8 Great XFCE Themes To Check Out
You can customize the XFCE desktop and we covered in detail how you can customize the individual components of the desktop. Themes or styles are one of the many things you can customize on XFCE and there are quite a few of them available. We’ve gone through the massive amount of XFCE themes for the desktop and window manager, and found the best ones. We’re going to go over what makes each theme worth checking out.
1. Arc
Arc is a great theme, and one that supports all desktop environments that are based around GTK2 and 3. The theme is an elegant, dark-ish flat theme that is perfect for the minimalism of XFCE4. When you download this theme and install it to your system, you’re not getting just one theme. Instead, the Arc theme adds three themes in once; Arc, Arc Darker, and Arc Darkest.
If you’re looking for something slick, and modern, try this theme on for size! Get it here:
2. Numix
XFCE is a desktop that centers around simplicity. It is because of this fact, many themes try really hard to look good with aging resources. Out of all the themes that do this, Numix is one of the best.
For starters, Numix looks good on basically everything. It’s simple, flat design and pleasant orange accents make any desktop environment look beautiful. Additionally, there are a lot of Numix-like themes, so if orange isn’t your thing, there are different colors to choose from. Numix is one of the biggest themeing projects in the Linux community. It’s a well loved project and very much worth checking out.
3. Mint Mac Dark
The cool thing about using the XFCE4 desktop environment is that, like most light-weight desktop environments, the window manager and the GTK theme are separate. As a result, there are a lot of great themes specifically for the window manager. Mint Mac Dark is no different. It’s an XFWM4 theme that puts a dark spin on the modern Mac OS window buttons.
If you’re looking for a slick set of window button controls for your dark theme, try this one on for size in XFCE4.
4. Flamebird
Flamebird is a red/orange take on the classic Bluebird XFCE4 theme. With this theme, not much has changed, outside of swapping orange to blue. Still, even if it is only a color swap, it’s still worth checking out. Especially for those who’ve tried out the classic XFCE themes, and overall liked them minus the blue color scheme.
5. Dots
Mint Mac dark isn’t the only XFWM theme on the list. Introducing Dots, another flat, stylish theme. It’s a simple design, that is very similar to that of Apple’s Mac OS — but with a dark twist.
Instead of the traditional colors, they’re swapped for light red, green and blue. Since Dots is just a XFWM theme, and not an overall XFCE theme, users have the opportunity to mix and match. Consider adding Dots as your window manager theme, and using something like Arc, Numix, or any of the other desktop themes on this list for a great look.
6. Elementary Freya
The elementary project works very hard to make a good looking theme for their operating system. Everything looks good, clean and elegant. Elementary OS is an operating system that focuses heavily on simplicity, and beauty. The Linux distribution is very heavily Mac inspired. As a result, the themes they use reflect that.
The desktop on Elementary is built with Gnome 3, which is much different than XFCE. If you love the look of the Pantheon desktop, and want to re-create it in a much lighter environment, this theme is a good place to start. Take the Elementary Freya theme, and install something like Docky. In no time at all you’ll have a light-weight, XFCE4 powered desktop that looks a lot like Elementary OS!
7. Xfce Simple Dark
There are a lot of dark themes out there. A lot of these themes look incredibly amateur. Everything is hard to read, the fonts are too small, and everything is too dark. So dark, that it hurts your eyes .
XFCE Simple Dark is not one of those themes. Instead, it manages to take different shades of black, keep everything easy on the eyes and still manage to have font settings that don’t look absolutely horrible.
Another good thing about Xfce Simple Dark is that the included window manager theme goes really well with the overall desktop skin. This is great, because often times Dark themes include window manager themes that look absolutely out of place. If you’re looking for an entirely dark theme, download Xfce Simple Dark. You won’t regret it.
8. Greenbird
Greenbird is yet another color take on the classic XFCE4 theme. It takes the classic blue color that the desktop is known for and adds a green tinge to it. Obviously, this isn’t very creative compared to a lot of other themes on this list. That said, a good set of colors can set a good theme apart from a bad one. For some, the classic Greybird/Bluebird theme may look bad, but Greenbird may hit the sweet spot.
If you’re an XFCE user and you’re in need of a good, simple theme, this is a good one to check out!
Conclusion
Out of all the lightweight desktop environments, XFCE4 is a favorite. The Linux community loves it and actively makes themes for it. Hopefully this list will help you find the perfect look for your desktop. If not, be sure to check out this website to find more themes!
Thank you for review, but I think the best is to download several themes and then try them on your linux machine. Screenshots of desktop are misleading very often (you see A on screenshot, but you receive B on your monitor).
All very good, but what if I wish to revert to default as-installed themes/icons/style?