Human theme

This theme works with: GTK 2.24 (with murrine), GTK 3.24, and GTK 4.12..4.18.
It is mainly intended for MATE and Xfce desktop environments.

Screenshots

GTK 2.24 (Pango 1.51)

GTK 2.24 RTL (Pango 1.51)

GTK 3.24 (Pango 1.51)

GTK 3.24 RTL (Pango 1.51)

GTK 4.12 (Pango 1.51)

GTK 4.12 RTL (Pango 1.51)

GTK 5.0 (Pango 1.56)
GtkWindow will be probably deprecated... lol

Program used for the screenshots is available here.

Installation

🆕 Before you begin 🆕

To meet the truth (this is not required):

• remove gtk3-nocsd
• install gtk3-classic
• use Pango 1.42- or 1.51+

For Debian Testing, I provide a repository for gtk3-classic and gtk4-classic, with extra patches, it also includes mate-settings-daemon 1.26 with a patch to customize notifications from theme.

If you can't/won't, no worries, but the truth will be far...

Installation for Debian, Devuan, Ubuntu, Trisquel, Linux Mint, MX Linux

• Run: sudo apt install human-theme-gtk
• Restart your session

Installation for Fedora

• Run: sudo dnf install human-theme-gtk
• Restart your session

Installation for openSUSE

• Run: sudo zypper install human-theme-gtk
• Restart your session

Installation for Mageia

• Run: sudo urpmi human-theme-gtk
• Restart your session

Installation for OpenMandriva

• Run: sudo dnf install human-gtk-theme
• Restart your session

Alternative installation for Debian, Devuan, Ubuntu, Trisquel, Linux Mint, MX Linux

• Run:

# PPA: https://launchpad.net/~luigifab/+archive/ubuntu/packages
# with Debian 12+ you can use mantic+ instead of focal (https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/669008/364800)
# for Debian you can use bionic for buster, focal for bullseye, oracular or plucky for bookworm and trixie
# for Devuan you can use bionic for beowulf, focal for chimaera, noble for daedalus
# for Trisquel you can use focal for nabia, jammy for aramo
# for Linux Mint you can use focal for 20.x and 5, jammy for 21.x, noble for 22.x and 6
# for MX Linux you can use focal for 19.x and 21.x, noble for 23.x
# for Kali Linux you can use oracular or plucky

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:luigifab/packages
sudo apt update
sudo apt install human-theme-gtk
# or
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys FFE5BD439356DF7D
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/luigifab/packages/ubuntu focal main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install human-theme-gtk
# or
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/luigifab.gpg https://www.luigifab.fr/apt.gpg
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/luigifab/packages/ubuntu focal main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install human-theme-gtk
# or
wget -qO - https://www.luigifab.fr/apt.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/luigifab.gpg
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/luigifab/packages/ubuntu focal main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install human-theme-gtk

# sha256sum /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/luigifab.gpg
578c89a677048e38007462d543686b53587efba9f93814601169253c45ff9213
# apt-key list
/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/luigifab.gpg
pub   rsa4096 2020-10-31 [SC]
      458B 0C46 D024 FD8C B8BC  99CD FFE5 BD43 9356 DF7D

• Restart your session

Manual installation

• Download archive and extract subdirectories in ~/.themes/
• Configure font rendering, GTK and QT, add in /etc/environment:

FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=35"
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0
GTK_BACKDROP=1
GTK_FOCUS_VISIBLE=1
GTK_PROGRESS_TEXT_INSIDE=1
GTKM_INSERT_EMOJI=1
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk2
GTK_USE_IEC_UNITS=1

• Install icons and cursors themes: gnome-icon-theme or mate-icon-theme + dmz-cursor-theme
• Install package for GTK 2 apps: gtk2-engines-murrine or gtk2-engine-murrine or gtk2-murrine-engine or gtk-engine-murrine or gtk-murrine-engine or murrine or similar
• Install package for QT 5 apps: qt5-gtk2-platformtheme + qt5-gtk-platformtheme or similar
• Install package for QT 6 apps: qt6-gtk-platformtheme or similar
• Restart your session

Configuration

For MATE desktop:

• Go to: System / Preferences / Appearance, or run: mate-appearance-properties
• Then select the Human theme
• Go to: System / Preferences / Windows, or run: mate-window-properties
• Then disable software compositing from last tab
• Go to: System / Preferences / Notifications, or run: mate-notification-properties
• Then select the Coco or Default theme

For Xfce desktop:

• Go to: Applications / Settings / Appearance, or run: xfce4-appearance-settings
• Then select the Human theme
• Go to: Applications / Settings / Window Manager, or run: xfwm4-settings
• Then select the Human theme

Fonts:

• DejaVu Sans Book, 10
• DejaVu Sans Bold, 10
• DejaVu Sans Mono Book, 10

Icons:

• gnome or mate

Cursors:

• DMZ white

Customize

Use ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css and ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css files.

Firefox/Thunderbird/Chromium

For Firefox and Thunderbird and Chromium, if font rendering is bad, try this:

cd /etc/fonts/conf.d/
sudo rm 10-hinting-slight.conf # /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting-slight.conf
sudo ln -s /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting-full.conf

For classic menu bar and menu items on Firefox 46+ and Thunderbird 46+, see bug 1622545.

GTK 4

For GTK 4, if font rendering is bad, try to add in ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini:

[Settings]
gtk-font-rendering=manual
gtk-hint-font-metrics=1
gtk-xft-hintstyle=hintfull
gtk-xft-antialias=0
gtk-xft-hinting=1

Dev

Run AWF with screenshot on theme reload:

awf-gtk2 -n -s ~/2.png
awf-gtk3 -n -s ~/3.png
awf-gtk4 -n -s ~/4.png

Run Entr to send SIGHUP signal when files change to reload theme:

ls ~/.themes/human-theme*/gtk-2*/gtkrc | entr killall -s SIGHUP awf-gtk2
ls ~/.themes/human-theme*/gtk-3*/*.css | entr killall -s SIGHUP awf-gtk3
ls ~/.themes/human-theme*/gtk-4*/*.css | entr killall -s SIGHUP awf-gtk4

Run ImageTragick to create the diff image:

killall -q eom
rm -f dif.png
compare -fuzz 1% -compose src -highlight-color blue -lowlight-color none 2.png 3.png dif.png
composite dif.png 2.png dif.png
eom dif.png &

Run svg.sh to update SVG images. See also technical informations.

Copyright

• Current version: 2.3.0 (04/04/2025)
• Compatibility: GTK 2.24 / 3.24 / 4.12..4.18
• Links: luigifab.fr - github.com - mate-look.org - xfce-look.org - ppa/dpa

This theme is provided under the terms of the GNU GPLv3+ license.
If you like, take some of your time to improve some translations, go to https://bit.ly/2HyCCEc.

Packages in official distros repositories

Credits

GTK 2 theme (CC-BY-SA-3.0+)

• Created by Kenneth Wimer and Conn O'Griofa (see human-theme Ubuntu package)

GTK 3 theme (GNU GPLv3+)

• Forked from Clearlooks-Phénix by Mike Kazantsev (mk-fg)
• Forked from Clearlooks-Phénix by Jean-Philippe Fleury (jpfleury) and Andrew Shadura

Metacity theme (clearlooks, GNU LGPLv2.1+)

• Created by Daniel Borgmann and Andrea Cimitan