It is developed from scratch, is light and minimal, uses only three shades of grays and one color. That was the challenge.
It has been tested on Arch Linux with Gnome-Shell, Gtk+ from 3.16 to 3.24 and Gtk+ 4.12.4, a good amount of Gtk2 and Gtk3 applications and a very few Gtk4 applications. A lot of widget controls are still missing (but the defaults should be good enough) and it is not tested at all with unity or xfce.
Current version is 0.997, released in March 2024.
[If you're a WindowMaker user, you might also be interested in TwoStepsBack.]
The screenshots show OneStepBack theme and a slightly darker and contrasty variation : OneStepBack-wm2. They show also : Ubo Icons Theme with personal additions, Dash to Dock and Dynamic Top Bar Gnome Shell extensions.
To install the theme, unzip the archive and copy the theme in your theme directory, usually ~/.local/share/themes. There is no need for any extra engine.To make the change effective, right now in January 2024, you will have to :
- put export GTK_THEME=OneStepBack in your ~/.xprofile file;
- use the application gnome-tweaks and select OneStepBack in Appearance/Legacy Appplications.
- then, log out from your XWindow or Wayland session and restart it.
I know, this is now ridiculously complicated.
Tip : QT applications can use some base colors of the gtk theme after installing qt5-styleplugins and qt6gtk2, for a more consistent overall appearance.
This is a GPL 3 free software. Feel free to change and share the code.
The dominant colors of the theme are easy to change. They are defined in the first lines of files gtk-2.0/gtk2rc, gtk-3.0/gtk.css and gtk-4.0/gtk.css. For example, for a WindowMaker-like version, try to change in gtk-2.0/gtk2rc :
gtk-color-scheme = "white_color:#ffffff
lighter_color:#eeeeee
base_color:#888888
darker_color:#666666
black_color:#000000
scale_color:#4b6983
"
gtk-color-scheme = "button_selected_bg_color:#686868
text_selected_bg_color:#686868
text_selected_fg_color:#ffffff
menuitem_selected_bg_color:#efeeed
menuitem_selected_fg_color:#000000
listitem_selected_bg_color:#686868
listitem_selected_fg_color:#ffffff
"
In gtk-3.0/gtk.css and gtk-4.0/gtk.css :
@define-color white_color #ffffff;
@define-color lighter_color #eeeeee;
@define-color base_color #888888;
@define-color darker_color #666666;
@define-color black_color #000000;
@define-color scale_color #4b6983;
@define-color headerbar_bg_color #000000;
@define-color button_selected_bg_color #686868;
@define-color text_selected_bg_color #686868;
@define-color text_selected_fg_color #ffffff;
@define-color menuitem_selected_bg_color #efeeed;
@define-color menuitem_selected_fg_color #000000;
@define-color listitem_selected_bg_color #686868;
@define-color listitem_selected_fg_color #ffffff;
@define-color text_view_bg @lighter_color;
Known bugs :
- LibreOffice : black color on black background in some widgets : unfortunatly, nothing I can do. Workaround : please try to put "``export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=kf5``" in your ~/.xsessionrc file (or ~/.xprofile, or ~/.bashrc) and restart your X session.
- Firefox, Thunderbird and QT applications : arrow buttons shape and colors, color of active menu items : unfortunatly, nothing I can do.
- gtk4 port is very experimental !
Version 0.997, March 2024 :
- gtk4: improve button image:active
- gtk3: fix a bug in background-color of headerbar button:active:hover
- gtk4: fix a bug in headerbar color name
- gtk4: improve switch widget in list
- gtk3: fix inconsistencies in outset and inset widgets
- gtk3: fix a color bug in switch widget
- gtk3: fix a bug in label of disabled combobox button
- gtk4: improve listview widget
- gtk3-4: all headerbar widgets turn gray when backdrop
- gtk4: improve spinbutton text widget
Ratings & Comments
141 Comments
Hello! Another comment from me, I was wondering if you would ever make a dark mode variant?
I don't think so. Sorry.
It's okay! Thank you for answering
10 Looks nice with chicago95 icons
Hello! Could I ask where I can find the parts of the css files that affect Firefox? I can find MozillaGtkWidget but thats all I can find
Because this is the only attempt at managing Firefox widgets that I have made. As far as I know, firefox does not use GTK 3 directly but a compatibility layer for their own theme system. I never managed to find clear documentation on the subject, so I gave up.
10 My favorite GTK theme! The only flaw I can think of is that theres a white border in the top left of the desktop, image linked below. I've also adjusted Windoze 0.0's cinnamon theme to match with this theme! https://i.imgur.com/gs36n55.jpeg
Hi, I've already seen this problem of colored edges with nautilus when it manages the desktop (and icons). Try adding nautilus-desktop-window * { border:none; } at the end of the OneStepBack/gtk-4.0/gtk.css file.
Thats already on the file but even when I added it again it didn't work unfortunately
I forgot I had already inserted it... So I don't know. My only idea is to find the name of the relevant widget (with GTK_DEBUG=interactive the-application-who-manages-the-deskop-icons) and insert a "border: no" for this widget. Sorry.
10 more! and more!
10 It is exactly what I was looking for! So simple and retro))) Nice. Thank you!
Thanx, JPSB, this one is the best "retro" theme, yet. I'm a sucker for the old Windows 95/CDE/Motif theme (I'm old, too). There are hundreds of attempts to copy these old themes here, but OneStepBack does the best job in the simplest way. Some themes get quite complicated with dozens of CSS and SCSS files in the GTK folder.
I use several Perl/Tk apps I wrote myself on Linux (which is not skinnable except for colors) and I was looking for a Motif-like theme that would "unify" the rest of my desktop apps to look more like my Perl/Tk apps and found your theme was the closest to what I was looking for. Since it was well laid out and color-configurable, I decided to use it (along with some ideas, ie. the separator images) from Jos Vanriswic's cdetheme v1.3 (another Motif-like theme) and created a new one called PerlTkTheme, which you can see here: https://www.pling.com/p/2064934/ Thank you for your excellent work!
8 8 great
10 10 the best
10 great job!
10 10 the best
10 Hi! Can you make a variant that match the wmaker widget color? I show the difference with your light variant. https://i.imgur.com/X4XsjKJ.png
Please try: http://www.vide.memoire.free.fr/perso/OneStepBack/OneStepBack-wm-v0.992.zip
Please, can you make the same for 0.994? Thanks for your work!
https://github.com/wesbluemarine/OneStepBackWM
10 give a link to the wallpaper please!
No link, sorry. It's a scan from the back cover of a comic book: Jean Van Hamme & Ted Benoit (Edgar P. Jacobs), Blake and Mortimer, L'étrange rendez-vous.
10 Super comfy, pairs well with Newaita icons.