Call for participation: an ubuntu default theme lead by the community?

Hoping to see some transparency in windows like in Aero. At least as an option.

I like professional, soft colours than splashy colours. Customized terminal background colour to #223344 . Text colour set to #ABBBD7. Give it a try, you will know the difference :wink:

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In a previous post, I suggested having Suru-shaped icons for <10 of the apps most commonly seen on the launcher - setting the icon in a squircle but otherwise unchanging it.

Please excuse very rough mockup (I know I havenā€™t nailed the colours or the button style - Iā€™m not a designer) but I was thinking something like this.

Further to the above - I had another stab at this concept. Hereā€™s the top half of my current launcher in Ubuntu 17.10, showing a ā€œSurufiedā€ icon for Rhythmbox with an improved Firefox one. In both cases, I havenā€™t changed the appā€™s icon other than to embed it in a Suru context.

EDIT: Hmm, image was embedded but now shows as broken - please see it on Imgur here.

I know the Firefox icon gets a bit cropped, but I donā€™t think this is different to what happens with masking (i.e., coloured background + crop to a shape). Iā€™m basically doing a ā€œmanual maskā€ on the icons.

For what itā€™s worth, I love the Suru music app icon and would prefer to use that for Rhythmbox. But this approach respects the Rhythmbox branding, and I get that philosophy.

Anyway, I think itā€™s a nice approach to the 3rd party app problem. Itā€™d be a foolā€™s errand to try to do this for all or even many of the apps, but I donā€™t think it would hurt to do it for a small handful that ship with Ubuntu by default and are frequently seen on the launcher. Firefox - Rhythmbox - maybe the Libre Offices?

I know thereā€™s already a talented designer running with this :slight_smile: so am just trying to give a sense of my hopes here, by ā€œshowing not tellingā€.

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I like what I see you did. It looks good and I wish for consitency just like you do.

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Personally, I would love to see something completely flat with minimal borders, using different shades of grey rather than lines to distinguish elements. Excuse low quality image (and crappy buttons!), but something like (EDIT: higher quality image):

Link.

No window border or even rounded corners - just a slight drop shadow.

This is really helpful, thanks a lot!
However, it seems that one color is missing its description, what about #762572 (The purple one)?

HI!

Wondefull work now with community feedback!

Itā€™s the first time that Iā€™m involving in ubuntu community projects. I have been modifying gnome-shell theme and It looks like we have the same preferences @madsrh. iā€™m following mockup updates. And transparency looks really good!

About panel and dash, I think that giving ubuntu primary color can looks better (ignore icon set of the screenshot :P)

In my opinion, that base change can give more ā€œubuntuā€ identity. What do you think?

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Itā€™s great that you are getting involved - itā€™s an awesome community!

This is definitely easily recognizable, but I think itā€™s a bit too much (for my taste) and perhaps a bit distracting.

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Hi everyone. Above, I suggested that we could manually mask a small number of (otherwise unedited) 3rd party icons onto a Suru background, to make them blend more nicely with the new system icons. The key ones I had in mind were Firefox and Rhythmbox (because they appear on the launcher by default) and maybe a small number of others, like the Libre Offices.

If my memory serves me correctly, these are the apps that appear on the Ubuntu launcher of a fresh install. Iā€™ve now mocked up a Suru-fied version of the Amazon web app and added the Suru Help icon, to give a sense of likely out-of-the-box appearance.

default launcher mockup

EDIT: I originally said that I mocked up a Suru help icon too. I just realised that I misremembered. The help app in my Ubuntu 17.10 install showed a round icon, so I started mapping it onto a blank Suru squircle - but then I realised there was already a Suru icon for help in the icon folders, and used that for my screenshot instead.

Personally, I think this looks fairly smart and is respectful of 3rd Party branding. As an end user, I take it for granted that the consistency wonā€™t survive when I start installing lots of my own apps. But itā€™s nice to have that consistency out-of-the-box, IMHO.

The original mockup showing Firefox and Rhythmbox got five ā€œlikesā€, so I leave it to the thread to decide if this is an avenue worth pursuing. Iā€™m more than happy to assist with making Suru-fied versions of default 3rd party apps if thatā€™s desired :slight_smile: but I appreciate that we have talented designers working on this already, and there might be a concern around too many cooks, etcā€¦

You are right, ATM Iā€™m using a 70% of transparency in the concept (Iā€™m still trying to understand GTK-CSS classes and Iā€™m making distinctions with strong colours). If I make more transparent is more eye-candy (maybe it needs more light).

The point (for me) it the transparency usage: Giving 3 basic schemes (ā€œdarkā€, ā€œlightā€ & ā€œdefaultā€ colours) to the user, the GUI has a start point for customization, and the usage of transparency make it more attractive.

Also, the same color & transparency for the top bar and the dash, make a curious effect: all maximized windows wins more focus (Perhaps the feeling of united elements are more attractive?)

Finally, I think that less is more principle can be a good idea in the project, Iā€™ll keep trying to learn more about GTK components, and share ideas.

Clean, maybe something like this:

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It looks like Elementary OS.

I like transparency, but it make it too dependent of the wallpaper (white color over white background, for example, makes hard to see date and buttons)

I have a global Question, according to the next detail:

Android have Material Design, Windows have fluent Design, Apple uses their own Design rulesā€¦ Why not make it possible on ubuntu?

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Updated. Not sure what the recommendation was about beyond names in the Contacts app.

Not bad, but it lacks Ubuntuā€™s signature colors from Ambiance/Unity 8 themes and Ubuntu styled window decorations, also it is a bit too bright in design which strains the eyes, needs darker portions to balance out the bright parts.

@madsrh It would be refreshing to see this kind of tabbing in the sidebar. A lot of CMS does that these days

Screenshot-2017-11-23 Call for translators ubuntu community appreciation day

This is really a different way of putting it. Thanks for suggesting

Screenshot-2017-11-23 Ubuntu LoCo Council Election Results

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Thanks! I saw that also @didrocks added some info in the first post

Can we try some CSS animations for a change ?

I considered that too, but UX comes first, so it would have to be something very subtle.

I see. Is your scope extended to Boot animation as well ?

The dots were there for a long time. That wonā€™t be really an upgrade which we are aiming, right ?