• KDE3
• Themes-en

Deutsch: ../Themes

This page documents, by what means we can mock up the KDE desktop in order to meet pupils' needs. These are the questions to be asked:

1. Create themes based on existing modules

• 1.1 How to change desktop appearance?

  • Open KDE control center (kcontrol), go to Appearance and you'll find the Theme Manager. Here you can change settings or combine different components.

  1.2 What components make a desktop theme?

  • A theme consists out of five components:

    

  1.3 Where do I find desktop themes and components ready to use?

  • http://www.kde-look.org/

2. Create your own KDE theme components

• also cf. http://www.kde-look.org/help/ (some links are dead, alas)

  How to change theme component...:

  2.1 Background

  • KDE-Look Wallpapers

• 2.2 Color Scheme

  • KDE-Look Color Schemes

  • Under Debian Sarge (KDE 3.3), color themes are stored in /usr/share/apps/kdisplay/color-schemes/

  • color themes are defined by a plain text file containing color codes (RGB) for different desktop elements. You can set these values within KDE control center.

  • Sample cleanstik.kcsrc (abridged):

    [Color Scheme]
    Name=clean-stick
    activeBackground=247,248,251
    activeBlend=233,233,233
    activeForeground=0,0,90
    activeTitleBtnBg=233,233,233
    alternateBackground=248,248,248
    ...
    

  2.3 Style (Look of buttons and other widgets)

  • Note: Windows decorations (title bar etc.) are not affected here, but have to be defined separately.

  2.4 Icons (SVG)

  • Icons bei KDE-Look

  SVG vector graphics can be created by use of Sodipodi or Inkscape. Under /usr/share/icons you find icons used by the crystal theme (e.g. in crystalsvg/scalable). As you can see, there are bitmap versions of all icons. This is not only for performance reasons, but also to provide good quality versions at low resolutions (16x16, 32x32). In summary, the crystal themes embraces 17 MB in over 3000 files.

  2.5 Screensaver

  • Screensavers (KDE-Look)

3. Further features of desktop appearance

• Only five out of nine features are defined by the KDE desktop theme. Fonts, Launch Feedback, Splash Screen and Window Decorations have to defined on their own.

KSplash (Splash screen after login)

In /usr/share/apps/ksplash/Themes/ there are some examples that can easily be adapted to your own needs:

Preview.png                - Preview for design manager
splash_top.png             - upper area of the splash screen (orig.: 400x248)
splash_inactive_bar.png    - bar containing symbols that are enabled step by step 
splash_active_bar.png      - bar with enabled (highlighted) symbols (orig.: 400x60)
splash_bottom.png          - footing bar underneath splash bar (orig. 400x18)
Theme.rc                   - config file (adaptable)

This splash demo for KSplash also includes a GIMP template that helps you creating your own theme. Please, also regard the attached manual.

Approx. 2000 examples can be found at KDE-Look.org. Those are tarball archives that can be installed without root access from the design manager.

Further informations are to be found in the KSplash Handbook.

This KDE-Splashscreen with Skolelinux logo and rainbow tuxes are to be found in KDE-Splash at http://www.skolelinux.de/~ralf/artwork

One of three differently coloured splash screens by KWire