Download it NOW!
The latest version can be downloaded here. The ChangeLog can be found here.
Please note that not all languages are up2date. If you want a fully localized build please wait for an update.
Features:
- change most important colors (e.g. background, window decoration, tooltips)
- change sizes of widgets (e.g. of buttons, scrollbars or the main padding)
- allow use of light-colored wallpapers without getting icons unreadable
- adjust the size of start menues / panel menues / or large-toolbars
- *new* colorize desktop icons and activate their new hover effects (requires GNOME 2.18+)
- *new* configure your gtk engines and let your current theme be drawn by whatever gtk engine you want (requires GNOME 2.18+ or engines that support the newly introduced engine schema definitions respectively)
- many more, of course, heh ;-)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this program only useful for GNOME users?
No, in general it can be used by every user who wants a good looking or well customized desktop.
GTK-Desktop users (like XFCE ones) can change almost the entire look of their desktop.
KDE and other users can customize the look of all GTK programs they're using (like Firefox).
I downloaded your source, how can i start it?
Dear Ubuntu user,
the human readable source (yes, indeed!) cannot be started directly, instead you have to create a computer readable program. This is done via compiling all sources to a bit stream and link them together to one single program file in this case. This is usually not as easy as it should be for a normal user, but after getting puzzled by the many files and having taken much time to read the installation notes, you know the following necessary steps. If you don't understand one or more of them, you should better search for a ready to go package for your linux distribution.
- get all needed dependencies (that is the hardest part, remember that on Debian based systems like Ubuntu you have to install not only the dependency package itself, but also a package with the same name but with a "-dev" as suffix, additionally you need the "build-essential" package)
- extract the source and go with a terminal to the new directory
- if you have the package "checkinstall" installed, you can try
./debian_install
and if it works, you're done. Otherwise go ahead to the next steps
./configure --prefix=/usr
The prefix should be the same as your GNOME has been using on installation (usually "/usr" on linux systems), so the app is able to find the so called engine schema definitions.
If this step fails, you most probably are missing some of the dependencies!make
- and as root do:
make install
(on Debian and most other systems you can switch to root via "su" command) or sudo make install
(on Ubuntu systems)
The installation should be done now and you're able to start it by typing gnome-color-chooser
Also there is a starter under System->Settings. If you don't find it, it can be that you have to restart GNOME.
Have fun with it!
Why does the "Engines" tab not show any selectable engine?
Either you are not using GNOME 2.18+ or any GTK Engines with Engine Schema support yet,
or your GNOME Color Chooser has been compiled with a different prefix than your GNOME uses.
Engine Schema.. what?
Since version 2.10 (included by GNOME 2.18) all GTK engines include a simple xml file containing all options they can be configured with. It's probably not really interesting to an end user, but for themers and especially for gtk engine authors it should be worth taking a deeper look at. You can usually find them in /usr/share/gtk-engines (if /usr is the prefix your GTK/GNOME has been compiled with), specs can be found at http://live.gnome.org/GnomeArt/EngineSchema, or if you have questions, just contact me. In case you are a gtk engine author, please consider supporting engine schemas!
Why is my language not supported?
Just because no one has translated it yet into your language. Please take a look at ".... and me?" and see what you can do about it.
Damn, why took the release of 0.2.0 so extremely long?
As you can often read in small open source projects: TIME! There's just too less time in the world.
Additionally, I'm a bit disencouraged by gtk2's theme format that just doesn't allow the creation of a complete theme editor. That's also why one of the major features of 0.2.0 has been removed: a .tar.gz and GTP (GNOME Theme Package) theme exporter with a GET WHAT YOU SEE mode that creates a complete gnome theme which contains exactly what you see on your desktop, including your original theme, all of your and your host's customizations to it, icons and window borders if you want, and of course all gnome-color-chooser settings. Unfortunately the gtk-2 theme format is a one-way-only format, but in the next months there will be a first discussion on what a gtk-3 would have to bring with.
For now there is nothing satisfying possible (except for inventing an own theme format with a gtkrc exporter, but i think, this should be a community process and go towards gtk-3), feel free to send me comments and suggestions, though! ;-)
.... and now?
With gnome-color-chooser 0.2.x the code should have become strong enough to handle both current and later requested features, although the source code still looks like an ugly and heavy building lot. The own file format (*.gnomecc) will probably change in the future to encapsulate graphics.
Please tell me which features you are missing and very probably they'll get into one of the next 0.2.x versions. ;-)
.... and next?
At the moment the only planned big step to 0.3.x is a WYSIWYG user interface for graphically selecting the parts of the desktop that one wants to configure. Another idea is supporting GNOME's future color schemes and optionally setting computation rules (like shade and lighten as supported by newer gtk themes) instead of concrete colors. Feel free to help.
.... and me?
Translations, UI designs, mockups, feature requests, other help, and donations are very appreciated! You can find the project page for contributions at https://launchpad.net/gnome-color-chooser/.
If you like to contribute new language support or change some translations, visit this page. There you can directly start translating inside your browser. Another way is using a software tool like poEdit which is also easy to handle but have to be installed.
If you want to share ideas and proposals with me, please add them at launchpad or mail me (see aboutdialog).
best regards,
JackTheDipper
FanArt
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