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Idea #5238: Simple way to change the Human theme base color

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #9190: Be able to choose any color for theme.
Written by alvevind the 20 Mar 08 at 20:22. Category: Look and Feel. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
The orange Human theme looks great, but many users want a different main color (perhaps to better fit their custom wallpaper). They do not want a different *theme*. They only want a different *base color* than orange.

Create a simple color selector where the user can choose the *base color* to use. Just select *your* base color, and a custom Human theme is created on the fly that looks *exactly* like the default Human theme but where the orange window bars and orange icons are now based on *your* selected color. Gradients, style, application icons etc. remain unchanged.
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #5238
Written by alvevind the 20 Mar 08 at 20:22.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #5238 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Eldmannen wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 20:24
Yeah, in Vista you can change the color of the default theme.

http://tinyurl.com/2qmbsm
http://tinyurl.com/2rzhon

alvevind wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 20:37
As a side comment:

I think a color customization feature is a "must have" in order to capture the full support of the more appearance focused part of the population. That means girls.

You may call it silly, but it's a fact. In my experience the first thing a girl wants to do is to choose her own color. It's that way with her purse, it's that way with her mobile phone, it's that way with her Operating System.

Attracting female users *is* important if Ubuntu is to compete with Mac and Windows.

Eldmannen wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 20:40
Yeah, we need girls!

They need to be able to change the ugly brown unfashionably brown theme to a trendy pink theme!

fragro wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 21:45
Color changing is already there but the Theme must support it.

alvevind wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 21:52
So change the Human theme so it supports color change!

But look at the great links Eldmannen posted in the first comment. That's how easy and attractive the color selector should look. That's what Ubuntu is up against - we should learn from what Windows and Mac does well.

fluteflute (Idea reviewer) wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 07:32
Yes yes yes!

Blubuntu theme is just Human made blue. Can there just not be an option to change the colour!

tenplus1 wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 11:29
Great idea as it does get annoying having to download themes to simply change the colour...

sedra wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 14:54
good idea plesase remove that orange color!!!!!!!!!!

alvevind wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 14:59
@sedra
This idea is *not* about removing the orange color. It is about giving people the option to *change* the base color to their own liking, without having to search for, download and install an entirely new theme manually.

cmr wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 17:17
yes, please. the orange is dreadful. the desktop looks like diarrhea. i like the theme, i just can't stand the hue.

natureflow wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 20:40
"The current controls theme does not support color schemes." :(

Please add color scheme support for the Human theme!

natureflow wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 20:43
> Create a simple color selector where the user can choose the
> *base color* to use. Just select *your* base color, and a
> custom Human theme is created on the fly that looks *exactly*
> like the default Human theme but where the orange window bars
> and orange icons are now based on *your* selected color.
> Gradients, style, application icons etc. remain unchanged.
This feature is already implemented. Just look at the tab "Colors". But the Human theme does not support this feature.

alvevind wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 22:53
@natureflow

Is it really?

Can I easily switch the Human base color (orange) for my own preferred color and the colorization of window bars, folder icons etc. will automatically change? I tested this with another theme just now in Hardy and the ubiquitous folder icons stayed totally unchanged after I changed the color (the window bar changed color but that is just one part of the picture).

I do not want a 20 step procedure to tweaking one thing at a time. I want a simple and non-technical one-stop-shopping method for choosing *the* base color.

belovedmonster wrote on the 24 Mar 08 at 10:34
I'm not a girl but I'd like to be able to change the hideous colour scheme please.

BobCFC wrote on the 2 Apr 08 at 13:40
I've been digging around in gconf-editor looking for a way to change it by hand. No luck so far.

Can anybody provide a quick hack for me to edit a file or similar? It is affecting other themes which refer to the base colour, not just the human theme.

maybeway36 wrote on the 28 Apr 08 at 19:35
I like to use Clearlooks theme with the Human window decorations, which gives me a sky blue color.

Endolith wrote on the 19 Feb 09 at 03:33
The title bars and stuff can already do this, by changing the selection color in Appearances.

It seems like we should be able to do this with SVG icons, too, by taking advantage of SVG's ability to reference other colors, etc.

For instance, here is an example of some icons that have been given special colors so that they should automatically match your theme:

http://endolith.com/svgiconcolors/icontest.html

CJay554 wrote on the 27 Oct 09 at 19:05
PLEASE PLEASE PLAEAAAASE IMPLEMENT THIS!
It would help so much just to customize the coloring rather than download a whole new theme. I do like the Human theme icons, just i easily get bored with colors and would like to simply pick my color from a color wheel like the highlight and the bar colors and all other colors.
PLeaaaaasee 0=]


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