Howdy - new here, user/lover of Mate (Ubuntu 18.04) - but find I am always tweaking/playing away at themes, attempting to rectify the (often basic) little faults I so often find in the available themes in the world of Linux.
So - for the most part - I like 18.04's Mate default Ambiant-MATE theme, but there is/was definite room for improvement. T'was about a month ago since I last worked on this, but have been giving it a workout in the meantime - and think it's pretty close.
Basically;
- added some much needed overall font contrast
- added subtle grey-green window background shading (much easier on the eyes - especially at night)
- slightly darkened and added a bit of gradient to the selected green background color (for easier to read white text in dropdown menus/selections)
- slightly thicker window border (easier to grab for re-sizing)
- a more "theme-appropriate" slight green gradient to the (Metacity) window titlebar (instead of the default plain black... I mean, c'mon! ) - including a taskbar background image (28 pix high, located in the theme folder) that mimics the titlebar's color/gradient
- increased the hover/prelight "pop" of the window's orange titlebar close button (easier to find and "hit" with the mouse)
- slightly smaller, rounded scrollbars with increased hover/prelight shading difference and a subtle border added (again, easier to find and "hit" with the mouse)
- probably some other little tweaks that I can no longer recall...
So, really just a lightly massaged stock Ambiant-MATE theme that I find far more pleasant and "easier" to use day to day. Hopefully the following link to Dropbox works, for anybody whom may want to download it and give it a try;
Please give it a whirl, if ya' can - any criticism or fixes welcome!!
Bob