[SOLVED] 'Application style' choices

[DoYouKubuntu]

Much like my shock at finding so few configurable font settings in 19.10 (compared to 14.04), the same feeling applies to its FOUR-CHOICE "Application style" setting:



As with the font settings, there used to be a WHOLE BUNCH of application styles--and you could download more, IIRC. Now there's a paltry choice of four--one of which you couldn't PAY me to use--and no option to get more. Please tell me I'm missing something...I mean overlooking something. I know what I'm missing, and I don't like it.

I did notice that the GNOME/GTK Application Style page has more choices and lets you get/install more. But I'm not sure what that means...

[Don B. Cilly]

I don't use them so I wouldn't know, but have you tried https://store.kde.org/browse/cat/489/ ?
Or maybe color schemes, or widget styles...

[kubicle]

The main problem is that there aren't that many good qt5 themes available (and how configurable they are depend on the theme). My favorite is qtcurve which should be installable from the kubuntu repos ["sudo apt install qtcurve", that is a metapackage that will install all the different parts] and includes qt4 [not usually needed anymore unless you have legacy apps], qt5 and gtk2 themes (unfortunately no gtk3, so you need another theme for those apps if you have them).

The theme looks decent by default, but is ridiculously configurable so you can basically customize it to what you like. I wouldn't be caught dead using Breeze or most of the default install themes (fusion is decent, but cannot match qtcurve in either looks or configurability).

[acheron]

https://packages.ubuntu.com/eoan/qt5-style-plugins

[DoYouKubuntu]

https://packages.ubuntu.com/eoan/qt5-style-plugins

Thanks for that. It did add some things I wanted, but I'm still not where I want to be!

Take these for example: This is how I want my scrollbars and toolbars to look:

SeaMonkey browser:


SeaMonkey e-mail client, with browser behind it:


But, after -days- of installing [via Synaptic and from packages I luckily had saved long ago, like my beautiful icons], downloading/installing [via ('get more...') buttons] in System Settings, choosing and previewing or choosing and applying choices, I still don't have what I'm looking for.

Current SeaMonkey:


Over the years I've kept a running file of *nix stuff--things that I've learned online, things I've figured out myself, just useful stuff that I thought may come in handy later. In it, from seven years ago, I have an entry where I explained to myself how I got SeaMonkey's beautiful, glossy blue scrollbars back. I had remembered something from years earlier, when I was still active in Linux newsgroups, an obscure tidbit:

. with SM running, from Settings | System Settings | Application Appearance | GTK+ Appearance, change "Widget style" to Raleigh
. shut down SM
. change "Widget style" to QtCurve
. restart SM

I even told myself: "Note that this is on a Kubuntu 12.04 box. Newer versions have different choices under GTK+, but the concept should be the same." Yeah, well, no, not any more... *sigh*

I also don't have my progress bar looking/acting as I want, shown in this previously used pic (just note #2):



In System Settings, I've toyed with everything I can think of, but am coming up against brick walls. For example, the progress bar: under Application Style, if I choose Oxygen, it has settings you can configure by using the little wrench icon, but when I choose Cleanlooks--which has the closest match for the progress bar I want--the wrench is grayed out, so I can't adjust it to animate its progress bar as I can with Oxygen. All of this was a snap before... If you want to see how the progress bar should look/act, look under "GNOME/GTK Application Style" and set GTK2 theme to "Human-Clearlooks," and preview it. That's almost exactly it! But blue...not brown...

I'm not ready, yet, to proclaim that I'm sorry I upgraded because, really, I'm glad to finally be using current software, including things like SeaMonkey, whose most recent versions couldn't even be installed for my system not meeting certain dependencies. But, damn!, I just want things to look the way I like, and I'm really getting frustrated trying to get there!

[kubicle]

I'm repeating myself, but did you install and try out qtcurve (sudo apt install qtcurve)?
Progressbars and scrollbars (and basically every element) are highly configurable in qtcurve, can't promise you can get them exactly as shown on your screenshots, but you can get pretty close

EDIT: The theme in your old sreenshots actually looks a lot like modified qtcurve, so maybe you were using that in your old installation?

I configured this in 2 minutes, as an example (colors and elements are fully configurable):

[DoYouKubuntu]

I'm repeating myself, but did you install and try out qtcurve (sudo apt install qtcurve)?
Progressbars and scrollbars (and basically every element) are highly configurable in qtcurve, can't promise you can get them exactly as shown on your screenshots, but you can get pretty close

EDIT: The theme in your old sreenshots actually looks a lot like modified qtcurve, so maybe you were using that in your old installation?

Yes, I was. Note where I said [in my instructions to myself]: " change "Widget style" to QtCurve"

I have everything QTCurve-related installed.

I configured this in 2 minutes, as an example (colors and elements are fully configurable):

Where? I am clearly just not seeing it... Oh my [blanking] goodness... it's right f-ing there! I see its wrench now, I SWEAR it was grayed out before. And you're absolutely right--I had it HIGHLY customized. I used to sometimes cheat when setting up a new computer, copying over my settings and then fine-tuning specific items, but normally I preferred to spend the time it took to highly customize a new computer/install. Thanks, kubicle. I don't know how I could've been so blind...

[DoYouKubuntu]

I know I marked this solved, because once I found the settings for QtCurve I thought I was set. But I've come up against a stumbling block: In this shot, what is the element called that's circled in cyan? There are two of them, but they're the same element:

[claydoh]

That is the Title Bar, part of the Window Decoration component, ie a wholly separate entity.
There are gobs of these, and the stock Breeze has some configuration options, most others not so much.

[DoYouKubuntu]

That is the Title Bar, part of the Window Decoration component, ie a wholly separate entity.
There are gobs of these, and the stock Breeze has some configuration options, most others not so much.

Well, I can't figure out how I ever got it to look the way it used to. If I set 'Application style' back to Breeze, then I'll lose my zillion customization options that I have with QtCurve. BUT, I've used QtCurve for eons, as shown in old screenshots, but somehow I got their Title Bars to be a height I liked and a color I liked.

[woodsmoke]

This really IS, to the old woodsmoker, an excellent thread.
I normally just run plain stock installs because there always was just "some little thing" that would bollux stuff up, but this has inspired me to try out the whole qtcurve thing.

thanks
woody

[kubicle]

Well, I can't figure out how I ever got it to look the way it used to. If I set 'Application style' back to Breeze, then I'll lose my zillion customization options that I have with QtCurve. BUT, I've used QtCurve for eons, as shown in old screenshots, but somehow I got their Title Bars to be a height I liked and a color I liked.

The title bar (or window decoration) theme is not set by the "Application Style" section...it is set in the "Window Decorations" module in system settings (See this thread for a screenshot https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...-my-borders-go). The reason why you see different styled title bar in the qtcurve config is that qtcurve used to include it's own window decoration theme that you could style to your liking in it's settings (package kwin-style-qtcurve)...you still had to separately select that theme to be used for the window decorations module.

Unfortunately, the qtcurve kwin style was dropped at KDE5 transition (there was some major refactoring on the kwin themes back then, and the majority of themes never got ported to the new theme api, including qtcurve...so the decoration settings in qtcurve config are sort of dead code now). Lack of good and highly configurable kwin themes are one of the very few things I truly miss, I had to create my own own aurorae theme to get something I could stand to look at.

The Breeze decoration offers some basic config options as claydoh mentioned, leave the application style as "qtcurve" and look for the "breeze" window decoration config options under the window decoration system settings module (the edit button appear when you hover over the theme).

[DoYouKubuntu]

This really IS, to the old woodsmoker, an excellent thread.
I normally just run plain stock installs because there always was just "some little thing" that would bollux stuff up, but this has inspired me to try out the whole qtcurve thing.

thanks
woody

I'm really glad to hear that, Woodster!

Just make a backup of your home directory and then start exploring. In the past, I would have named specific $HOME directories to back up, like .kde or .config, but with all this new stuff, I haven't figured it out yet. If you totally muck things up, just restore your backup.

QtCurve has endless possibilities. Spend some time really poking around with them. And keep in mind that by changing and customizing other elements, you have even more choices. So thoroughly explore everything under 'Appearance' and, to a lesser degree, 'Workspace.'

When you're happy with your results, post pics!

[DoYouKubuntu]

The title bar (or window decoration) theme is not set by the "Application Style" section...it is set in the "Window Decorations" module in system settings (See this thread for a screenshot https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...-my-borders-go). The reason why you see different styled title bar in the qtcurve config is that qtcurve used to include it's own window decoration theme that you could style to your liking in it's settings (package kwin-style-qtcurve)...you still had to separately select that theme to be used for the window decorations module.

Unfortunately, the qtcurve kwin style was dropped at KDE5 transition (there was some major refactoring on the kwin themes back then, and the majority of themes never got ported to the new theme api, including qtcurve...so the decoration settings in qtcurve config are sort of dead code now). Lack of good and highly configurable kwin themes are one of the very few things I truly miss, I had to create my own own aurorae theme to get something I could stand to look at.

The Breeze decoration offers some basic config options as claydoh mentioned, leave the application style as "qtcurve" and look for the "breeze" window decoration config options under the window decoration system settings module (the edit button appear when you hover over the theme).

I appreciate the information and guidance. It's been quite a shock adjusting to all the changes. I know that if I had upgraded more often, it wouldn't be so traumatic! But life happened, so now I just need to learn and adjust. And I will.

[DoYouKubuntu]

The Breeze decoration offers some basic config options as claydoh mentioned, leave the application style as "qtcurve" and look for the "breeze" window decoration config options under the window decoration system settings module

The only choice I have is 'window border size.'

(the edit button appear when you hover over the theme).

Hmmm...I'm not sure what you're referring to. When I hover over any theme, nothing appears.