Making KDE look better?

fallstoofast · n00b Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 63

I've been thinking about shifting to KDE lately as it seems to have more history and more people seem to like it. I'm currently a GNOME user. One this that keeps holding me back is the design and aesthetics of the two desktop environments. KDE just seems... "ugly" to me. The fonts as seen in the screen shots don't seem very pretty and I just hate the fat task bar at the bottom.

So the question I want to ask is: how hard is it to change all the themes of a KDE desktop? Can I make it as good-looking as the default GNOME interface?
Seems like the answer will be obviously yes, but I want to know to what extend the looks can be customized. I looked through kde-looks a bit and saw some nice themes that I could apply--would it take much work to have better window decorations and a better task bar?

And for possible GNOME advocates... should I just stick with GNOME?

gimpel · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:07 pm Post subject:

If you are using KDE4 with Qt-4.4 then you're lucky -> http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Styles/GtkStyle

With that Qt4 stuff looks exactly like your Gtk2 apps. I have my KDE4 in my beloved "Murrina GT4 Rounded" Gtk theme

For KDE3 take a look at the qtcurve theme, it's highly configurable.
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NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2605

I've personally used KDE and GNOME extensively. I prefer KDE because it's more comfortable for me, but that is certainly not to say that GNOME is bad. Regarding the "fat" taskbar, you can easily change it's dimensions (width and length). There are themes that are nice as well. I'm a minimalist when it comes to aesthetics, and it wasn't difficult for me to change anything that I wanted to. My best suggestion is that if you have a test machine, emerge kdebase-startkde and work from the ground up.
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StifflerStealth · Retired Dev Joined: 03 Jul 2002 Posts: 968

The best tip that I have for you that is compatible with all versions of KDE is change the fonts. Install the DejaVu fonts. They are better than the default Bitstream fonts. You can change every one of the font listings to it, even the monospaced option, because DejaVu comes with a Monospaced font, so you have a clean look across all of KDE. Another selling point is that DejaVu supports Sub-pixel Hinting and Anti-Aliasing, so no more jaggies on the fonts. They will look similar, but you will see a difference because the font will look smoother. I still believe that Gentoo should make DejaVu the default font. This is a small thing, but well worth it.

Cheers, and welcome to KDE.
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fallstoofast · n00b Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 63

Thanks for all the info

Now I can install KDE without much worry.

(but now the thing is, the stupid ATI drivers are failing so much X won't start....)