This aims to be a short article explaining the current situation of several tools that allow users to have a unified Plastik desktop look in KDE.
Notes:
* OpenOffice.org in first screenshot not reflecting current integration stage, see the second one.
* I have uploaded the source XML document in case somebody wants to make a translation of it. Raúl Moratalla did the original translation to Spanish. I may try to port the Spanish translation too. In any case, send me the translated text and I'll host it
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Ratings & Comments
34 Comments
Although not exactly the same, but similar is the Java Swing LNF from JGoodies: http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/looks/index.html IMHO the class PlasticXPLookAndFeel is best.
I'm not much into Java. Could you please elaborate on this? Maybe take a screenshot and upload it with http://imageshack.us or similar, and some quick & dirty 3 lines installation guide? Thanks in advance.
Hi rg3. I have to ask you about fonts in your screenshots. I have good looking fonts in mdk 9.1 distro but only when using AA. In your screenshots fonts in menus look very crisp and sharp, without anti aliasing and just the same like in win XP. For a moment I thought that was the windows version of open office in second screenshot. What version of freetype lib you have, and on what distro?
Yeah ... I want to second this request. What fonts are you using and more important: where did you get them from? Thanks.
Not sure, but I think this is verdana or tahoma. It's available in any windows installation.
Yep, as someone already mentioned, I'm using my Windows TTF fonts. The reason it looks like Windows XP or 2000 is that I'm using the tahoma font, which is the default widget font in those OS. I followed a Slackware guide (I'm currently using "Slackware Current") for Slackware 9.0, but I can be extrapolated to other distributions, AFAIK. http://brendan.sdf-eu.org/articles/antialiasing_slack.php Most steps are very simple to comprehend. The only rough part is recompiling freetype (now I'm using freetype 2.1.9, BTW) to activate the bytecode interpreter.
Hi! I've seen there's a Plastik theme for MPlayer. You might find it useful for the tutorial. Here's the address: http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=13050
While that skin looks really nice, it's not strictly necessary, as KMplayer (a frontend for MPlayer and Xine) integrates perfectly in your desktop and works (at least for me) flawlessly. http://www.xs4all.nl/~jjvrieze/kmplayer.html
I have just been informed about the existance of another media player based in MPlayer. I haven't tried it myself but it looks pretty good so far and integrates in KDE. It's called KPlayer (not to be confused with KMPlayer). Check it out at: http://kplayer.sourceforge.net/
Agreed, kplayer is much more functional than kmplayer. For xine I preffer kaffeine, I believe it is a very nice program, even the development seems a bit slow, but still... It is functional and a very good programs. Still, most times I use mplayer in console (no gtk version, I find the gtk thingy so much outdated and very buggy... and I save some compilation time if I dont build the gtk interface). Also agree that plastic is a very good engine, the only wrong thing about it: it is very heavy in cpu time (im a bit maniatic about that). Most other styles are much lighter (you can easily appreciate that in the amount of time that the k menus take to display the submenus. I usually preffer a thing like reinhardt, compared to plastik it is lightning fast. Of course, in any way plastik is fantastic, when it comes to the look. - Regards, people ;)
...for this great compilation of tips for more plastik :-) What I still miss is a plastik theme for Thunderbird , which I'm using for mail. Is there a theme somewhere on the web? I didn't find one yet...
Thank you for telling me you like it! I'm just a normal user that does what everybody does: Google, google and google some more. I'm in the same situation like you, that is, I don't know any Plastik theme for Thunderbird. However, in this site (www.kde-look.org) we have several projects to make Mozilla apps have a plastik look. As you know, there are Plastik themes for the Mozilla suite (and that *includes* Mozilla Mail), as well as Firefox. Fortunatelly, the authors of these themes are all the same and their official website is at http://www.polinux.upv.es/mozilla/ The site is under the domain of the "Universidad Politécnica de Valencia", and they're now probably bussy with the final exams of June (just like me ;)). But after they study, and specially if they pass their exams, they will be pleased to read your begs for a Thunderbird theme. Stay tuned!
Yes, I mailed the author of the plastik browser-themes, and he told me that after his exams, maybe July, there will hopefully be a nice plastik-thunderbird theme. This is great news! :-)
awesome guide btw (i havent read it yet, but from all the good reviews im going to assume its good) i have been searching for something like this. god i hate the (damn i cant remember its name) non-plastik look. i too would like a thunderbird theme.
Hi, I followed the instructions in this guide and now everything is Plastik .. excellent! Except, gtk 1.2 applications. For example, gnomecal do not use Plastik but gtk-gnutella does. Any idea how to fix this? thanks. Osho
GTK 1.2 apps is the worse part of all of this. With the settings in the guide all I get to show is the same colors and font as Plastik, but the default theme. My temporal advice is to use the Industrial GTK1 engine, which seems to fit quite well with Plastik (it can't be worse than the default engine anyway). To use Industrial with GtkQt, edit /usr/share/themes/GtkQt/gtk/qtstyle2gtkstylerc and associate Plastik with Industrial (if that's the correct name) above any other Plastik association. I'm trying to install that engine myself. Good luck!
See the updated document.
What font are you using in the screenshots and how could I download it?
I'm using the Microsoft Tahoma font. You can import your Windows fonts easily in KDE with the Font Installer. I, however, followed a more rough, hackish guide (for Slackware 9.0): http://brendan.sdf-eu.org/articles/antialiasing_slack.php
Thanks a lot for the info. It should be interesting a translation of the document into spanish ;)
I can send you the .lyx or .tex if you want to do the job.
Ok :)
I can see the kde icons, but no widgets.I am using FC2, and yes i already tried that src rpm, but NOTHING... this thing is DRIVING ME CRAZYYYYYYY.... help...
I have the same problem :(
I follow the steps in the document but gtk-qt-engine doesn't draw the gtk widgets as qt widgets. :( I'm using Fedora Core 2 and I had the same problem on Fedora Core 1. Anyone could help me? Thanks