Linux distributions often ship with nice-looking interfaces with high-quality app icons. But you don’t have to stick with it if you don’t like it. You can change your entire desktop environment including the icons. We’ve discussed several icon packs for Linux before too. This time we’re going to show you how to install Shadow Icon Theme on Ubuntu.
The Shadow icon theme has been developed by Rudra Banerjee. It features rounded flat backgrounds with icons and their long shadows. It is available on GitHub and GNOME-Look. The icon pack can be installed easily on all desktop environments including GNOME, KDE Plasma, MATE, Pantheon, and Unity as well.
Table of Contents
Download Shadow Icon Theme on Ubuntu
The icon pack is available on GitHub and can be easily installed using the terminal. You’ll probably need to install the git first though. So launch the terminal and enter the following command.
sudo apt-get install git
If you have installed icon themes before, you will already have a .icons folder in your home folder. If you don’t, you can create a new folder using the GUI or type the command below in the Terminal and hit enter.
mkdir .icons/
If you already have the .icons directory you can skip the above command and move to the next step which is to access this directory. You can do that using the command below.
cd .icons/
When you’re in the directory, download the Shadow icon theme with the command given below.
git clone https://github.com/rudrab/Shadow.git
Apply Icon theme
When you’ve entered the command above, the icon theme will be downloaded right into the directory where it needs to be. All that’s left now is to apply the theme. This can also be done in two ways, using the GNOME Tweak Tool or the command line using gsettings.
Command-line
First, install gsettings with this command.
sudo apt-get install gsettings
Next, apply the icon theme using gsettings with the following command.
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme "Shadow"
The icon pack will be applied as soon as you hit enter.
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Tweak Tool
The GNOME Tweak Tool is popular and a must-have. Chances are you have already installed it. In case you haven’t, you really should because it’s great. It has configuration options for not only the icons but many other parts of the graphical interface as well. It can be installed using the command below.
sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool
Once installed, launch it from the app launcher. In the GNOME Tweak Tool, go to Appearance from the left column and select Shadow icon theme from the drop-down menu next to Applications under Themes.
Uninstall Shadow icon theme
Uninstallation is a lot easier. Go to the .icons folder in your home directory and delete the folder named shadow. You can do this using the file explorer, i.e. the GUI, the command line, or CLI. The command to remove it is given below.
rm -rf ~/.icons/Shadow
You can also do this manually using the Nautilus file explorer or Dolphin Fine Manager. To do that, launch the Files app and navigate to the hidden .icons folder in your home directory. Here, delete the folder named Shadow. Thus, you know how to install and uninstall the Shadow icon theme on Ubuntu.
