Linux Mint system is popular among Linux users because of its user-friendly interface and robust performance. It offers notable features to customize its desktop appearance and overall look according to the user’s preferences. One of the major customization support it offers is related to themes. The users can change the themes from the default list or can add them from online resources as well.

In this guide, we will illustrate the multiple methods to set up a theme on Linux Mint, as follows:

• How to Set up Pre-installed Themes in Linux Mint?
• How to Install and Setup Themes from Mint Library in Linux Mint?
• How to Revert to Default Theme in Linux Mint?

 

How to Set up Pre-install Themes in Linux Mint?

You can get multiple pre-installed themes to select from. It depends upon the desktop environment, such as Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce, or others. To set up the pre-installed theme, follow the below-stated steps.

Step 1: Open “Themes” App

Search and select “Themes” from the Linux Mint application menu:

Step 2: Add Theme

Navigate to the “Add/Remove” tab, search for your preferred theme, and click on the dropdown icon to add it:

Step 3: Setup Desktop Theme

Once the theme is added, it is ready to set up. To do so, you need to navigate to the “Themes” tab and click on “Desktop”:

Now, double-click on your newly added theme and apply it:

The provided screenshot shows the default desktop theme:

Here is the recent look of the desktop after applying the new theme:

Step 4: Personalize Theme

Moreover, if any theme attracts you and you want to change its components, then you can do this by utilizing the following customization options according to your preference:

• Mouse Pointers
• Applications
• Icons

Let’s check them out one by one!

Mouse Pointers

This component defines the appearance style and animation of the mouse pointer in Linux Mint. To change the mouse pointer, click on the highlighted icon beside the “Mouse Pointer”:

Select your desired one and double-click on it:

Applications

To change the appearance style of applications in the Linux Mint system, click on the Application’s icon:

Now, choose and double-click on the desired application appearance style:

Icons

This component is used to change the icon’s color and style. To achieve this, click on the given icon in front of the “Icons” component:

Then, double-click on the style and color of your favorite icons:

Once theme customization is done, close the “Themes” application to save your changes:

Tip: You can mix the styles for all the system elements across diverse themes to create a customized theme for Linux Mint that matches your style.

 

How to Install and Setup Themes From Mint Library in Linux Mint?

Another easy approach is browsing and installing themes from Linux Mint’s official library of themes which provides numerous options to select from. If you want to download themes from Mint’s official library, first you are required to set up the “ocs-url”.

The “ocs-url” is a helper program that permits users to directly install theme files from the Pling-store. It is also known as an installer and content management application for ocs-compatible websites like gnome.look.org, etc.

Pre-requisites: Install OCS-URL

Redirect to “opendesktop.org” where ocs-URL is hosted. Then, click on the “Download” button and choose the ocs-url type file that ends with the “.deb” extension from the dropdown menu:

Hit the “Download (0.05 MB)” button to start downloading:

Execute the given command to set up the downloaded DEB file:

sudo dpkg -i ocs-url_3.1.0-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

Note: You can use “sudo apt install ./<File-Name>” to install the debian package file.

Step 1: Download Theme

Open the browser, and visit the “gnome-look.org” customization site. Search your preferred theme, let’s say “GTK3/4 Themes”. Search for “Yaru-cinnamon-remix” and then click on “Download” to start the downloading process.

Press the “Download (32.02 MB)” button when the downloading prompt appears:

Step 2: Extract Theme

Move to the “Downloads” folder\directory and right-click on the downloaded “.zip” file to extract it:

Step 3: Copy the Extracted Theme Directory

Navigate to the extracted directory and copy the theme’s folder that is present inside the directory:

Note: Linux Mint has the directories “~/.themes” and “~/.icons” where the downloaded themes and icons folder will be placed. The files in these directories are automatically fetched into the system list of themes/icons.

Step 4: Place the Theme in “~/.themes” Directory

Move to your Home directory, click on the “View” option from the menu bar, and mark the “Show Hidden Files” check box:

Afterward, move to the “.theme” folder and paste the copied folders (the extracted “Yaru-cinnamon-remix” and “Yaru-cinnamon-remix-dark“):

Then, copy the present icons folder from the downloaded folder if available:

Redirect to the “~/.icons” folder and paste them the same as the themes folder:

Step 5: Setup the Loaded Theme

Next, open the Linux Mint menu, search for the “Themes” application, and launch it:

Move to the “Themes” window and click on the “Icons” option:

Search and double-click on the downloaded icons to start using them. For instance, two options(light) are available for icon customization and we have selected the “Yaru-cinnamon-remix-dark”:

Afterward, hit the “Desktop” option that is available at the end:

Navigate to the newly downloaded and integrated themes, and choose according to your preference either dark or light. In our case, we have opted for the “Yaru-cinnamon-remix-dark” theme:

Let’s look at the change.

Default Linux Mint Display

New Display After the Theme Setup

Additional Information: While downloading a theme must check that is compatible(particularly available) with your Linux Mint desktop environment(cinnamon in our case), then it will work fine without any hitch. Otherwise, you will encounter an error message that the particular theme is faulty or maybe not supported. So, ensure that the themes you are downloading, work well with your Linux Mint desktop environment.

 

How to Revert to Default Theme in Linux Mint?

In Linux Mint, you can also revert to the system’s default theme. For that purpose, execute the following command:

dconf reset -f /org/cinnamon/

The system theme has been reverted to the default theme successfully:

That’s all folks! You have learned several methods for setting up themes in Linux Mint.

Conclusion

On Linux Mint, you can enhance the overall look of the Linux Mint by setting up themes and changing the icons. For that purpose, you can set up pre-installed themes or you can install the themes from the Mint repository and set up that theme on your system. The themes/icons installed externally are placed in the “~/.themes / ~/.icons” directory to load and set up them on Linux Mint.

This blog has described the approaches for setting up themes in Linux Mint.