The Appearance preference tool enables you to configure various aspects of the desktop:
Theme
Desktop Background
Fonts
Visual Effects
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.
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.
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.
Open the Theme tab.
The Customize Theme dialog is displayed.
For more information about the options, see Theme Preferences.
The Save Theme As dialog is displayed.
The custom theme now appears in your list of available themes.
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.
Open the Theme tab.
The File Chooser dialog is displayed.
You can delete controls options, window frame options, or icons options.
Open the Theme tab.
The Customize Theme dialog is displayed.
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 Desktop Appearance, 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.
The following table lists the background preferences that you can modify.
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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.
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.
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.
The Font Picker dialog is displayed.
The preview area shows your current choice.
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.
The Visual Effects tab of the Appearance preference tool enables you to control the type of animations, translucency, and other effects that you see as you interact with windows, menus, and workspaces. These effects can enhance the functionality and visual appearance of the desktop. However, some effects require a graphics card that supports hardware acceleration.
You can choose from the following preset levels of visual effects:
None – No special visual effects are enabled. This option is the default if your graphics card does not support hardware acceleration and uses the Metacity window manager.
Normal – A small selection of visual effects are enabled. This option is the default if your graphics card supports hardware acceleration and uses the Compiz window manager.
Extra – A larger selection of visual effects are enabled. When this option is selected, the Compiz window manager is used.
The Compiz Settings Manager dialog is displayed.
This option displays an icon beside items in application menus and the panel menu. Not all menu items have an icon.
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.
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.
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.