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By : vasanth
KDE is my preferred choice of desktop and every time I install a distribution I spend around an hour customizing it to my taste. Most of the distributions provide customized KDE but most of the customization go into the functional aspect of KDE(which should be the case) . This guide does not intent to point out to a specific choice but rather tells what can be done with a fresh KDE.
KDE is highly customizable at every point, a major aspect of a desktop. I'm using KDE 3.5.8 for this article and all the themes/improvements should work with KDE 3.5.x version tree. The all new KDE4 will make many of the aspects of this guide obsolete as the new desktop with the QT4's capabilities will provide a wide range of visual experience. I'm not covering the AIGLX/XGL compositing capabilities as they never worked for me to the point where I can use it everyday. Most of the contents listed here can be found under "highest rated" section at kde-look.
Icons:
The first customization would be changing the default icon set (Crystal SVG). The icon set nuvoX provides a complete set of icons for KDE. This icon set combines the best of the best rated icon sets crystal proyect, nuovola, nuoveXT, OS-L, Tulliana with author's own work. You can get nuvox in compressed .gz(buildset), .rpm and .deb formats.
Wallpapers:
Wallpapers can be downloaded from kde-look,art4linux,gnome-look and deviantART. Also check out this posting which lists excellent resources for wallpapers.
Panel Background:
The default dull panel background color can be changed to a shining black. The packs such as Kickers provide dark and light colored panel backgrounds. Also check the Kore (which I'm using) theme pack which provides dark colored kicker backgrounds.
KBFX:
The default KDE menu style is simple and powerful but if you want more then KBFX is the answer. The kore looks nice but for me it is displaying a section with odd color under the sub-menu area. So I'm using the openSuSE OS X Leapord with custom launch menu icon Revaline's.
Dockers:
The OS X like dockers available for KDE include kooldock,kxdocker,ksmoothdock and so on. The only docker that is near to usable is kooldock(so no docker for me).
Karamba:
Desktop widgets are provided by superkaramba. The karamba widgets I use are ClockMagic(there are many extensions available for this theme) and phat-butt-on-playa(amarok control).
Fonts:
Some distributions use the "Sans Serif" as the default font which is a nice looking one. You can also have a look at the fonts like Red Hat Liberation and DejaVu.
Color-Schemes:
Color Schemes in KDE will improve the overall look and feel of the desktop. The color schemes of interest are black and pure technology.
Styles:
The styles decide how the buttons,scroll bars, tabs etc are rendered. The QtCurve is the clear winner in this category but you may also consider Polyester. While changing the style in the KDE control center, do not forget to change the style for GTK applications so that you will have a nice look and feel for the GTK applications too.
Window Decorations:
The window decorations customize the placement and appearance of the close/maximize/minimize of a window. The Crystal window decorations is the nicest looking window decoration but you can also consider Human Blue if you want a simple one.
Splash Screen:
The KDE start-up splash screen can be customized with various themes. The Moodin engine with themes like spline,raindrops and vallerie would make the splash more pleasant.
KDM Theme:
The KDE login manager's theme can be customized if you use KDM as the display manager. I'm using GDM as the display manager and I'm very much satisfied with the customized GDM theme provided by Ubuntu Ultimate. For KDM, the clean theme looks promising.
Conclusion:
I've listed most of the modules related to look and feel that can be configured in KDE and some choices. Please share your desktop screenshots and your views about a "nice looking" desktop.
Re: Setting up a nice looking KDE - For Beginners
One can do much more with the panels lookwise
than just choose the background colour.
Hiding and coverability also affects the overall
looks of kde. I personally have 3 short panels
that are coverable, and I've gotten a lot of
"I did not know one can do that with KDE"
comments about them.
You can see my panels and other style decisions
at http://lynoure.org/screenshot20080327a.png
By the way, do you happen to know any way to
reduce Menu bar heigth? Making the Menu bar font
smaller does not affect it's height at all :/
Re: Setting up a nice looking KDE - For Beginners
Lynoure:
I'm not aware of coverable panels and will try them.
I do not know how to change the Menu bar height.Googled
a bit and found nothing useful(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=641963)
BTW how is the memory usage in firefox 3 beta-4?.
Re: Setting up a nice looking KDE - For Beginners
I haven't done detailed comparation betweer FF2 and FF3beta, but the latter still feels resource hoggy to me:
It takes ~10% of the system memory (150M) with just 8 tabs when I'm not actively doing anything with it.
Re: Setting up a nice looking KDE - For Beginners
To change menu height in KDE:
~/.kde/share/config/kickerrc
Under section [menus]
MenuEntryHeight=XX
Re: Setting up a nice looking KDE - For Beginners
To change KDE menu height:
~/.kde/share/config/kickerrc
Under section [menus]:
MenuEntryHeight=XX
XX = icon size
Re: Setting up a nice looking KDE - For Beginners
In the configure panel dialog go to Arrangement (should start there by default). The three options should be Position, Length, Size. Simply choose a smaller size. You can choose between descriptions like tiny, small, medium, large. Underneath that there is a grayed out slider that lists pixel heights. I'm not sure how to activate it.
Re: Setting up a nice looking KDE - For Beginners
Heyman:
I think what Lynoure asking is about the menu bar not the
the panel. BTW you can activate the pixel hight by selecting the
"custom" option in the drop down list which lists
small,medium etc...
Re: Setting up a nice looking KDE - For Beginners
My problem with KDE design is the waste of space from the big program icons on the panel. I use the quicklaunch applet to hold everything, I have the 12 most useful programs in it, leaving the rest of the panel for running programs.
Virtual desks; virtual screens; a problem...
"Virtual" is a word used in many ways:
(1) Virtual desktops refers to multiple in-memory screens,
of which only one is mapped to the physical display at a time;
which one is visible can be switched by a mouse-click in the
task bar or by use of the window list menu (usually right mouse-button).
They are *very* useful for organizing your work, with one task per
virtual screen. IMO, once you get used to them they greatly improve
your productivity.
(2) Virtual screens are an X thing, not just a KDE one. They give
the impression that the display is larger than the physical screen,
which acts like a "porthole" you can push around with the mouse.
If you're not used to them, they can be disconcerting, but once you
are the extra screen area can make you much more productive.
As far as I know, I can't set them with any of the GUI tools;
instead, I have to edit the "xorg.conf" file (usually found in
"/etc/X11" -- the line beginning "Virtual" in the following gives
me virtual 2058x1520 on my 1600x1200 monitor:
Section "Screen"
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "800x600"
Virtual 2048 1520
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection
Both can be active at the same time; at the office, I do *very* detailed
map-related stuff, and have 10 virtual desktops with virtual screens,
each sized 2560x2400 on a 1920x1200 physical screen.
Now the problem: on the window-list menu, "unclutter windows" is a
menu item hard-wired into the KDE source code and not user-configurable
(at lest, not without a hand-fix and re-compile); when it gets selected
inadvertently (which does happen, with some mice), it can be *very*
destructive of a multi-window layout you've spent quite some time
setting up. I wish I could prevail on them to fix this! Occasionally,
I get so fed up with it, I start running IceWM for a while...
Re: Setting up a nice looking KDE - For Beginners
I recommend TastyMenu. I find that is a good compromise between the KDE3 and KDE4 menu styles. The favorites function is particularly handy for me.