Customising KDE
With KDE-look.org
I’m sure KDE’s ability to be almost infinitely customized is the reason I don’t yet rule the world. If I could only take the time and energy that goes into hunting for the cutest wallpapers, downloading icon themes, installing mouse cursor sets - and channel it into study or work - I’m quite certain I’d be a star pupil or model employee. As it is, days when I should be doing something more productive I find myself time and time again visiting that themer’s treasure trove, KDE-look.org.
The KDE Control Center puts a dazzling array of configuration options in one convenient location. In the “Appearance & Themes” section are the modules controlling all aspects of the look and feel of your KDE desktop. Here you can install and configure wallpapers, icon themes, color schemes and much more. KDE-look.org provides a place for users to share the customizations that they have made.
Wallpapers
With KDE 3.4 came ‘Get Hot New Stuff’, a simple way of downloading user contributed data for applications. In addition to the selection of artwork that comes with a KDE installation, KDesktop makes use of this new technology to streamline searching for and installing new desktop wallpapers from KDE-look. Open the KDesktop configuration dialog by right clicking on the desktop and selecting “Configure Desktop…” from the context menu. The dialog that appears shows you your current desktop background settings. Beneath the picture of a computer monitor on the right, click on ‘Get New Wallpapers’.
The Get New Wallpapers dialog
In the ‘Get New Wallpapers’ dialog, click on any image thumbnail to see more detailed information for that image. Once you’ve found an image you would like to download, simply click ‘Install’. The image will be downloaded and installed. After exiting the ‘Get New Wallpapers’ dialog, you can set your new image as the desktop background by selecting it from the ‘Picture’ drop down box in the KDesktop configuration dialog, under ‘Background’.
If you already have an image saved to your hard disk that you’d like to set as the desktop wallpaper, that’s even easier. Simply navigate to where you’ve stored the image in Konqueror and drag and drop the image to the desktop. In the context menu that appears, select ‘Set As Wallpaper’.
Icon themes
Icon themes are a very popular and striking way of changing the look of your KDE desktop. Icon themes can be downloaded from the ‘Icons’ section of KDE-look. To install an icon theme you’ve downloaded, fire up the KDE Control Center. Under ‘Appearance & Themes’ select ‘Icons’. Click on ‘Install new theme’ at the bottom of the dialog, and either navigate to the location where you downloaded the icon theme by clicking on the small folder icon to the right of the text field, or drag and drop the icon theme archive into the text field from a Konqueror window. Click ‘OK’, and KControl will install your theme. This step can sometimes take as much as half a minute, as a large number of small icon files are being extracted and copied to a new location. Once finished, you can load your new icon theme by highlighting its name in the list of installed themes and clicking ‘Apply’
Keep in mind that not all files listed on the KDE-look icons section are complete themes able to be installed this way. Carefully reading the entry’s description and any user comments can help you distinguish which are complete themes and which not. Once you’ve installed the icon theme, you’re free to delete the theme archive you downloaded.
The Icons dialog
Color Schemes
KDE comes with a wide variety of color schemes and the ‘colors’ section of KControl -> Appearance & Themes allows you to select a scheme, modify existing schemes and install new schemes. To install a scheme you’ve downloaded from KDE-look click ‘Import scheme’. Navigate to where you have downloaded the scheme file or the archive containing it and click ‘OK’. Your new color scheme will now be selectable in the list of installed schemes. Once you’ve installed a color scheme, you can delete the color scheme file or archive you downloaded.
You can also create your own personalized schemes by highlighting a scheme you’d like to modify and customizing the color values for various interface elements in the ‘Widget color’ drop down box to the right.
The colors dialog
Hint: The color preview image at the top of the dialog is clickable. To change the title bar color you could click on the title bar in the preview image and then on the small color swatch underneath the ‘Widget color’ drop down box that represents its current color value. This will bring up the color chooser dialog where you can select a new color for this widget.
Mouse cursors
There is a wide range of X11 mouse cursor themes available for download on KDE-look and KControl provides a nice interface for installing and applying mouse cursor themes although it’s pretty well hidden. To install a cursor theme you’ve downloaded, open up KControl and go to Peripherals -> Mouse. (Oh sure, I hear you say, that’s just *so* logical.) The second tab - cursor theme - is where we manage our mouse cursor themes. Click ‘Install new theme’ and navigate to where you downloaded the mouse cursor theme archive. Once you’ve selected it, click OK. Select your new theme from the list of installed themes and click apply. You’ll need to restart KDE before these changes take effect. Once you’ve installed the mouse cursor theme, you are free to delete the archive you downloaded.
Splash screens
A splash screen is the progress meter that appears when you log into or start KDE. Generally each distribution brands their KDE packages with their own artwork as the splash screen. To install a new one, once you’ve selected a splash screen you like from KDE-look.org and downloaded it to disk, launch KControl and go to Appearance & Themes -> Splash Screen. Click the ‘Add’ button and navigate to where you’ve downloaded the splash screen archive. Once you’ve selected the archive file, click OK. Your new splash screen should appear in the list of available splash screens. To see what it will look like without having to restart KDE, click ‘Test’. Once you’ve finished installing the splash screen, you can delete the archive from where you downloaded it.
The Splash screen dialog
Themes
Once you have your KDE desktop looking exactly how you like it, you can save the settings as a coherent theme in KControl -> Appearance & Themes -> Theme Manager. This lets you save groups of favorite settings and switch between them quickly and easily.
With KDE, your imagination is your only limit. Once you’ve created your masterpiece, you can share screenshots and discuss all aspects of KDE’s customization with other KDE themers by creating a free account on KDE-look.org. You’ll all have to excuse me now - I need to go make sure this article is handed in on time or Kevin knows what to blame!
Screenshots can be shared on KDE-look.org to show off your customizations
Where does KDE put my themes once I’ve installed them?
Icon themes: ~/.kde/share/icons
Color schemes ~/.kde/share/apps/kdisplay/color-schemes
Splash Screens ~/.kde/share/apps/ksplash/Themes
Mouse cursors ~/.icons
Wallpapers ~/.kde/share/wallpapers