Xfce Forum

Tio

Member

Registered: 2021-09-26

Posts: 92

Same theme for GTK and QT apps

I have tried for a while to see if there is an automated solution to this and I thought to ask here. In XFCE changing the theme in Appearance seems to only change it for GTK apps. And yes, since XFCE is based on GTK, it makes sense. Kvantum is a program that seems to be wildly used to apply a similar theme for QT apps. We do that for our custom Linux distro. But that means there are 2 places where the themes need to be changed. Can't they sync somehow? I've read the Arch wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unifor … Qt_and_GTK but can't find something that works.

There are two options as far as I can see:

1. A theme has both GTK and QT styles, and they need to be changed via 2 separate programs. My question is if we can sync this somehow in XFCE.
2. There are some programs that try to style QT apps based on the main GTK theme. This I could not make it work.

Thoughts?

File Manager

Member

Registered: 2019-11-01

Posts: 62

Re: Same theme for GTK and QT apps

There is a gtk2 Qt5 style that mimics your active gtk2 theme. It works with latest version of Qt5. Unfortunately there isn't a gtk3 Qt5 style so Qt5 will look similar to gtk2, not gtk3.

Keep in mind that the gtk2 Qt5 style works with vanilla Qt5 applications - "Qt Widget". For KDE applications with KDE libs and QML, the gtk2 Qt5 style isn't good.

I think Linux users need to be aware there are two or more toolkits and trying to make things "too" simple might not help because desktop Linux is a complex system that requires some reading and learning.

Xfce Settings Manager > Appearance AND Qt5 config utility (qt5ct) give the user more choice than some form of auto sync in my opinion.

PS What you currently do by using Kvantum might actually be the best idea since there are many Kvantum styles available and many of them match popular gtk3 themes.

PS2 If you want a fancy solution check out Twister OS/Twister UI. It's available for Manjaro and lets you switch themes, icons, panel layouts and plugins with one click. Check it out just for fun.