New Theme: Xfwm-Y-Dark-Blue for Xfce / Xfwm4 Window manager

daffyduck · 2026-06-26 10:19:06

Xfwm-Y-Dark-Blue Theme

Here is my theme for Xfwm4. It focuses on high usability.
Works on Xfce 4.18 or newer.

A new version is now available at:
https://www.opendesktop.org/p/2364096/

The instructions below are for the old version 1.2

For version 1.2 (below)

You can download it either manually, or via BASH.

I would appreciate some comments and critique.

Step-by-step installation instructions follow.

Option 1: Manual Download and Installation

Download from:
https://cdn.imageurlgenerator.com/uploa … a74b63.zip

SHA-256 checksum:
bc2a19c6bfbb42766eaa5ff576e2f2d8927c082898132ca4414c56d1879682df *Xfwm-Y-Dark-Blue_v1-2.zip

From the downloaded archive, extract all of its contents
to the "themes" subdirectory of the "user-specific data" directory,
which is usually, but not certainly: ~/.local/share/themes

Option 2: Download and Install via BASH commands

Open "Xfce Terminal" and execute BASH commands:

   ## The next command downloads the theme.
   curl -L  -o Xfwm-Y-Dark-Blue_v1-2.zip   "https://cdn.imageurlgenerator.com/uploads/846fe03f-5508-481a-8bee-312136a74b63.zip"

   ## The next command verifies the authenticity of the downloaded theme.
   echo "bc2a19c6bfbb42766eaa5ff576e2f2d8927c082898132ca4414c56d1879682df *Xfwm-Y-Dark-Blue_v1-2.zip" | sha256sum -c -

   ## The next command outputs where the theme will be installed.
   echo  "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/themes"

   ## The next two commands install the theme.
   mkdir  -p "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/themes" 
   unzip  -o Xfwm-Y-Dark-Blue_v1-2.zip   -d "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/themes"

Activating the Theme

Open the "Window Manager" (xfwm4-settings), and
- under the very first tab Style / Theme
- scroll to the bottom and select one of the themes Xfwm-Y-Dark-Blue-xNN

The changes should be visible immediately.

- Doesn't work well together with any bright theme.
- Works well with any dark themes (select a dark theme under Settings / Appearance / Style).

- The intention was to make the titlebars very thin, so don’t choose a thickness that is too large. A guide for selecting the intended thickness (x24 / x28 / x30 / x32) is below.

- Works best along the Appearance / Style: "Mint-Y-Dark-Grey", available on Linux Mint.

- I'll also add a short guide regarding some common additional options, below.

To select the intended thickness, use this table and your "DPI" setting.
The "DPI setting" value can be found under "Settings / Appearance / Fonts".
x24 for "120 DPI" setting = (8562 / (distance in cm)) PPI display
x28 for "140 DPI" setting = (9989 / (distance in cm)) PPI display
x30 for "150 DPI" setting = (10702 / (distance in cm)) PPI display
x32 for "160 DPI" setting = (11416 / (distance in cm)) PPI display
PPI sizes computed from the standard size of a CSS pixel.

For reference, the PPI values for some common display sizes are listed below:
14-inch 1920 × 1080 157.3 PPI
15-inch 1920 × 1080 146.9 PPI
23-inch 1920 × 1080 95.8 PPI
24-inch 1920 × 1080 91.8 PPI
27-inch 1920 × 1080 81.6 PPI

Additional Options Guide

To apply these commands immediately, run this command afterward:
xfwm4 --replace &

Show application icon in the titlebar, on/off:
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/show_app_icon -s true
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/show_app_icon -s false

Set titlebar button layout to the intended default:
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/button_layout -s "O|HMC"

Move horizontal position of the title left/right:
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/title_horizontal_offset -s "-50"
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/title_horizontal_offset -s "50"

Set title alignment to left, center, or right:
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/title_alignment -s left
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/title_alignment -s center
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/title_alignment -s right

Set distance of buttons from window edges, in non-maximized windows:
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/button_offset -s 4

Change title font examples:
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/title_font -s "Open Sans Regular 10"
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/title_font -s "Noto Sans Regular 10"

To apply immediately, execute:
xfwm4 --replace &

I took a look at screenshots people posted in this category.

Apparently, most users use thick titlebars with crammed buttons.
Which is the exact opposite of what I designed.
So, my theme appears to be for those persons who prefer thin titlebars and wide buttons.

Or, perhaps, Xfce doesn't by default offer any similar themes yet?

I never actually completed the theme the way I wanted, but it works. I made it primarily for myself. So, anyone is welcome to improve it.

The idea was to enlarge the buttons and spacing between them to make it more usable, and to make the buttons touch the edges, so they are easier to target with a mouse.
Also, the theme uses a very thin titlebar, to free up more usable space for applications.

I wanted to keep it simple, muted, non-distracting, minimalistic. Only as much flare as necessary.

There are two different highlight (prelight) effects. One is "brightness up", and I found it is not sufficiently distinctive. The second "effect" is to revert to base color, and that one is sufficiently distinctive, but perhaps something visually nicer could have been selected, although I have actually found it likeable.

I re-compressed the size-32 theme, and I noticed that it ended up much smaller than the other three sizes. Apparently, that is because the other sizes are in 8-bit color, where the palette data is much larger than the images themselves. So, perhaps, I should have re-formatted all the sizes to 32-bit color, but I was too lazy to do that.

Anyone is free to submit the theme to
https://www.xfce-look.org/
because, I'm obviously too lazy to register there.

Last edited by daffyduck (2026-07-20 22:36:39)

daffyduck · 2026-06-29 11:09:11

Changes in version 1.1: Allows custom button layouts.
Changes in version 1.11: Previous version was packed with a wrong directory structure
Changes in version 1.2: "button_offset" was set, instead of "maximized_offset", fixed now
Changes in version 1.3: Compressed the PNG files properly, for additional 30% reduction in size

daffyduck · 2026-07-20 22:25:42

Changes in version 1.4: Added a 100 DPI variant, and renamed folders by DPI.

https://www.opendesktop.org/p/2364096

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#1 2026-06-26 10:19:06