Setting Look and Feel Preferences

This section explains how to use the Appearance preference tool to configure the desktop.

Appearance

The Appearance preference tool enables you to configure various aspects of the desktop:

Theme
Desktop Background
Fonts
User Interface

Theme Preferences

A theme is a group of coordinated settings that specifies the visual appearance of a part of the Oracle Solaris Desktop. You can choose themes to change the appearance of the Oracle Solaris Desktop. Use the Theme tab to select a theme. You can choose from a list of available themes, which includes several themes for users with accessibility requirements.

A theme contains settings in the Customize Theme window that affect different parts of the Oracle Solaris Desktop, as follows:

Controls – The controls setting in the Controls Tab, determines the visual appearance of windows, panels, and applets. The Controls setting also determines the visual appearance of the interface items that appear on windows, panels, and applets, such as menus, icons, and buttons. Some of the Controls setting options that are available are designed for special accessibility needs. You can choose an option for the controls setting from the Controls tab in the Customize Theme window.
Colors – The color setting in the Colors tabfor a theme determines the color of various user interface elements.

Note - Make sure you choose pairs of colors that have a good contrast with each other, otherwise text might become hard to read.
Window frame – The window frame setting in the Window Border tab determines the appearance of the frames around windows only.
Icons – The icon setting in the Icon tab determines the appearance of the icons on panels and the desktop background.
Pointer - The pointer setting in the Pointer tab determines the appearance of and size of the mouse pointer.

How to Create a Custom Theme

The themes that are listed in the Theme tab are different combinations of controls options, window frame options, and icon options. You can create a custom theme that uses different combinations of controls options, window frame options, and icon options.

Choose System -> Preferences -> Appearance.
Open the Theme tab.
Select a theme in the list of themes.
Click Customize.
The Customize Theme dialog is displayed.
Select the options that you want to use in the custom theme.
For more information about the options, see Theme Preferences.
Click Close to close the Customize Theme dialog.
In the Appearance preferences tool, click Save As.
The Save Theme As dialog is displayed.
Type a name and a short description for the custom theme in the dialog, and then click Save.
The custom theme now appears in your list of available themes.

How to Install a New Theme

You can add a theme to the list of available themes. The new theme must be an archive file, .tar.gz, that is tarred and zipped.

Choose System -> Preferences -> Appearance.
Open the Theme tab.
Click Install.
The File Chooser dialog is displayed.
Type the location of the theme archive file in the location entry, or select the theme archive file in the file list. Click Open.
Click Install to install the new theme.

How to Delete a Theme Option

You can delete controls options, window frame options, or icons options.

Choose System -> Preferences -> Appearance.
Open the Theme tab.
Click Customize.
The Customize Theme dialog is displayed.
Click the tab for the type of option that you want to delete.
Select the theme option you want to delete.
Click Delete to delete the selected option.
Note - You cannot delete system-wide theme options.

Desktop Background Preferences

The desktop background is the image or color that is applied to your desktop. You can open the Background tab in the Appearance preference tool by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing Change Desktop Background, as well as from the System -> Preferences menu.

You can customize the desktop background in the following ways:

Select an image for the desktop background. The image is superimposed on the desktop background color. The desktop background color is visible if you select a transparent image, or if the image does not cover the entire desktop.
Select a color for the desktop background. You can select a solid color, or create a gradient effect with two colors. A gradient effect is a visual effect where one color blends gradually into another color.

Note - You can also drag a color or a pattern to the desktop from the Backgrounds and Emblems dialog in the file manager.

The following table lists the background preferences that you can modify.

Table 9-2 Desktop Background Preferences

Dialog Element	Description
Desktop Background	Determines the desktop background. Choose an image from the list, or use the Add button to choose any image on your computer.
Style	Specifies how to display the image: Centered – Displays the image in the middle of the desktop, respecting the image's original size. Fill Screen – Enlarges the image to cover the desktop, altering its proportions if needed. Scaled – Enlarges the image until the image meets the screen edges, and maintains the proportions of the image. Zoom – Enlarges the smaller dimension of the image until it meets the screen edges; the image might be cropped in the other dimension. Tiled – Duplicates the original-sized image as often as necessary and prints the images next to another so they entirely cover the desktop.
Add	Click Add to browse for an image on your computer. Choose the image you want and click Open.
Remove	Choose the image that you want to remove, and then click Remove. This removes the image from the list of available wallpapers; however, it does not delete the image from your computer.
Colors	To specify a color scheme, use the options in the Style drop-down list and the color selector buttons. You can specify the following color schemes: Solid Color specifies a single color for the desktop background. To choose the color, click Color and choose a color, and then click OK. Horizontal gradient creates a gradient effect from the left screen edge to the right screen edge. Click Left Color and choose the color that you want to appear at the left edge. Click Right Color and choose the color that you want to appear at the right edge. Vertical gradient creates a gradient effect from the top screen edge to the bottom screen edge. Click Top Color and choose the color that you want to appear at the top edge. Click Bottom Color and choose the color that you want to appear at the bottom edge.

Font Preferences

Use the Fonts tab in the Appearance preference tool to choose which fonts are used in different parts of the desktop, and the way in which fonts are displayed on the screen.

You can choose fonts for the following parts of the desktop:

Application font – Used in the menus, toolbars, and dialog boxes of applications.
Document font – Used to display documents in applications.

Note - In some applications, you can override this choice in the application's preferences dialog.
Desktop font – Used in icon labels on the desktop.
Window title font – Used in the titlebars of windows.
Fixed width font – Used in the Terminal application and in applications related to programming.

How to Choose Fonts

The font selector button shows the name of the font and its point size. The name is also shown in bold, italic, or regular type.

Choose System -> Preferences -> Appearance.
Click the Fonts tab.
Click Font Selector.
The Font Picker dialog is displayed.
Select the font family, style, and point size from the lists.
The preview area shows your current choice.
Click OK to accept the change and update the desktop.

Font Rendering

You can set the following options relating to how fonts are displayed on the screen:

Rendering – Specifies how to render fonts on your screen:
- Monochrome – Renders fonts in black and white only. The edges of characters might appear jagged in some cases because the characters are not antialiased. (Antialiasing is an effect that is applied to the edges of characters to make the characters look smoother.)
- Best shapes – Antialiases fonts where possible. Use this option for standard Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors.
- Best contrast – Adjusts fonts to give the sharpest possible contrast, and also antialiases fonts, so that characters have smooth edges. This option might enhance the accessibility of the Oracle Solaris Desktop for users with visual impairments.
- Subpixel smoothing (LCDs) – Uses techniques that exploit the shape of individual Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) pixels to render fonts. Use this option for LCD or flat-screen displays.
Details – Determines how to render fonts on the screen:
- Resolution (dots per inch) – Specifies the resolution to use when your screen renders fonts.
- Smoothing – Specifies how to antialias fonts.
- Hinting – This is font-rendering technique that improves the quality of fonts at small sizes and an at low screen resolutions. Select one of the options to specify how to apply hinting to your fonts.
- Subpixel order - Specifies the subpixel color order for your fonts. Use this option for LCD or flat-screen displays.

Visual Effects

You can use the Interface tab in the Appearance preference tool to customize the appearance of menus, menubars, and toolbars for applications. As you make changes to the settings, the preview display in the window updates so you can see the changes if no application windows are currently open.

Show Icons in Menus

This option displays an icon beside items in application menus and the panel menu. Not all menu items have an icon.

Editable Menu Shortcut Keys

This option enables you to define new keyboard shortcuts for menu items. To change an application shortcut key, open the menu, and with the mouse pointer on the menu item you want to change, press the new combination of keys. To remove a shortcut key, press Backspace or Del.

Note - When using this feature, you will not be warned if assigning a new shortcut key to a command also removes it from another command.

You cannot restore the original, default keyboard shortcut for a command.

This feature does not maintain shortcuts that are common to all applications, such as Ctrl+C for Copy to avoid inconsistencies in your applications.

Toolbar Button Labels

The following Toolbar button labels specify what to display on the toolbars in your applications:

Text Below Icons – Displays toolbars with text as well as an icon on each button.
Text Beside Icons – Displays toolbars with only an icon on each button, and with text on the most important buttons.
Icons Only – Select this option to display toolbars with an icon only on each button.
Text Only – Displays toolbars with only text on each button.

Windows

Use the Windows preference tool to customize window behavior for the Oracle Solaris Desktop.

The following table lists the windows preferences that you can modify.

Table 9-3 Windows Preferences

Dialog Element	Description
Select windows when the mouse moves over them	Gives focus to a window when you point to the window. The window retains focus until you point to another window.
Raise selected windows after an interval	Raises windows a short time after the window receives focus.
Interval before raising	Specifies the interval to wait before raising a window that has received focus.
Double-click titlebar to perform this action	Determines the behavior that occurs when you double-click a window titlebar. Select one of the following options: Maximize – Maximizes the window. Maximize Vertically – Maximizes the window vertically without changing its width. Maximize Horizontally – Maximizes the window horizontally without changing its height. Minimize – Minimizes the window. Roll up – Rolls up the window so that only the titlebar is displayed. None – Does nothing. If a window is already maximized or rolled up, double-clicking on the titlebar will return it to its normal state.
To move a window, press and hold this key then grab the window	Specifies the key to press and hold when you drag a window to move the window.

Note - You can modify the position of the Control, Alt, and Super keys on the keyboard in the Keyboard Layout Options dialog. For more information, see Keyboard Layout Options.

Screensaver

A screensaver displays moving images on your screen when your computer is not being used. Screensavers also help prevent older monitors from being damaged by the same image being displayed for long periods of time. To stop the screensaver and return to the desktop, move the mouse or press a key on the keyboard.

You can modify the following settings in the Screensaver preference tool:

Screensaver – Select the Screensaver theme from the list. A reduced version of the selected screensaver theme is shown. Click Preview to show the selected theme on the whole screen. During preview, use the arrow buttons at the top of the screen to go through the list of screensaver themes.
- The Blank screen theme displays no image and shows a black screen.
- The Random theme selects a screensaver to display from the list at random.
Regard the computer as idle after – Your computer becomes idle after this amount of time has passed with no input from you, such as moving the mouse or typing. This setting might affect power management (the monitor might power, down for example) or instant messaging (chat applications might set your status as away). Use the slider to set the length of time in minutes or hours.
Activate screensaver when computer is idle - Select this option to have the screensaver start after the set length of time.
Lock screen when screensaver is active- When this option is selected, the screensaver will prompt you for your password when you try to return to the desktop. For more information about locking your screen, see Locking the Screen.

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