zonColor 1.6.5: Glossy Icons, Desklets, Modern UI, LXDE, more...

After some testing in 1.6 releases, I finally decided that zonColor is ready for a stable version of zonColor Themes Pack 1.6.5. This update is aimed to be compatible with latest version of various desktop environments (GNOME/GTK 3.8, Unity 7.0, Cinnamon 1.8, MATE 1.6, Xfce 4.10), along with additional features, theme components/templates, improvements, tweaks, and fixes.

One of differences in 1.6 compared to its previous releases 1.x, as previously noted, is in order to be compatible with GNOME/GTK 3.8, zonColor 1.6 introduces creation of actual GTK themes for color variant, rather than just make use of GTK-color-scheme feature that has been removed from GNOME/GTK 3.8.

For this release, I included some additions, one of them is new icons. Some people may like flat, square-framed icons, but me, I like icons that looks natural, 3D-shaped, shiny and glossy, and easy to be distinguished. This is a work in progress -- for now, I created icons for some apps, but for future releases I plan to create other icons too. And I also plan to include more than one icon template, so that users can have more choices of icon shape/style in creation of icon theme variant.

Razor-qt zonColor Theme

I've been playing around with a new desktop environment called Razor-qt. It is a lightweight desktop that reminds me of LXDE. But, unlike LXDE, it is based on Qt, the technology used by KDE desktop. But unlike KDE, Razor-qt is much lighter and faster. So I may call this LXDE in Qt world :)

The official website at http://razor-qt.org/ describes Razor-qt like this:

Razor-qt is an advanced, easy-to-use, and fast desktop environment based on Qt technologies. It has been tailored for users who value simplicity, speed, and an intuitive interface. Unlike most desktop environments, Razor-qt also works fine with weak machines.

After using it for sometime, I think I really like it. Fast, responsive on my weak machine, and easily configurable. I enabled zoncolor GTK theme on Razor-qt desktop session. Then I browse the default Razor-qt themes available (there's four pre-installed ones in latest release 0.5.2), which are beautiful. And then I quickly think to create a new one, to match the zoncolor theme to make them look integrated.

Based on the default theme, here is the zoncolor Razor-qt theme.

zonColor Update: GTK, I love you?

I have spent a lot of time lately working on next major updated version of zonColor Themes Pack. Currently, my primary focus is on new features for GTK themes of zonColor.

The big concern about zonColor GTK themes is due to the latest update version of GTK, where starting from GTK 3.8, they have stopped support for GTK color scheme (here is the announcement).

That was a disaster! Why? Because, for applying color customizations, zonColor GTK themes (versions 1.1 and earlier) rely on this feature, so that users can quickly and instantly apply color scheme to the currently active GTK theme, without having to generate a new GTK theme (unlike recoloring of icon themes and wallpaper that require to generate new ones).

zonColor 1.1 Update: Ubuntu Phone Wallpaper, "start-here" Icons, More

Recently, Canonical announced a big project at CES event, Ubuntu for phones, a mobile operating system aimed to provide a user experience as in Ubuntu desktop edition, on smartphones. This "Ubuntu Phone OS" created hype among geeks and enthusiasts, hoping this could be an alternative to big players like Google Android and Apple iOS among other.

One of interesting things about this Ubuntu phone OS is its visual design. It looks beautiful, simple but elegant. This design includes a gorgeous welcome screen image aka wallpaper that looks consitent with Ubuntu desktop OS visual design, with its timer clock at the center.

Inspired by the Ubuntu Phone design, some creative artists created wallpaper design for desktop, bringing the phone welcome screen design into desktop PCs.

Download full resolution

For zonColor 1.1 update release, I decided to include "Ubuntu Phone OS"-inspired wallpapers (including template) into zonColor Themes Pack. It is a slightly modified version of "Inspire" wallpaper by Michał Prędotka (http://mivoligo.com/d/inspire-wallpaper), with some adjustment so that it can be recolored, like other wallpaper templates in zonColor.

Here is some other color variants of the wallpaper.