Human theme

This theme works with GTK 2.24 (with murrine) & GTK 3.24 & GTK 4.12..4.19, with or without compositor, with or without CSD windows, and with or without gtk3/4-classic.

It is mainly intended for MATE desktop environment, it's not too bad with Xfce, it's experimental with Cinnamon.

Screenshots

GTK 2.24 (Pango 1.56)

GTK 2.24 RTL (Pango 1.56)

GTK 3.24-classic (Pango 1.56)

GTK 3.24-classic RTL (Pango 1.56)

GTK 4.12..4.18-classic (Pango 1.56)

GTK 4.12..4.18-classic RTL (Pango 1.56)

GTK 5.0 (Pango 1.56)
GtkWindow will likely be deprecated... lol

Program used for the screenshots is available here.

Installation

For MATE, the following packages no longer install the metacity/marco theme (ClearlooksRe), because it is provided by marco package.

Before you begin

To meet the truth (not required, if you can't/won't, no worries, but the truth will be far):

• remove gtk3-nocsd
• install gtk3-classic & gtk4-classic
• use Pango 1.42- or 1.51+

For Debian Testing, I provide a repository for gtk3-classic and for gtk4-classic, it also includes mate-settings-daemon 1.26 with a patch to customize notifications from theme.

For Ubuntu, I also provide a repository for gtk3-classic & gtk4-classic.

Installation for Debian, Devuan, Ubuntu, Trisquel, Linux Mint, MX Linux

• Run: sudo apt install human-theme-gtk
• Restart your session

Installation for Fedora, OpenMandriva

• Run: sudo dnf install human-theme-gtk
• Restart your session

Installation for openSUSE

• Run: sudo zypper install human-theme-gtk
• Restart your session

Installation for Mageia

• Run: sudo urpmi human-theme-gtk
• Restart your session

Alternative installation for Debian, Devuan, Ubuntu, Trisquel, Linux Mint, MX Linux

• Run:

# PPA: https://launchpad.net/~luigifab/+archive/ubuntu/packages
# with Debian 12+/Bookworm+ you can use mantic+ instead of focal (https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/669008/364800)
# for Debian you can use focal for buster, jammy for bullseye, oracular or noble for bookworm, questing or plucky for trixie
# for Devuan you can use focal for beowulf, jammy for chimaera, oracular or noble for daedalus, questing or plucky for excalibur and ceres
# for Trisquel you can use focal for nabia, jammy for aramo
# for Linux Mint you can use focal for 20.x and 4/debbie, jammy for 21.x and 5/elsie, noble for 22.x and 6/faye, questing or plucky for 7/gigi
# for MX Linux you can use focal for 19.x, jammy for 21.x, oracular or noble for 23.x
# for Kali Linux you can use questing or plucky

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:luigifab/packages
sudo apt update
sudo apt install human-theme-gtk
# or
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys FFE5BD439356DF7D
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/luigifab/packages/ubuntu focal main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install human-theme-gtk
# or
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/luigifab.gpg https://www.luigifab.fr/apt.gpg
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/luigifab/packages/ubuntu focal main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install human-theme-gtk
# or
wget -qO - https://www.luigifab.fr/apt.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/luigifab.gpg
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/luigifab/packages/ubuntu focal main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install human-theme-gtk

# sha256sum /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/luigifab.gpg
578c89a677048e38007462d543686b53587efba9f93814601169253c45ff9213
# apt-key list
/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/luigifab.gpg
pub   rsa4096 2020-10-31 [SC]
      458B 0C46 D024 FD8C B8BC  99CD FFE5 BD43 9356 DF7D

• Restart your session

Manual installation

• Download the archive and extract its subdirectories into ~/.themes/
• Configure font rendering, GTK and Qt settings, by adding the following to /etc/environment (details):

FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=35"
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk2
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0
GTK_BACKDROP=1
GTKM_INSERT_EMOJI=1
GTK_USE_IEC_UNITS=1
GTK_FOCUS_VISIBLE=1
GTK_PROGRESS_TEXT_INSIDE=1
GTK_TREEVIEW_LINES=0
GTK_ENLARGE_SCROLLBAR=1

• Install the icons and cursors themes: gnome-icon-theme or mate-icon-theme + dmz-cursor-theme
• Install package for GTK 2 apps: gtk2-engines-murrine or gtk2-engine-murrine or gtk2-murrine-engine or gtk-engine-murrine or gtk-murrine-engine or murrine or similar
• Install package for Qt 5 apps: qt5-gtk2-platformtheme + qt5-gtk-platformtheme or similar
• Install package for Qt 6 apps: qt6-gtk-platformtheme or similar
• Restart your session

Configuration

For MATE desktop:

• Go to: System / Preferences / Appearance, or run: mate-appearance-properties
  Then select the Human theme and update fonts.
• Go to: System / Preferences / Windows, or run: mate-window-properties
  Then disable software compositing from last tab (or enable it, as you want).
• Go to: System / Preferences / Notifications, or run: mate-notification-properties
  Then select the Coco or Default theme.
• Go to: panel preferences
  Then set panel height to 23px.

For Xfce desktop:

• Go to: Applications / Settings / Appearance, or run: xfce4-appearance-settings
  Then select the Human theme and update fonts.
• Go to: Applications / Settings / Window Manager, or run: xfwm4-settings
  Then select the Human theme and update fonts.
• Go to: Applications / Settings / Window Manager Tweaks, or run: xfwm4-tweaks-settings
  Then disable software compositing from last tab (or enable it, as you want).
• Go to: Applications / Settings / Mouse and Touchpad, or run: xfce4-mouse-settings
  Then select the DMZ White theme from last tab.
• Go to: panel preferences
  Then set panel height to 22px, panel icons sizes to 16px or automatic.

For Cinnamon desktop:

• Go to: Menu / Preferences / Themes, or run: cinnamon-settings themes
  Click on Advanced settings
  Then select the Human theme for applications and desktop.
  And select the DMZ White theme for mouse.
• Go to: Menu / Preferences / Fonts, or run: cinnamon-settings fonts
  Then update fonts.
• Go to: main menu preferences and panel preferences
  Then set panel height to 25px/23px, panel icons sizes to 16px, menu icons sizes to 22px 22px 32px.

Fonts:

• DejaVu Sans Book, 10
• DejaVu Sans Bold, 10
• DejaVu Sans Mono Book, 10
• Best shapes or Medium hinting for fonts rendering (anti-aliasing)

Icons:

• gnome or mate

Cursors:

• DMZ white, 24

Desktop panels:

• 23px for panel height, 16px or automatic for icons size

Extra configuration for cursors:

• Run sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme and select again DMZ white

Known issues

Firefox/Thunderbird/Chromium

If font rendering is bad, try this:

cd /etc/fonts/conf.d/
sudo rm 10-hinting-slight.conf # /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting-slight.conf
sudo ln -s /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting-full.conf

For classic menu bar and menu items on Firefox 46+ and Thunderbird 46+, see bug 1622545.

GTK 4

If font rendering is bad, try to add in ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini:

[Settings]
gtk-font-rendering=manual
gtk-hint-font-metrics=1
gtk-xft-hintstyle=hintfull
gtk-xft-antialias=0
gtk-xft-hinting=1

Xfce panels

Unfortunately, the border cannot be removed, see forum.

When a window is maximized, window bottom border color is wrong and there is an offset of 1px.

Windows shadow

With window compositor, the window/dialog/menu shadow can't be removed or configured.

Customize

Use ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css and ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css files.

Dev

To restore notifications from nm-applet, run:

gsettings reset org.gnome.nm-applet disable-connected-notifications
gsettings reset org.gnome.nm-applet disable-disconnected-notifications
gsettings reset org.gnome.nm-applet disable-vpn-notifications
gsettings reset org.gnome.nm-applet disable-wifi-create
gsettings reset org.gnome.nm-applet suppress-wireless-networks-available
gsettings reset org.gnome.nm-applet show-applet

To enable GtkInspector via Ctrl+Shift+I / Ctrl+Shift+D, run:

gsettings set org.gtk.Settings.Debug enable-inspector-keybinding true
gsettings set org.gtk.gtk4.Settings.Debug enable-inspector-keybinding true

Run AWF with screenshot on theme reload:

awf-gtk2 -s ~/2.png
awf-gtk3 -s ~/3.png
awf-gtk4 -s ~/4.png

Run Entr to send SIGHUP signal when files change to reload theme:

ls ~/.themes/human-theme*/gtk-2*/gtkrc | entr killall -s SIGHUP awf-gtk2
ls ~/.themes/human-theme*/gtk-3*/*.css | entr killall -s SIGHUP awf-gtk3
ls ~/.themes/human-theme*/gtk-4*/*.css | entr killall -s SIGHUP awf-gtk4

Run ImageTragick to create the diff image:

killall -q eom
rm -f dif.png
compare -fuzz 1% -compose src -highlight-color blue -lowlight-color none 2.png 3.png dif.png
composite dif.png 2.png dif.png
eom dif.png &

Run svg.sh and cinnamon.sh to update colors. See also technical informations. For any issue and pull request, please add before/after screenshots.

Copyright

• Current version: 2.5.0 (06/06/2025)
• Compatibility: GTK 2.24 / 3.24 / 4.12..4.19
• Links: luigifab.fr - github.com - mate-look.org - xfce-look.org - ppa/dpa

This theme is provided under the terms of the GNU GPLv3+ license.
If you like, take some of your time to improve some translations, go to https://bit.ly/2HyCCEc.

Packages in official distros repositories

Credits

GTK 2 theme (CC-BY-SA-3.0+)

• Created by Kenneth Wimer and Conn O'Griofa (see human-theme Ubuntu package)

GTK 3 theme (GNU GPLv3+)

• Forked from Clearlooks-Phénix by Mike Kazantsev (mk-fg)
• Forked from Clearlooks-Phénix by Jean-Philippe Fleury (jpfleury) and Andrew Shadura

Metacity theme (Clearlooks, GNU LGPLv2.1+)

• Created by Daniel Borgmann and Andrea Cimitan