I want to use a KDE theme, but when I apply it it doesn't look like the picture at all

Help
1

I want to use the KDE Plasma theme Ant Dracula.

I’m expecting my desktop to look like the advertised picture (sorry, new users can’t embed images in their posts) once I apply the theme, but it doesn’t: the top panel doesn’t exist unless I create it, it doesn’t have the right widgets…
And no matter how hard I try, I can’t reproduce the bottom, centered app bar. The best I can do is a bar as wide as the screen, with two flexible size spacers left and right to center the app icons…

This is not a specific theme question, rather: I’m asking how to install and apply any theme so that it looks like the advertised picture right away (if that’s possible).

I’m running Plasma 5 on Manjaro.

Thanks!

2

Might help if you post a screenshot of how it turned out and the one how it should look like.

3

As I said, the forum won’t let me add pictures to my first post :confused:

4

Oh, sorry, I somehow missed that part. Let me DM you on a workaround.

5

Just checking, you are trying to apply a Global Theme, right? (A Plasma Theme will only change the look of the widgets, panels etc.)

If not, that’s the one that includes also panel set-ups etc. (From what I can tell, Ant Dracula specifically does not have a Global Theme.)

And when applying a Global Theme, you get asked whether you want to apply also its panel layout etc. (and override your current set-up) That option is by default disabled, so you need to click the checkbox for it to apply.

1 Like
6

I see, you’re right, thanks.

So I need either to work up how to reproduce the preview on the Plasma Theme, or choose a Global theme that I like instead…

Marking this as solved!

1 Like
7

Awesome, glad that we figured it out together :slight_smile:

… in short a Global Theme is a (one-click install) bundle that consists of packages of everything that can be themed in KDE Plasma (e.g. icon set, colour scheme, window decorations, Plasma (widget) theme, etc.), including the panel layout.

What you could also do, which may be quicker is to:

  1. Apply the Dracula Global Theme
  1. Apply the Ant Dracula themes on top of it, e.g.:
  1. (optionally, you can then save your settings as your own Global Theme)
8

(Dracula KDE is not a global theme, or at least it doesn’t have the full set of options mentionned above. I thought it was — you can find it in the global themes section — but there is only the “appearance settings option”, and not the “desktop and layout” option you would expect from a global theme.)

9

Maybe it just does not include the layout. It’s not obligatory.