Set gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme as a user setting

Question

Is there a way to set gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme for an application?

This is normally set in the code by the application. Apps such as Eye of Gnome and Totem turn it on. I want to, as a user turn it on, on a per application bases.

For gnome-terminal, I normally use a white text on black background color scheme, and having the dark window border would improve the overall look.

I also want to turn it on for vlc.

Answer 1

Here is a bash script I have used to launch a application with a different theme. Haven't used it in years though, so I don't know if it will work with the current GTK.

#!/bin/bash
# lauch a gtk application with a different theme
# set GTKRCFILE variable to your favourite theme
GTKRCFILE=Clearlooks
GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/"$GTKRCFILE"/gtk-2.0/gtkrc "$@"

Here is a bit of info I got off the ubuntu fourms archives. Not sure if it will be a problem. (here) There is also a blog post detailing this method a little more. (here) and (here). There is also a similar question on this site that has already been answered. (here)

Under gnome, apps get their theme from the gnome-settings-daemon. This instantaneously applies any theme change to all active applications, making per-appplication theme changing impossible.

Answer 2

For GTK+-3 applications, you can enforce the dark theme variant using GtkSettings' settings.ini:

$ mkdir -p $HOME/.config/gnome-terminal/gtk-3.0 # the path before gtk-3.0 is arbitrary
$ cat >> $HOME/.config/gnome-terminal/gtk-3.0/settings.ini << EOF
[Settings]
gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme=true
EOF
$ echo 'alias gnome-terminal="XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$HOME/.config/gnome-terminal gnome-terminal" >> $HOME/.bashrc

For non-GTK+ applications like vnc, you can still enforce dark window decorations by setting the _GTK_THEME_VARIANT X property of type UTF8_STRING to dark - I don't know if any tools like devilspie support that functionality though (xprop can be used to set properties, but it does not support UTF8_STRING).