, it's a win-win situation! I hope the work of this very talented guy can be used as a base for the future ubuntu design.
--mikywing Let's also remember that the latest builds of GNOME-Colors allow an infinite variety of colour variations to be created by building from source, so, in theory, the user could choose any colour she wants. -- jrothwell97 2009-08-13 07:48:57 2009-08-13 07:48:57
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