Revision 35 as of 2006-06-20 13:16:41

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Ubuntu Eye Candy is intended as an index for all the things in the wiki that are mostly intended to make Ubuntu look cooler and/or slicker, rather than the more "serious" configuration options documented elsewhere.

Fairly short items can be added directly to this page; existing or longer items should get their own pages with links from here.

Changing Desktop Wallpaper

attachment:ChangeDesktopWallpaper.png

Right-click on your desktop and choose Change Desktop Background, or choose System->Preferences->Desktop Background. Pick a wallpaper from the list, or choose the Add Wallpaper button to add an image from any directory.

Use the Desktop Colors selector to change the background behind translucent or semi-transparent images - this works very well with SVG graphics.

Changing Desktop Themes

Ubuntu comes with a selection of desktop themes, and many more can be downloaded from websites.

To change themes, click System > Preferences > Theme.

Installing New Desktop Themes

attachment:ThemeDialogue.png

Download a theme onto your Desktop, open the Theme Manager as above, and drag the file containing the new theme onto the Theme Manager. It should automatically install, and appear in your list of themes.

Note that many theme packages only contain portions of a theme - you can find those by clicking the Theme Details button and exploring the lists there.

The three parts of every theme are Controls, Window Borders and Icons. Controls come from GTK 2.x and Window Borders from Metacity - look for those terms on the websites listed at the bottom of this page if you want more themes for your Ubuntu desktop.

Gnome's Theme Manager also makes it very easy to create your own themes by mixing and matching elements through this Theme Details window.

Changing Login Window (GDM) Themes

attachment:LoginWindow.png

Gnome Desktop Manager (GDM) controls the login screen in Ubuntu. There are several themes pre-installed, and many more can be downloaded.

To Change Login Screen Themes

In Ubuntu 6.06:

  • Choose System > Administration > Login Window.

In Ubuntu 5.10 & Earlier:

  • Choose System > Adminstration > Login Screen Setup, then click the Themed Greeter tab and choose a GDM theme.

Installing New Login Screen Themes

As with desktop themes, save the .tar.gz with your theme on it to your Desktop. In the Login Screen Setup's Themed Greeter tab, press the Install New Theme button, find your new theme's file, and press the Install button.

Then simply select the new theme from the list of available themes. You can also set it up to pick a random theme on every boot, rather than picking just one theme.

Changing The Splash Screen

On the Gnome menu select Applications > System Tools > Configuration Editor.

From the tree menu on the left select apps > gnome-session > options.

Right click on splash_image then select edit key.

In the value field enter the absolute path to the image file you wish to use for your splash screen.

Gnome Art Manager

One easy way of getting more wallpaper, desktop themes, GDM themes and other eye-candy into Ubuntu is to install the package gnome-art through [:SynapticHowto:Synaptic] or apt-get.

Start gnome-art via System > Preferences > Art Manager and then use the Art menu to select the category you wish to view.

Note that this application only uses art.gnome.org's files - items from gnome-look.org or elsewhere will not be available through the Art Manager.

Ubuntu Eyecandy Pages

  • [:QtGnome:Qt-Gnome]: Make KDE applications more GNOME-like

Possibly Unstable Eye Candy

  • [:CompositeManager/Xgl:Xgl] - Provides smooth, 3D animated window movement, desktop switching, 'expose' like application switching, transparent terminals, and more, including simple graphical configuration tools.

  • ["GnomeLaunchBox"]: Mac OSX-style application launcher

  • ["WallpaperTray"]: Picks a particular wallpaper when you log in, or regularly.

Older Eye Candy

The following eye candy has been superceded by more modern / stable equivalents, many of which come with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake).

  • ["Upower"]: add a boot-up splash screen to Ubuntu (Ubuntu now includes a splash screen by default. Additonally, Upowr is no longer in development, having been replaced by Splashy.

  • ["GnomeFoot"]: Replace the Gnome foot on the Applications menu with the Ubuntu logo (Ubuntu 5.10 and newer do this by default)

  • [:Expocity:Expocity] - Howto Expose-like functionality from Apple’s OSX (Xgl performs this better)

  • [:Skippy:Skippy] - Howto for another Expose-like functionality from Apple’s OSX (Xgl performs this better)

  • ["DropShadows"]: adding Drop Shadows to your desktop windows (Xgl performs this better)

  • ["3ddesktopHowto"]: 3d Desktop installation (Xgl performs this better)

  • ["LuminocityHowTo"]: install Luminocity now in order to try out the new effects (Compiz, the window manager provided with Xgl, performs this better. Luminocity is no longer in development.)

  • ["TransparentTerminals"]: Transparent terminal windows on your desktop (Xgl performs this better)

Ubuntu Art Pages

  • ["ArtTeam"]: Ubuntu Art Team

  • ["Artwork/Official"]: Official Ubuntu artwork, and policy for using it.

  • ["CommunityArtwork"]: Community artwork links

  • ["UbuntuTitle"]: the official Ubuntu Title Typeface

Other Eyecandy Resources

CategoryDocumentation