New GNOME GTK theme and icons: first preview of what's coming !
869It's no secret that GNOME has been working hard on improving its look and feel, with an Adwaita redesign in the works. Here is a first peak at what might be coming !
Gnome blog post about icon redesign: http://jimmac.musichall.cz/blog/2019-01-14-the-big-app-icon-redesign/
Post about the new GTK theme: https://blog.gtk.org/2019/01/14/theme-changes-in-gtk-3/
Colors
First things first, the colors. GNOME traditionnaly uses a muted color palette, that makes icons and items a bit dull, in my opinion. This will definitely change with the new color palette, which boasts much more vibrant colors that can be used in icons, and custom application styling. These changes to the palette should make GNOME apps stand out a bit more.
Headerbars and Buttons
Widgets used in the headerbar also have been tuned up. They sport a lighter design, with more rounded corners on buttons, and a flatter, more modern style. THe solid borders which defined each button are now replaced with more subtle shadows. I find them as legible, but much nicer to the eye, making tabs and buttons a lot more pleasing.
The headerbar, which hosts most of these buttons, also has been tuned, with a darker background to make buttons stand out more, as well as more contrast between a focused and unfocused window.
Switches have not been put aside, with the disappearance of the "On/Off" labels. The justification behind this is that these controls are now ubiquitous on phones and desktop environments alike, and that mostly everyone know that the "On" position is on the right.
The GNOME team stresses out that these changes should not break compatibility with other applications based on Adwaita, but developers should still check their apps against the latest version of the theme, just in case !
Those changes might seem small at a glance, but while using GNOME with the default theme, they do make a difference. It looks cleaner, less heavy, and a bit more modern. In conjunction with the new icons being worked on, GNOME should sport a nicer coat of paint.
The new theme should be made default for GTK 3.24.4.
While I still find Adwaita a bit boring and dull, even with these changes, I think it will be a good improvement for users of the default theme. If you didn't like Adwaita before, chances are the new theme won't change your mind, and you'll stick to your theme of choice.
Icons
A big part of the look and feel of a desktop is also defined by its icons. On the department, work is still underway, and is intended to ship with GNOME 3.32. All system and default app icons are being redesigned to be less tri-dimensional, flatter, and more colorful as well.
A whole new color palette has been introduced, in keeping with the new adwaita colors. The new icons will get rid of the drop shadow entirely, and is focused on base shapes like squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles.
The reasoning behind this is that the old style was too hard to draw, being too dimensional, too faithful to reality. This older style also clashed with third party app icons which were usually based on basic chapes, flat colors, with less gradient, shading, and shadows. The tri dimensional style also made symbolic and smaller icon sizes harder to read, and required the creation of specific icons for these sizes to keep them legible. With the new style, there are only two icons to draw: the base one, and the symbolic one.
I think these new icons look way better, more modern, more colorful, and will be better integrated with third party apps. APp icons will also be updated more easily and faster, which can only be a good thing !
All in all, this gnome redesign looks good. More modern, but keeping the simple, legible and accessible style that defines it. I hope to see all these improvements land in the next version of GNOME.
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