Colour variants of Ambiant/Radiant-MATE themes

gtk-widgets.css seems to be the biggest user of RGBA over hex colour values; I suspect that it might be connected to needing to specify how the transparency of said widgets is handled, or with the transparency of shadows? That's probably for someone more familiar with the actual system to determine, though...
Thanks for answering a question I hadn't managed to get around to asking, though; I'd been wondering if there was a source further back for the missing SVG assets, or whether there was any useful information to be gleaned with regard to reconstructing them.

Progress: I've managed to go through and find all the green variants in the SVG images; threw together a couple of quick search-replace scripts to test them out and pretty sure I've got them. Next hurdle is the CSS...
Working on cleaning things up so they're in a more usable format. It's obvious that some colours are incredibly similar, and yet they're not actual shared hex values across images - the above noted variants on #87A556 being an obvious case. Some icons use gradients with up to four colours just for one little feature, too! There are also cases where it's a problem that the colours are shared - applications-internet.svg uses the stock green shade for the landmasses on its globe.
As someone new to open source collaboration, where would be the best place to upload/share the material I have?

I've been working on a script - which I ended up writing in Python - and it's shaping up to work quite nicely:

It is incomplete, as it doesn't make changes to the PNGs that don't have an SVG - so button borders are still green, for example. As noted in the previous posts. :point_up: we can either re-create (or find) the original SVGs that generated them, or try modifying the colours in the raster image.

Yep, I noticed this when I initially looked at the SVGs. Luckily they seem consistent across the board.. I think each one has been accounted for, and the script uses a function to lighten/darken the hex value. Those values in this program will probably need some further tweaking to accurately match the original shades... they might look a bit too flat.


I created a PPA to contain packages for this program (which I've called ubuntu-mate-themes). I'll look at generating packages for each colour and then I guess we're much closer to having it a reality! :slight_smile:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lah7/ubuntu-mate-colours
sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-colours-generator

See the README for usage. I'll be looking at automating/building packages for a few colours, so one could install ubuntu-mate-colours-blue and have an up-to-date "blue" variant of the Ambiant-MATE/Radiant-MATE theme.


GitHub is a good place, you can contribute to this new ubuntu-mate-colours repository by requesting changes (pull request) using Git, or create "gists" containing snippets and text to share with others.

5 Likes

Thanks again. I know I've probably been stating the obvious a whole bunch, so I'm very grateful to everyone here, and thanks for the info on how GitHub works. This looks great, though!

1 Like

I ran into a lot (literally 100%, IIRC) of this in the XML as well, working from the TraditionalOK theme: every color in it was using an explicit value rather than a reference to gtk:bg[NORMAL] etc. Note that there are also a lot of colors DERIVED from the core colors that you also want to be doing with math rather than explicitly in there (e.g. a highlight edge should be a blend of BG and white, etc).

1 Like

5 posts were split to a new topic: Improving the Ambiant-MATE-Dark theme with default apps

I owe a thank you to @Cerise for sparking interest in this idea last week. ubuntu-mate-colours is now shaping up quite well, but still has areas for improvement.

If anyone would like to give it a test run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lah7/ubuntu-mate-colours
sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-colours-all    // or -aqua, -blue, -red, etc

See the README for colours or if you'd like to create your own:

Any issues, please report to the Issues page -- there's also the opportunity to help out with contributions since I'll be shifting my focus on some other projects for now ( :boutique: )


Since we lacked SVGs as discussed previously, I did accomplish the colour change using imagemagick - which seems to have turned out alright :slight_smile:

2 Likes

No, thank you for taking this ball and running with it! Been working on SVG recreations, but it's been slow work, so I'm glad that imagemagick's doing the job. Spotted a couple of things, but will get those on GitHub as needed.

2 Likes

This is great.
Thanks a lot !

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-colours                        1 ↵
Cannot add PPA: 'ppa:~ubuntu-mate-colours/ubuntu/ppa'.
ERROR: '~ubuntu-mate-colours' user or team does not exist.
$

How stupid am I?

PS: Running latest full patch

DLS, please try

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lah7/ubuntu-mate-colours

instead. I'll correct the original post above.

1 Like

Sorry @DLS, made a typo. :man_facepalming: Thanks @mdooley for the correction.

:ubuntu_mate: Welcome has a spot for this on the main menu (new for 20.04 - but will available on 18.04 and up!)

For an early test run, check it out via the Welcome PPA, or the beta version of the snap:

snap refresh ubuntu-mate-welcome --channel beta

Also new: Welcome will use the colours from the GTK theme. :art: Still ironing out the buttons.

3 Likes

Great news!
Works as expected (both, colors and "Light or Dark") :hugs:

Awesome! :grinning:

I only have one problem with visibility of the text in dark version in Welcome -> Getting Started -> System Specifications at the bottom of the Basic Storage > Why do I see 2 units?
Screenshot at 2020-03-14 20-26-43

Assuming Software Boutique is still part of the Welcome, there are some more screens like that, that are harder to read when using dark theme.

I really like this idea and choice to have different colours to chose from.

As much as I love that idea, I have reservations about it. Welcome is suppose to be the portal into Ubuntu MATE assistance and distribution-specific tools. While I am all for everything else matching a user's theme I feel like it would be an onboarding faux pas to make Welcome match, unless it is something an OEM could enable in a configuration file, along with being able to further modify the interface for their own spin on Welcome specific to their brand, for their customers.

Ahh, thanks. I thought I missed a white on white spot! I'll get that fixed.


@tiox I'm not sure what you're on about - OEMs are welcome to fork Welcome to make interface and colour changes. Take a look at Ubuntu Budgie Welcome - it's a fork from a few years back.

1 Like

It isn't that — I am meaning to say, there is no sense in changing the appearance of Ubuntu MATE's system onboarding materials unless it is an OEM. Ubuntu MATE team is welcome to do what they want; I am fairly certain many will see the change to Welcome as significant and a positive direction for it, I just don't see it in quite the same way.

I see what you mean. Well, this change is small, but it's to complement the colour selection feature. This is for the users :wine_glass: who switch to Ambiant-MATE-Dark, Radiant-MATE, High-Contrast-Inverse or any of the MATE themes and would expect their applications to follow their preferences.

Yes, but this also means what? That the green accents and branding will be whatever colour as defined in the theme? That's really what I am on about. If it's just to make light things dark and preserve the colour of the Ubuntu MATE "Brand" — as ugly some may think it be — then that is an acceptable direction in my opinion for onboarding.

Not slighting the change, moreso than providing input on preserving the branding, being in logo guideline compliance et cetera. If there is deviation, so be it. Not going to fuss beyond pokes and nudges to keep branding on-track in spite of user input.

Our shade of green is an issue we wontfix.