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Creating Icon Themes

 DevynCJohnson ·  Oct 4, 2015

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Oct 4, 2015  #1
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D Not only can Linux users customize the desktop theme, but they can also change the icons.
Icon-theme packs are easy to make, install, and obtain. Many Linux users may find it helpful to
learn how to change icons, edit them, get more, etc.
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accessible to the owner of that home folder. While icons in "/usr/share/icons" are global-icons
that are accessible by all users. "/usr/share/pixmaps" contains icons that are installed or used
by various applications and software packages.
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Applications that are looking for an icon will first look in "~/.icons". Next, the application will try
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"/usr/share/icons", and then "/usr/share/pixmaps".
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Icon Theme Debian and derivatives

An icon theme has a specific structure/format that must be used to create a usable icon-pack. Operation save old laptop
Inside the icon directories ("~/.icons" and "/usr/share/icons"), each icon theme has its own Latest: xXNORDXx · Today at 4:12 AM
folder that is named after the icon-theme. Within the icon-theme's directory are several folders General Server
and some important files. For instance, an icon-theme may contain the below listed directories
C eve online on ubuntu (macbook pro)
and files. Latest: corporal_Canada · Today at 3:56
AM
• Directories General Linux
◦ 8x8
USB mic not working :(
◦ 16x16 Latest: Condobloke · Today at 2:09 AM
◦ 22x22 Linux Audio / Video
◦ 24x24 Mono problem!
◦ 32x32 Latest: Lord Boltar · Today at 1:36 AM
◦ 48x48 Command Line

◦ 52x52
◦ 128x128
◦ 240x240
◦ 256x256
◦ 512x512
◦ scalable
◦ scalable-up-to-32
• Files
◦ AUTHORS
◦ CONTRIBUTORS
◦ COPYING
◦ cursor.theme
◦ icon-theme.cache
◦ index.theme
The directories contain images and icons with the specified dimensions used as the folder
names (in pixels). However, "scalable" and "scalable-up-to-32" contain SVG files. The SVG files
in "scalable-up-to-32" can be used without issues when used at 32-pixels or below. Within each
directory are more folders as listed and described below. Each of these sub-directories may
contain SVG, PNG, or XPM files (PNG is recommended). Each file must use a particular name
so that the desktop system can find the icon that it needs. Soft-links (shortcuts) are permitted
because they allow developers to create one image that can be the icon for many uses (such
as using the same image for all types of mount optical disks). To learn more about the
filenames for icons, refer to the naming specification - http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-
naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html

• actions - Icons for actions (such as redo, close, play, etc.) that may be seen in toolbars,
menus, buttons, etc.
• animations - Images that are used to make animated icons (such as "loading spinners" or
disc-burning progress)
• apps - Icons for specific applications or for applications of a general type
• categories - Icons for various application categories
• devices - Icons for devices such as mounted storage media, optical disks, iPods, phones,
printers, etc.
• emblems - Icons for tags and file properties (such as the "unreadable" or "soft-link"
symbol)
• emotes - Emoticons/Emojis
• International - Icons representing different languages/nations
• mimetypes (or mimes) - Icons for various mimetypes; these are typically used as the
icons for files
• places - Icons for folders, servers, trash-bin, etc.
• search - Images for search-related icons
• status - Icons used for notifications (like "error", "warning", etc.), battery level, audio
volume, network status, etc.
• stock - Miscellaneous
• web - Icons for web-apps (like the web-apps commonly seen in the Unity dashboard)

The icon images themselves can be made using Gimp (when making PNG files) and Inkscape
(when making SVG files). All icon images must be a perfect square. Thus, the "32x32" icons
must be 32 pixels tall and 32 pixels wide. RGBa is recommended, especially for the
transparency layer (alpha-channel).

Some icon-themes (like "Humanity") use a slightly different format. The "Humanity" icon-pack
contains folders for each icon context (emotes, devices, places, etc.) and then the different
sizes as sub-directories. The sub-directories for each icon size uses the name format "22"
rather than "22x22".

The files in the root of the icon-theme each have a particular purpose as described below.

• AUTHORS - List of authors and possibly their contact information and website
• CONTRIBUTORS - List of people that helped with the project
• COPYING - The license (such as GPL)
• cursor.theme - Cursor-theme information
• icon-theme.cache - Icon cache that are used as memory mapped files; the files directly
map the icons files, thus reducing the time to find a needed icon
• index.theme - The icon-theme description file; encoded in UTF-8

FUN FACT: The "gtk-update-icon-cache" command can be used to update/refresh the icon
cache files.
Sample index.theme
Code:

[Icon Theme]
Name=Theme_Name
Name[ca]=Translated_Name
Name[cs]=Translated_Name
Name[da]=Translated_Name
Comment=Theme_Description
Comment[ca]=Translated_Theme_Description
Comment[cs]=Translated_Theme_Description
Comment[da]=Translated_Theme_Description
Inherits=Name_a_Theme_to_use_as_a_Fallback

# Comment
# KDE specific settings
DisplayDepth=32
LinkOverlay=link_overlay
LockOverlay=lock_overlay
ZipOverlay=zip_overlay
DesktopDefault=48
DesktopSizes=16,22,32,48,64,72,96,128
ToolbarDefault=22
ToolbarSizes=16,22,32,48
MainToolbarDefault=22
MainToolbarSizes=16,22,32,48
SmallDefault=16
SmallSizes=16
PanelDefault=32
PanelSizes=16,22,32,48,64,72,96,128

# List all directories

Directories=8x8/emblems,16x16/actions,16x16/apps,

# specify the context, size, and type of each directory

[8x8/emblems]
Context=Emblems
Size=8
Type=Fixed

Installing and Removing Icons

Icon themes can be installed by placing the icon-pack in one of the proper icon directories. If
the icons are placed in "/usr/share/icons", then ensure that the owner is "Root" and the proper
permissions are set so that all users can read the files.

To recursively set the proper permissions and ownership to all folders and files in the icon-
pack, execute the below commands. Open a terminal in "/usr/share/icons" before executing the
commands.

Code:

chown -R root:root ./THEME_NAME

find ./THEME_NAME -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find ./THEME_NAME -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

NOTE: Directories must use "755" permissions (drwxr-xr-x) and files must use "644"
permissions (rw-r--r--). This is better for security while ensuring that users and programs can
access the data.

To remove icon themes, delete the icon-pack's directory.

Obtaining Icons
Icons can be obtained via the repositories or from various websites.

• GNOME-Look - http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=120x121
• Noobs Lab - http://www.noobslab.com/p/themes-icons.html

Changing Icons
Most theme changers also provide an interface for changing the icons. Such applications
include "Ubuntu Tweak", "Unity Tweak Tool", "Appearance", and others.

Cursors
Cursors are also found in "~/.icons" and "/usr/share/icons". Cursor-themes use a similar format.
However, the folder contains a "cursors" directory and two files - "cursor.theme" and
"index.theme". Inside of the "cursors" directory are files that are each named after each type of
cursor (top_left_corner, help, move, grabbing, etc.). These files are "X11 cursor images" and
 they have the "image/x-xcursor" mimetype. This type of image file contains multiple images.
Each contained image is 48, 32, and 24 pixels in height and width; the images support the
alpha-layer (transparency/RGBa). Gimp supports X11 cursor images and represents the
contained sub-images as different layers. Each layer must be named using the format
"(SIZEpx)_1 (50ms) (replace)", where "SIZE" is the width/height in pixels. All cursors that are
drawn in these images must be in the center of the space (whether the space be 48x48 pixels
or some other size).

Further Reading
• Graphical User Interface (GUI) Reading Guide - http://www.linux.org/threads/gui-reading-
guide.6471/
• Icon Theme Specification - http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/icon-theme-
spec/
• Icon Naming Specification - http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-
3 people
naming-spec-latest.html
• Icon Theme Specification (single page) - http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-theme-
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spec/icon-theme-spec-latest.html
• Tango Icon Library - http://tango.freedesktop.org/Tango_Icon_Library
Share:    • Tango
  Icon  Guidelines - http://tango.freedesktop.org
Theme
/Generic_Icon_Theme_Guidelines
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