The Ultimate Guide to creating a Gnome Terminal theme

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ubuntu/create-theme-gnome-terminal-ultimate-guide.md
ubuntu

Aug 08, 2020

sudo apt-get install dconf-cli uuid-runtime
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/denysdovhan/gnome-terminal-one/master/one-dark.sh)"

GConf, DConf and GSettings

Gnome Terminal color palette details originally used to be stored in ~/.gconf/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/ and %gconf.xml had all palette related data. But on recent Ubuntu (20.04) you'll find ~/.gconf to be completely empty even if you have multiple Terminal profiles saved.

That's because of the transition from GConf (for storing user preferences) to the combination of the GSettings high-level configuration system and the DConf back end. Updating gsettings is preferred over directly writing to dconf

As of version 3.7.0, gnome-terminal uses GSettings and DConf instead of GConf. If you want your theme to be backwards comaptible, you gotta add configuration for both.

Since dconf is a database saved in binary format, you can't just read the files as is. What you can do is dump it

dconf dump /org/gnome/terminal/ > gnome_terminal_settings_backup.txt

Now you have the backup for all Terminal profiles in human-readable format. The entire dconf database is stored in ~/.config/dconf/user, which you can backup with

dconf dump /org/gnome/terminal/ > gnome_terminal_settings_backup.txt

Here's a backup of the theme Nord which gives me all keys and values. Neat!

[legacy/profiles:/:6eb7e206-f8f1-4f38-84bb-9dfbfec8e8f6]
background-color='#2E3440'
bold-color='#D8DEE9'
bold-color-same-as-fg=true
cursor-background-color='rgb(216,222,233)'
cursor-colors-set=true
cursor-foreground-color='rgb(59,66,82)'
foreground-color='#D8DEE9'
highlight-background-color='rgb(136,192,208)'
highlight-colors-set=true
highlight-foreground-color='rgb(46,52,64)'
nord-gnome-terminal-version='0.1.0'
palette=['#3B4252', '#BF616A', '#A3BE8C', '#EBCB8B', '#81A1C1', '#B48EAD', '#88C0D0', '#E5E9F0', '#4C566A', '#BF616A', '#A3BE8C', '#EBCB8B', '#81A1C1', '#B48EAD', '#8FBCBB', '#ECEFF4']
use-theme-background=false
use-theme-colors=false
use-theme-transparency=false
use-transparent-background=false
visible-name='Nord'

Loading settings form backup

backup:

dconf dump /org/gnome/terminal/ > gnome_terminal_settings_backup.txt

reset the settings before restore (optional):

dconf reset -f /org/gnome/terminal/

restore:

dconf load /org/gnome/terminal/ < gnome_terminal_settings_backup.txt

dconf GUI

You can use a GUI to edit the dconf configuration database

sudo apt install dconf-editor
dconf-editor

Gnome Terminal related settings

Gnome terminal related settings are in

/org/gnome/terminal

Profiles are in

/org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles

You can actually go in and edit all your theme settings directly there..

See all profiles installed

dconf list /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/

Find profile ID

You can get the ID for the default profile with

gsettings get org.gnome.Terminal.ProfilesList default

You can also see the Profile ID mentioned in bottom right of the window under Preferences > THEME_NAME > Text

Switching themes

Once you have your theme installed, click on the down arrow in top right to see the dropdown for themes..

Some good themes

Nord

git clone https://github.com/arcticicestudio/nord-gnome-terminal.git
cd nord-gnome-terminal/src
./nord.sh

One Dark

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/denysdovhan/gnome-terminal-one/master/one-dark.sh)"

Gogh has almost 200 versions of the theme

bash -c  "$(wget -qO- https://git.io/vQgMr)"

Creating a theme

See all possible keys you can set for a Profile

UUID=$(gsettings get org.gnome.Terminal.ProfilesList default | tr -d \')
gsettings list-keys org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile:/$UUID/

foreground-color
highlight-foreground-color
word-char-exceptions
audible-bell
palette
encoding
bold-color-same-as-fg
login-shell
default-size-rows
cursor-blink-mode
cursor-colors-set
cursor-background-color
enable-bidi
use-transparent-background
scrollbar-policy
use-system-font
bold-color
cursor-foreground-color
visible-name
custom-command
scrollback-unlimited
font
use-theme-transparency
cjk-utf8-ambiguous-width
cursor-shape
use-custom-command
exit-action
bold-is-bright
scroll-on-output
highlight-colors-set
delete-binding
preserve-working-directory
backspace-binding
background-transparency-percent
cell-height-scale
use-theme-colors
background-color
highlight-background-color
enable-shaping
default-size-columns
cell-width-scale
scroll-on-keystroke
rewrap-on-resize
scrollback-lines
text-blink-mode

If you do list-recursively, you can see the keys as well as their current values

gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile:/$UUID/

org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile foreground-color '#D3D7CF'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile highlight-foreground-color '#ffffff'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile word-char-exceptions @ms nothing
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile audible-bell true
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile palette ['#2E3436', '#CC0000', '#4E9A06', '#C4A000', '#3465A4', '#75507B', '#06989A', '#D3D7CF', '#555753', '#EF2929', '#8AE234', '#FCE94F', '#729FCF', '#AD7FA8', '#34E2E2', '#EEEEEC']
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile encoding 'UTF-8'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile bold-color-same-as-fg true
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile login-shell false
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile default-size-rows 24
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile cursor-blink-mode 'system'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile cursor-colors-set false
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile cursor-background-color '#000000'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile enable-bidi true
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile use-transparent-background false
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile scrollbar-policy 'always'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile use-system-font true
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile bold-color '#000000'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile cursor-foreground-color '#ffffff'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile visible-name 'Unnamed'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile custom-command ''
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile scrollback-unlimited false
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile font 'Monospace 12'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile use-theme-transparency true
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile cjk-utf8-ambiguous-width 'narrow'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile cursor-shape 'block'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile use-custom-command false
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile exit-action 'close'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile bold-is-bright false
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile scroll-on-output false
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile highlight-colors-set false
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile delete-binding 'delete-sequence'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile preserve-working-directory 'safe'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile backspace-binding 'ascii-delete'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile background-transparency-percent 50
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile cell-height-scale 1.0
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile use-theme-colors true
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile background-color '#2E3436'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile highlight-background-color '#000000'
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile enable-shaping true
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile default-size-columns 80
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile cell-width-scale 1.0
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile scroll-on-keystroke true
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile rewrap-on-resize true
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile scrollback-lines 10000
org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile text-blink-mode 'always'

changing theme values

You can either use dconf write or gsettings set to change these values

# dconf
dconf write /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9/use-theme-colors "false"
dconf write /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9/background-color "'rgb(0,43,54)'"
dconf write /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9/foreground-color "'rgb(131,148,150)'"

# gsettings
gsettings set org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile:/org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9/ use-theme-colors false
gsettings set org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile:/org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9/ background-color 'rgb(0,43,54)'
gsettings set org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Profile:/org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9/ foreground-color 'rgb(131,148,150)'

Color palettes

A palette is the bare minimum you need.

dconf write /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/PROFILE_UUIS/palette "['rgb(0,0,0)', 'rgb(204,0,0)', 'rgb(78,154,6)', 'rgb(196,160,0)', 'rgb(52,101,164)', 'rgb(117,80,123)', 'rgb(6,152,154)', 'rgb(211,215,207)', 'rgb(85,87,83)', 'rgb(239,41,41)', 'rgb(138,226,52)', 'rgb(252,233,79)', 'rgb(114,159,207)', 'rgb(173,127,168)', 'rgb(52,226,226)', 'rgb(238,238,236)']"

I need 16 colors roughly to create a profile. Colors can be both HEX #88C0D0 and RGB rgb(136,192,208)

['#2E3436', '#CC0000', '#4E9A06', '#C4A000', '#3465A4', '#75507B', '#06989A', '#D3D7CF', '#555753', '#EF2929', '#8AE234', '#FCE94F', '#729FCF', '#AD7FA8', '#34E2E2', '#EEEEEC']

['rgb(179,177,173)', 'rgb(10,14,20)', 'rgb(0,1,10)', 'rgb(196,160,0)', 'rgb(52,101,164)', 'rgb(117,80,123)', 'rgb(6,152,154)', 'rgb(211,215,207)', 'rgb(85,87,83)', 'rgb(239,41,41)', 'rgb(138,226,52)', 'rgb(252,233,79)', 'rgb(114,159,207)', 'rgb(173,127,168)', 'rgb(52,226,226)', 'rgb(238,238,236)']

# Ayu Dark
['#00010a',
'#ea6c73',
'#91b362',
'#f9af4f',
'#53bdfa',
'#fae994',
'#90e1c6',
'#c7c7c7',
'#686868',
'#f07178',
'#c2d94c',
'#ffb454',
'#59c2ff',
'#ffee99',
'#95e6cb',
'#ffffff']

There are two ways of creating a theme. One is to do it manually by hand via the GUIs (dconf-editor and Terminal > Prefernces > Profile). The other is writing a script (using dconf-cli) so that anyone can use a one-liner to install the theme.

Generating Profile ID

Get a unique profile ID with the uuidgen command

# suo apt install uuid-runtime
uuidgen

1918da06-514a-4b10-bdd1-c4d8cea263c5