Adwaita tint in GNOME 48

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Good changes,

I was afraid that ugly blue tint on Libadwaita apps was going to be pushed onto the users. But since it’s not listed in the changes, it looks like it has been put off for now, thank God.

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I tried ISO and I am not happy if the blue color tint makes it into the release.

It seems rushed and for no good reason.

The user gave a valid reason why this is not a good change and, as a result, got the request pushed and locked.

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The blue tint is still in 48.

Personally, I also don’t like the change. Never liked the blue tint in Plasma either. It’s funny how this release Gnome is going more blue and Plasma 6.4 is going less blue with their tint.

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This thread about a release isn’t the place for continuing a discussion about the color of the bikeshed. Feel free to open a separate, new thread.

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Is there any reason a blue tint was decided upon? As this is purely an aesthetic choice, wouldn’t tinting with the accent color make more sense? ZorinOS already does this, but go a little too far in my opinion, to the point of noticeably reducing contrast.

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To me, it looks like a selfish decision from GNOME developers. They want to make it “iOS-like,” as they said on the PR on GitLab.

This will definitely come with a huge backlash from the community if it makes it into the release, especially since GNOME gets praise for accessability, and this is a step down from it.

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@guters: The PR explicitly mentions “GitLab, Firefox, iOS” and that “other platforms have done this as well, we’re not very special in this regard”, so your comment “making it iOS-like” feels rather misleading.
Using the term “selfish decisions” while ignoring the previous explanation about other platforms unneededly takes this to a personal level. Please see https://conduct.gnome.org/ and keep a civil tone towards other humans. Thanks.

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It’s a shame the PR was closed before any constructive discussion could be had. I don’t know where the claim that other platforms tint the entire background of applications blue came from, I haven’t found one for which that is the case.

Look up some screenshots of iOS dark mode, Windows 11 file explorer and settings. All the ones I have found so far use neutral greys in dark mode and pure white in light mode.

MacOS does tint the background blue… if the accent is set to blue. If you set it to orange, it’s tinted orange. In my opinion it looks rather nice, GNOME should do the same.

This really looks like a random design decision that came out of nowhere, and was seemingly merged mostly because Alice couldn’t see the difference and got tired of arguing.

There are plenty of examples of tinting navigational panels, headers, or other elements, as is the case in gitlab, Firefox, and this forum, but that’s not what’s being implemented here.

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I used the term “selfish” in reference to the PR being locked while receiving negative feedback from community members. I will have to change DE if this makes it into the release. It’s an issue for me, a frustrating one, and I think it does not make sense overall. That’s why I reacted this way. I apologise if it comes across as unprofessional.

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Let’s now focus on objective points this time so far; I will write my opinion in parentheses.

Blue tint:

  • there is little difference (I can’t call this an entirely objective argument)
  • everyone does it (I will call it a trend; it does not mean it is a good one)
  • positive feedback based on other platforms like iOS, Firefox, GitLab (this is the way I understood it)

Grey:

  • neutral color
  • good for graphic design
  • blue color is more tiring on the eyes
  • better for accessibility (things like contrast and other colors)

Feel free to add more points below.

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Is the contrast better? My perceived difference from gray tint to blue tint leans heavily in favour of blue because for some reason the blue tint seems more legible to me (in dark mode). I would not have anticipated the contrast of it to be counted as worse than the “normal gray” - which is why I currently assume this is more meant for light-mode (?).

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I noticed the new dark color tint used in Gnome 48 on my monitor (S95B OLED TV, “Color Tone” set to “Warm2” (in “Game Mode” btw, so I have 4:4:4, 120 Hz, VRR in desktop and low input lag)) right away. I don’t like it. How can I change it back?

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Does anyone know if this is likely to be a permanent change for the time being? I can’t seem to find any coherent rational for it besides an erronous mention of other platforms. Mac, windows, and our iPads all can be near perfectly neutral. Firefox and Github are not paragons of design that should be inspiring Gnome in any way frankly.

We have a few computers in a design lab running Gnome and it’s been great for colour accurate work. This is a really annoying change for us - particularly in Nautilus. If this is permanent I either need to figure out how to theme Gnome (which seems to be heavily discouraged?) or switch to Plasma which also has a weird tint by default. I really like the Gnome workflow - please make this optional. Most people may not notice but anyone doing creative work in a color-managed environment will hate this.

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Does anyone know if this is likely to be a permanent change for the time being?

Nothing is “permanent”, but it is a decided on design that’s here to stay for the time being.

Most people may not notice but anyone doing creative work in a color-managed environment will hate this.

Apps made for creative work should ensure that their own colors are neutral.

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Thank you, I’m unfamiliar with Gnome’s development process and this is helpful for decision making.

Although most creative apps do indeed have neutral interfaces (Resolve being a noticeable example that does not by default) many professionals do prefer the entire interface to be as neutral as possible. Main apps like the file manager and wallpaper impact some of us a lot while switching around. I’d love to see a tint toggle added or even extension if that’s possible. Cheers.

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Gradience let you customize the colours, but it’s been unmaintained for a while now. Perhaps someone will pick it back up if there really is that much interest in neutral greys.

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As a workaround: Is the (main) color 222226 set somewhere globally (even if multiple variables need to be changed) and can I simply change it back to 242424? (I understand that the whole theme has been changed around the new color and that changing one variable won’t make the colors fit together.)

Edit: I have found that color 222226 is in src/stylesheet/_defaults.scss · main · GNOME / libadwaita · GitLab and here is the commit that changed it from #242424 to #222226 (found via clicking the “History” button): stylesheet: Tint grays to make them colder (304338c4) · Commits · GNOME / libadwaita · GitLab.

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You should be able to modify the colors used by libadwaita. However, this will break dark mode, possibly accent colors, and certain apps visually, when they set their own colors for certain UI elements.

Anyway, GTK loads the CSS defined in ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css, if present. And since libadwaita defines the colors used by the UI using CSS variables, you can override the variables with the old values. Refer to the libadwaita docs for the used variables and their values.

This is also how Gradience has worked.

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Thanks @CodedOre, I created the ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css file and put

/* Gnome v47 dark theme colors tint */

/* // Window */
@define-color window_bg_color #242424;
@define-color window_fg_color white;

/* // Views - e.g. text view or tree view */
@define-color view_bg_color #1e1e1e;
@define-color view_fg_color white;

/* // Header bar, search bar, tab bar */
@define-color headerbar_bg_color #303030;
@define-color headerbar_fg_color white;
@define-color headerbar_border_color white;
@define-color headerbar_backdrop_color @window_bg_color;
@define-color headerbar_shade_color RGB(0 0 0 / 36%);

/* // Split pane views */
@define-color sidebar_bg_color #303030;
@define-color sidebar_fg_color white;
@define-color sidebar_backdrop_color #2a2a2a;
@define-color sidebar_shade_color RGB(0 0 0 / 25%);
@define-color sidebar_border_color RGB(0 0 0 / 36%);

@define-color secondary_sidebar_bg_color #2a2a2a;
@define-color secondary_sidebar_fg_color white;
@define-color secondary_sidebar_backdrop_color #272727;
@define-color secondary_sidebar_shade_color RGB(0 0 0 / 25%);
@define-color secondary_sidebar_border_color RGB(0 0 0 / 36%);

/* // Cards, boxed lists */
@define-color card_bg_color RGB(255 255 255 / 8%);
@define-color card_fg_color white;
@define-color card_shade_color RGB(0 0 0 / 36%);

/* // Dialogs */
@define-color dialog_bg_color #383838;
@define-color dialog_fg_color white;

/* // Popovers */
@define-color popover_bg_color #383838;
@define-color popover_fg_color white;
@define-color popover_shade_color RGB(0 0 0 / 25%);

/* // Thumbnails */
@define-color thumbnail_bg_color #3b3b3b)};
@define-color thumbnail_fg_color white;

/* // Miscellaneous */
@define-color shade_color RGB(0 0 0 / 25%);

(Gnome-47 colors taken from the commit, see my edited post)
and it works so far.
To see the changed colors, just reopen the app.

PS: Maybe there needs to be a vote to see if people prefer the new colors (222226) over the previous (242424) ones?

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Design decisions are not made through voting, otherwise nothing would ever change.

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