The gtk3 version of gtk-xfce-engine 2.99.3 is a big step backwards: * Text fields, buttons, tab headers, ... have much less heigth in gtk3 compared to gtk2. * Most borders and frames (e.g. around text fields, buttons, toolbars, radio button groups, ...) are completely missing in gtk3. * Horizontal spacing between adjacent buttons etc. is missing: Two buttons become one... * The spinbox uses ugly + / - buttons instead of arrows. * The separator bar between text and down arrow in combo boxes is missing. * ... All these things worked before!
(In reply to comment #0) > The gtk3 version of gtk-xfce-engine 2.99.3 is a big step backwards: > > * Text fields, buttons, tab headers, ... have much less heigth in gtk3 > compared to gtk2. > * Most borders and frames (e.g. around text fields, buttons, toolbars, > radio button groups, ...) are completely missing in gtk3. > * Horizontal spacing between adjacent buttons etc. is missing: > Two buttons become one... > * The spinbox uses ugly + / - buttons instead of arrows. > * The separator bar between text and down arrow in combo boxes is missing. > * ... > > All these things worked before! It should like you have switched from Gtk 3.2 to Gtk 3.4. The xfce engine is developped for Gtk 3.2 and many theming changes were made from Gtk 3.2 to Gtk 3.4. These changes haven't been implemented in the xfce engine.
That's correct. My system upgraded from xfce theme 2.99.2 to 2.99.3 and from gtk 3.2 to gtk 3.4 at the same time, so gtk 3.4 could have caused the problems.
Will gtk 3.x ever again be supported by xfce themes and gtk-xfce-engines?
Subscribing. It's very important for me to see this fixed. I'd really like to know at least if this is going to be fixed ever.
I'm not the maintainer, but I don't think this will be fixed. The GTK team did and still does everything to piss off theme maintainers. I try different themes from time to time. 3.2 -> 3.4 and 3.4 - > 3.6 has broken all themes, 3.6 -> 3.8 also caused minor theme breakages, ... Writing gtk themes is like hunting a moving target, you have to fix your theme every 6 months.
Maintenance of the many different themes is to much work. Maybe if I (or someone else) has some time to spare some themes can be fixed. But it might be better to look for another theme which supports both gtk2, gtk3 and is maintained to work with the different versions of gtk3.
Hmmm, looking for other themes didn't work, at least for me: * There are very few themes which are actively supported for both gtk2 and gtk3. Most "private" theme developers gave up on gtk3. * All those themes are very ressource-intensive (installing complex theme engines) especially for gtk 2. * The XFCE themes had brilliant usability: Wide scrollbars, scrollbuttons, high contrast, ... Most existing gtk2 + gtk3 themes violate even basic usability requirements: They all have no scrollbuttons and tiny-width scrollbars which are hard to grep on high-res screens, and most of them have rather low contrast colors or shades of grey. I tried really hard, but found no theme which is actively maintained and conforms to usability / accessability regulations, and even less one which works without adwaita, nodoka or some other complex theme engine. Clearlooks-phenix was one, but also didn't keep up on the latest gtk 3.x version.
How about one of the themes of http://shimmerproject.org/ If you can give a small list of themes you want to see fixed, I could try to make some time for it. Also which gtk version is should target.
Bluebird etc.: I tested them some time ago. I don't remember why I didn't stay with them. Used Xfce theme: Actually, I use a modified Xfce theme (all colors and some properties changed) plus Xfce theme engine for gtk 2 and a modified gtk3 theme (without any additional engine) based on a completely different source (Zukitwo). It has the same colors, but different dimensions and minor differences in style. I can live with that, I don't insist that gtk2 and gtk3 look identical. Gtk version: I'm on gentoo, so I usually have the latest version, upgrading every 6 months. So from my point of view: No need for action as long as gtk2 doesn't break Xfce themes.
But couldn't the xfce engine like... put a styles layer between the gtk3 standard engine and the xfce themes to fix these new issues? Or maybe an xfce-support.css file that we could @import at the beggining of our themes? I actually have no idea how many people work on the xfce engine or how much time they have to work on it but MAYBE I'm not too wrong and this is a good idea.
I've started working on xfce-themes, or at least creating a theme that works well again for Gtk>=3.8. If you wanna test it and provide feedback, look here: https://github.com/shimmerproject/Xfce-refresh I might also try to fix some of the other themes, it's not really the engine that is at fault here but the themes' css being less and less complete (which again is Gtk3's fault for breaking theming with pretty much every release and Gtk3.10 being the first not breaking...)
Created attachment 6903 A Saltlake GTK3 Theme attempt Hello everyone, since it looks like interest is slipping from XFCE's GTK engine sadly (can't blame anyone either with the constant breakage from GTK3), I decided to recreate my favourite theme (Saltlake) from XFCE once again. Using the OneStepBack GTK3 theme as a base with the button code from a MATE theme, I have been able to make a fairly accurate GTK3 version of Saltlake. It's not perfect, for example: tabs are mostly an illusion therefore don't function properly, the indents in the middle of scrollbars/sliders is an image so it displays incorrectly depending on random sizes of the scrollbar/slider, and a few other really minor things most would probably never notice/care but still bug me (like borders around the selection highlight). I've attached a screenshot and the theme for anyone interested. Due to my limited knowledge of CSS/GTK3 themeing, I haven't progressed it any further. However, anyone is welcomed to improve upon or do what they please with it. Also, the theme uses the default GTK3 engine, so nothing fancy is needed.
I should mention it's for 3.20+, haven't tested it on anything older.
Couldn't Xfce share theme efforts with mate? Their themes are well maintained, look reasonably fine, and are relatively close in style to Xfce's themes.
This project has been archived, so we are closing related bugs.