Best way to override individual system tray icons in Plasma 6?

[thornedrose]

Two of the icons in my system tray (Caffeine-ng and Signal) are supplying their own icons (to the hicolor icons) and look out of place as a result:

I also have vision issues and both apps icons don’t have high enough contrast for my needs. I just want plain white icons that contrast well with the background like the Breeze theme already provides…

Anyway, I’ve had a go at overriding them with a custom icon theme however the icon theme isn’t showing up as an option under System Settings → Icons so I assume I’m doing something wrong.
I created a folder ‘BreezeCustom’ in ~/.local/share/icons/ and added the appropriate sizes (replicated from the apps icons folder structures in the hicolor folder) + an index.theme containing

[Icon Theme]
Name=BreezeCustom
Inherits=Breeze

Or would a simpler alternative be to delete the appropriate /usr/share/icons/hicolor/ icons (e.g. /usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/signal-desktop.png) and symlink my custom white icons e.g.
~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/signal-desktop.png → /usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/signal-desktop.png

Would that work? Or is there an even simpler solution that won’t get overwritten when apps get updated?

Thanks!

[pallaswept]

plasma-panel-colorizer

[dzon]

I guess you could try adding an icons directory to the plasma theme and an svg in there.

For example:

I quickly made one for audacious:

…VLC

[pallaswept]

@dzon

adding an icons directory to the plasma theme and an svg in there.

That won’t work for apps like this which don’t use the icon theme but embed the icon in the binaries.

[dzon]

So do vlc and audacious.
This has nothing to do with the icon theme. The icon is set in the plasma desktoptheme.

Original:

[Storm]

The problem is that some apps doesn’t draw their tray icons from “Status” but rather have “Apps” icons as tray icons:

So you have to change the Apps/size/icon.svg which will also affect the whole systems.
Theming KDE can sometimes be a nightmare, especially now where it moves a lot of the icons to symbolic.

[dzon]

It’s about Caffeine, not kaffeine. Anywho, I have neither caffeine or signal installed. Again, if you put icons in the plasma theme, they will override.
So, for the sake of it, I used Kaffeine.

A plasma theme WITHOUT an icon directory:

And one WITH an icon directory:

But, by all means, use panel colorizer if you choose so. I’m merely pointing out something.
After all, I could be completely wrong.

[pallaswept]

@dzon

Again, if you put icons in the plasma theme, they will override.

I tried this just now to be sure, and confirmed that as I explained, for some applications, it does not work. Examples I tried were CoolerControl and Vesktop.

I did put the svgs (actually, copied known-working ones from other apps) in the /usr/share/plasma/desktoptheme/default/icons/ folder, as I don’t have a user-specific theme like yours. Perhaps this is why it doesn’t work, but it seems right?

[dzon]

Well, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Panel colorizer it is then. Sorry for wasting the time.

[pallaswept]

Not at all mate thank you for trying to help!

[thornedrose]

@pallaswept

plasma-panel-colorizer

I tried just now (since I already use it for my dynamic transparent panel) but it’s not working properly for Signal. It works well enough for Caffeine but Signal ends up as either a greyscale icon (even more difficult to see than the blue AND the red notification circle also turns grey) or a weird white blob if I use mask or effect.

I do note that with Plasma 6, Panel Colorizer has changed quite a bit so I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong but I can’t see any other way to change icons other than in the “Text and icons” tab and applying “Mask” and/or “Effect”

[pallaswept]

@thornedrose

either a greyscale icon… or a weird white blob

Sorry mate I’m fresh out of ideas.