Xfce Forum

mczakk

Member

Registered: 2022-08-08

Posts: 1

window borders?

Hi, I'm new to xcfe, but am a long time gnome user.
in the attached screenshot you will see that the 'Appearance' window has a nice solid border and easily legible text, however the file manager and terminal windows have a graded colour and the text has an odd effect that makes it seem almost blurry. Is there an easy workaround for this?

screenshot here : https://ibb.co/61SH7Vq
Many Thanks

StJimmy

Member

From: De Lage Landen

Registered: 2022-06-27

Posts: 7

Re: window borders?

Change the window manager theme under Settings --> Window Manager to what I would then assume to be Greybird-Dark.

The reason for this 'discrepancy' is that the Settings Manager and its modules all draw their windows with CSDs, like most GNOME applications, whereas Thunar and Xfce Terminal do not, and instead use traditional window borders provided by Xfwm4.

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Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes.

peter.48

Member

From: France, sud-ouest

Registered: 2017-01-31

Posts: 151

Re: window borders?

Reason is that one window is active and others are not.

KBar

Member

Registered: 2021-11-05

Posts: 689

Re: window borders?

peter.48, it isn't simple as that. StJimmy summed it up pretty well and the differences between server- and client-side decorated windows can be seen in the screenshot.

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Remember to edit the subject of your topic to include the [SOLVED] tag once you're satisfied with the answers or have found a solution (in which case, don't forget to share it as well), so that other members of the community can quickly refer to it and save their time. Pretty please!

peter.48

Member

From: France, sud-ouest

Registered: 2017-01-31

Posts: 151

Re: window borders?

@ KBar

Window decoration is one thing, but the fact that a non-active window has a paler colour of the title bar (or all window) and grey text (we are talking about dark themes) does not have much to do with CSD or non-CSD...

File Manager

Member

Registered: 2019-11-01

Posts: 62

Re: window borders?

Window decoration is one thing, but the fact that a non-active window has a paler colour of the title bar (or all window) and grey text (we are talking about dark themes) does not have much to do with CSD or non-CSD...

Without checking the details I think your conclusion is correct. We don't have to discuss Xfwm and gtk (CSS) theming of title/header bars, because those are separate issues.

I believe that what you describe is a "feature" in recent point releases of gtk3. It will dim the content of inactive windows by default (unless this feature is overridden by the theme in use).

This quote from gtk3-classic might give you a clue what feature to look for, but gtk3-classic took care of it for me. An even simpler solution is to use a theme that overrides this behavior by default.

Backdrop CSS state is disabled.
Inactive windows don't look differently.
You can restore backdrop state by setting GTK_CSD=1 or GTK_BACKDROP=1 environment variable.

This suggests that setting GTK_BACKDROP=0 might fix your issue. I haven't done this myself so best to wait for someone else to provide better guidance. This is an environment variable and a CSS solution might be possible but look different.

If you want to try the environment variable then open /etc/environment as root and paste:

export GTK_BACKDROP=0

Then reboot the system and see if your window content has been affected in inactive windows.

This could probably be done for your specific user, but I always do changes system-wide and I don't really know how to do it differently without searching for it.

KBar

Member

Registered: 2021-11-05

Posts: 689

Re: window borders?

To peter.48:
I see that passive-aggressiveness is your style. Nobody is talking about active and inactive windows. You can clearly see that all 3 windows are inactive. You can even test it yourself. Active or inactive, if you use the light Greybird Xfwm4 theme with Greybird-dark GTK theme, all SSD windows will look horrible and disgusting. I suggest rereading the opener and looking at the provided screenshot. You're confidently incorrect.

Without checking the details I think your conclusion is correct.

You should and no, the conclusion is incorrect.

We don't have to discuss Xfwm and gtk (CSS) theming of title/header bars, because those are separate issues.

They aren't. They are directly related to the subject at hand. Everything else you suggest is irrelevant.

To mczakk (quoting StJimmy):

Change the window manager theme under Settings --> Window Manager to what I would then assume to be Greybird-Dark.

The reason for this 'discrepancy' is that the Settings Manager and its modules all draw their windows with CSDs, like most GNOME applications, whereas Thunar and Xfce Terminal do not, and instead use traditional window borders provided by Xfwm4.

To me, it also looks like your GTK theme is Greybird-dark, while your Xfwm4 theme is Greybird. Make sure they match and you will get rid of the graded colors:

On the left, Xfwm4 theme is set to Greybird. On the right, it's set to Greybird-dark

Let's wait for mczakk's reply and not mislead them any further.

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Remember to edit the subject of your topic to include the [SOLVED] tag once you're satisfied with the answers or have found a solution (in which case, don't forget to share it as well), so that other members of the community can quickly refer to it and save their time. Pretty please!