New Blacklight Theme For XFCE Adwaita-Materia Black Theme

Blacklight · 2026-08-14 22:50:17

Hello guys, I wanted to share with you a really special theme I made just for XFCE.

I found it hard to find good looking black/white themes on xfce-look.org so I started learning how to make my own theme by reading instructions from different github projects, and piecing together a theme from stuff I had collected over time. Now after about a week of constant effort I have created Blacklight, a comprehensive theme for XFCE, covering many different aspects of the GUI.

Blacklight is a Super Dark, Black, and Grey, Materia based theme (materia is based on adwaita) with slight accent colors put in different areas of the desktop. It's also a complete system for transforming the entire XFCE desktop, to have matching colors, and a uniform theme.

It lets users operate in a kind of "Theme-OS" where they take the drivers seat and control the theme from within the high chair... of the Blacklight/ folder.

It is easily my favorite theme of all time... I started off by making a theme pack for myself, which is something I typically do, to make it easier to theme everything, when installing Gnu/Linux, but because it was so good looking, and I knew from experience xfce-look.org had very few good looking black/white themes, that I should share it with others.

That's how Blacklight was born... simply out of a desire to give back to the free software community, my own personal project.

It has lots of cool features, and is literally the best looking Black based theme that I have ever seen for xfce. It comes with a complete set of matching color theme elements for xfce, including the terminal, and instructions for customizing everything, and it gives the users tools to install/theme the desktop comprehensively, transforming XFCE into a beautiful desktop, that's fun to use, and that you could even show off to your friends.

Anyways it has come a long way, I have updated it several times, bringing it to the point of perfection, and just as I was about to upload it one last time to xfce-look.org the website went down. (8-14-26)

The full description, pictures, downloads are on this page on xfce-look.org

https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2368982 (updated links)

It lets users rice the xfce desktop basically, and take control of their theme, switching accent colors with a simple script, and even reloading the entire xfce desktop, without having to login/logout, instantly. It's super super fun, and super cool...

I hope you guys will try it out, and tell me if you like it, or if you want any more features added.

Added later 2 h 01 min 07 s:
OKAY, xfce-look.org is back up, and the FINAL PERFECT THEME for XFCE: Blacklight, please guys tell me what you think. This took me days of constant effort, to make this.

There are actually several versions now too.

Blacklight, the main version for regular desktop users. https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2368982

Blacklight-Ultra, the super dark alternative version. https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2368980

And Blacklight Sci-Fi Console for absolute fun, https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2368979

This is the description from the main version, everything is based on

Blacklight is a dark, black, and grey materia theme made for XFCE, and is a complete all-in-one theme pack designed to transform the entire desktop to have matching colors, and a uniform theme. It's a simple perfect theme, that let's users quickly change between 9 different accent colors, that match the xfce-terminal colors, all based on the light materia grey text.

The default theme, is just black and grey, and is installed with a little script.

sudo sh ./simple_installer.sh

After running the simple_installer.sh script, users can use the switch_color.sh script to quickly switch between 9 different accent colors that match the whole desktops color scheme.

sudo bash ./switch_color.sh

After running sudo sh simple_installer.sh -> and sudo bash switch_color.sh -> users can do -> bash tweaks.sh to reload the theme elements automatically without having to login/logout, and boost the screen resolution or brightness

bash tweaks.sh

The little readme file explains how to do everything. Included with Blacklight is an all-in-one complete theme pack, for transforming the entire XFCE desktop, including custom cursors/wallpapers/xfwm4 themes, that match depending on the chosen accent color, and custom xfce-terminal palettes.

(Accent colors: Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Teal, Light Grey (default), Orange, Black)

...Included With The Theme...

Custom Matching Color Materia-Based Theme (x2) (wide support for Gnu/Linux desktops)

Custom Matching Color Xfwm4 Themes (x9)

Custom Matching Color Xfce-Terminal Themes (x2)

Custom Matching Color Plasma Cursors (x9)

Custom Matching Color Wallpapers (x72 - managed with the switch_color.sh script)

Besgnu icons in black (#303030) (wide coverage)

Programmer Fonts With 4 Weights

Readme With Comprehensive Instructions + Useful Information

A Simple Installation Script, To Help Users Quickly Rice The Whole Desktop

(plus the switch_color.sh script that switches the accent color elements of the theme(wallpaper/cursor/xfwm theme)

New tweaks.sh script which will reload the entire XFCE desktops theme and accent colors including the mouse/cursor, theme, xfwm4 theme, icons, and wallpaper, all customizable by the user.

A Selection Of Optional Fixes/Tweaks

...Sources...

Thank you to all the creators that make this possible!

Blacklight: https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2368982

Materia Source: https://github.com/nana-4/materia-theme

BreezeX Cursor Source: https://github.com/ful1e5/BreezeX_Cursor

Besgnu Icons Source: https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2248792

(Old icons: Blackout Icons: https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1341332)

Intel-One Fonts: https://github.com/intel/intel-one-mono

...Runtime Dependencies... (for materia theme)

gnome-themes-extra (or gnome-themes-standard for older distributions)

Murrine engine - The package name depends on the distro:

gtk-engine-murrine on Arch Linux

gtk-murrine-engine on Fedora

gtk2-engine-murrine on openSUSE

gtk2-engines-murrine on Debian, Ubuntu, etc.

...Final Update... 8-18-26

Cleaned everything up, added more information

I have just released the FINAL version, please guys tell me if you like it, or want any more features added. https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2368982

Last edited by Blacklight (2026-08-19 22:08:01)

JmaCWQ · 2026-08-15 23:43:10

Hello,

Thanks for your effort in putting this together.
I only had one issue when trying it out, for some reason it removed the maximise/minimise button from my Window Manager themes.
It appeared to be removed completely from all opened folders or apps, regardless of what Window Manager theme was set, even after changing the Window Manager, Appearance and Icon themes back to my usual ones, or to different ones it didn't re-appear.

I took a Timeshift snapshot before trying out Blacklight so just used it to restore my system to it's previous state.

The orange button circled is what vanished.
The minimise and close buttons remained as expected but without the max/min button between them.
Double clicking the Title Bar still worked to maximise/minimise ok but I prefer the button.

Blacklight · 2026-08-16 00:44:08

Hmm thank you for reporting this issue. I was silently hoping, no one would mind that I removed it, because it's so easy to double click the windows, that's generally what I do.

I believe what you are describing is indicative of a side effect, of using the tweaks.sh script. It's very buggy, and I'm not sure how to go about implementing that "Reload" feature, without some hackiness

To fix your problem, simply open up tweaks.sh

find this line under the "XFWM Theme" section

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -nt string -p /general/button_layout -s "O|HC"

and replace it with the default setting

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -nt string -p /general/button_layout -s "O|SHMC"

then you can use Reload again to fix it.

Sorry about that. It is a new project, and doesn't have formal testers or programming experts or anything

It's like a casual project I just threw together in a week.

I tried to give tons of helpful information, throughout the whole theme, so users can figure things out for themselves, and take matters into their own hands.

I added those "fixes" to tweaks.sh because after applying the theme, I recognized some windows didn't respect my custom settings, so then I forced it, through some xfconfquery commands automated in tweaks.sh

Also (about the buttons) I saw it in a movie, which I think are really interesting...they have special tech guys that design their custom interfaces on the computers in movies...I think it's really cool...I saw it in a movie, where the main characters were using a computer, with windows that looked like that, without a maximise button, and only the minimize and close buttons... so then I implemented the feature in Blacklight/

If you would like to change the xfwm4 settings, besides the basic theme, to defaults, in tweaks.sh

then it's very easy to do. I included a list of all of the xfwm4 defaults from the xfce source, in fixups/dotfiles/xfwm4/themerc

You can simply reference that file (defaults are at the bottom) and modify tweaks.sh and the section "XFWM Theme" and add in the default values for items listed as fixes. Then you can use Reload again, like you did before, and never have any issues with it again.

Last edited by Blacklight (2026-08-16 13:49:34)

JmaCWQ · 2026-08-16 19:52:55

Something that's been there forever and then removed like a max/min button will be noticed by users.
Perhaps provide the option in the 'tweaks' or other script for users to choose whether they prefer it shown or not shown?

Blacklight · 2026-08-17 00:16:40

It's supposed to be cool, not a negative... it's novel, unique, it's interesting.

All the tools to change the theme, are right in front of the users. It's their theme now, they have control. I don't want to keep editing it and reuploading it.

It's up to the users, to change the theme, and share the theme now.

To fix your problem, simply open up tweaks.sh
find this line under the "XFWM Theme" section
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -nt string -p /general/button_layout -s "O|HC"
and replace it with the default setting
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -nt string -p /general/button_layout -s "O|SHMC"

(I am currently editing my own Blacklight/ theme... I might change it in any number of ways... I might reupload it, but probably not. I don't want to)

Added later 13 min 36 s:
See if I change it to satisfy you, I might just add this to tweaks.sh

# ########################
# ### XFWM Fixes ##
# ##########################

# fix various settings that are meant to be applied by the xfmw4/themerc
# if there are any problems with xfwm, these settings can be altered to
# reflect default values (listed in fixups/dotfiles/xfwm4/themerc

adding the last two comment lines. that's a not a big enough change, to warrant reuploading it. then I don't want to overengineer Blacklight/ and add in a ton of code or complex scripting.

I want to keep it very simple, and accessible for everyone, so they can make it their own.

Added later 53 min 47 s:
and now I see there's even a typo on the comment above it "xfm -->w<-- 4"

I cant keep reuploading it, every time I discover a typo. It's 300+ MBs

So users even have to fix the typos if they want to, or ignore them.

It's their theme. They are free, to change it, to share it, and to have fun with it.

Last edited by Blacklight (2026-08-17 01:11:00)

JmaCWQ · 2026-08-17 06:06:23

My comments weren't intended to be negative, just some feedback from a user who tried it out.

Blacklight · 2026-08-17 13:40:43

Well I tested it a little, and tried to add in a new option, but it's not a simple change to make.

It looks like if users want to change the xfwm buttons, then they have to manually, edit the themerc files, and comment out or remove the fixes

Blacklight/themes/Blacklight/xfwm4/themerc

#button_layout=O|SHMC
button_layout=O|HC

and the same thing is actually in each of the custom xfwm4 files like

Blacklight/fixups/Colors/Black/xfwm4

#button_layout=O|SHMC
button_layout=O|HC

so you have to go into each of those files and replace the buttons with the defaults commented out.

and then you have to apply the advice given above

find this line under the "XFWM Theme" section (in tweaks.s)

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -nt string -p /general/button_layout -s "O|HC"

and replace it with the default setting (or remove it. doesn't really matter since you just want defaults)(but if you want a different button layout this is the procedure to follow)

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -nt string -p /general/button_layout -s "O|SHMC"

Then finally, you will have default buttons. It's difficult to change, because it was a deliberate decision to remove the button, and there are a lot of xfwm configs and scripts across all the themes, + it's not trivial using xfconf-query to fix it like I thought it could be.

I actually did leave the button layout commented in the themerc files

#button_layout=O|SHMC
button_layout=O|HC

so that anyone who wanted to revert back to defaults, could see what happened, and easily make the change themselves

So just to reiterate... it's in users hands, to change the themes. It's not trivial for me to do everything possible. (thats why we have xfce) To change the button layout on the windows for xfwm4 users have to edit each of the themerc files, in the Colors folders in fixups, and the main one in Blacklight/themes/Blacklight/xfwm4/themerc -> comment out or change the xfwm4 fix to the button layout in tweaks.sh like so... (xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -nt string -p /general/button_layout -s "O|SHMC") -> run the simple installer again -> switch colors if they want -> then bash tweaks.sh -> Reload will apply their new button layout finally. (to all windows)

Thats how Blacklight/ works - users have to modify it, if they want modifications, that's what they're supposed to do.

Last edited by Blacklight (2026-08-17 13:54:29)

Blacklight · 2026-08-18 22:46:33

Okay I put up the FINAL version just now. I don't want to update it any further. Nobody had any ideas for new features (that I can implement, xfwm is buggy, and doesn't play nice)

So here are the links

Blacklight (+src) https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2368982

Blacklight-Ultra https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2368980

Blacklight Sci-Fi https://www.xfce-look.org/p/2368979

you can build all this stuff on your own too, I included a package of the sources, (src) and there are instructions for building the theme in the readme in the theme.

really adwaita and adwaita based (like materia) themes are the best for xfce, so if you want to learn how to quickly make your own adwaita based theme, you can look at the guide/src

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#1 2026-08-14 22:50:17

New Blacklight Theme For XFCE Adwaita-Materia Black Theme

#2 2026-08-15 23:43:10

Re: New Blacklight Theme For XFCE Adwaita-Materia Black Theme

#3 2026-08-16 00:44:08

Re: New Blacklight Theme For XFCE Adwaita-Materia Black Theme

#4 2026-08-16 19:52:55

Re: New Blacklight Theme For XFCE Adwaita-Materia Black Theme

#5 2026-08-17 00:16:40

Re: New Blacklight Theme For XFCE Adwaita-Materia Black Theme

#6 2026-08-17 06:06:23

Re: New Blacklight Theme For XFCE Adwaita-Materia Black Theme

#7 2026-08-17 13:40:43

Re: New Blacklight Theme For XFCE Adwaita-Materia Black Theme

#8 2026-08-18 22:46:33

Re: New Blacklight Theme For XFCE Adwaita-Materia Black Theme

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