Adwaita AMOLED

A true black, AMOLED-optimized take on the classic Adwaita design.

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Features

• True AMOLED base (#000000) with layered depth
• Clear visual hierarchy across all widget states, unfocused, hover, active
• Correct GTK3 widget rendering: checkboxes show ✓, radio buttons show ●, indeterminate states work
• Refined XFCE panel with accent underline focus indicator, no flat white blocks
• Complete GTK2 theme via the murrine engine, fully styled across all widget classes
• GTK4 + libadwaita color overrides included
• GNOME Shell 51 theme based on the upstream 51.1 default, with an AMOLED palette
• Cinnamon shell theme, Openbox theme, and Metacity window decorations included
• Qt5ct and Qt6ct color schemes aligned with the GTK palette

See tested upstream versions and coverage limits for the latest compatibility review. See the color readability audit for color roles, native measurements and the limits of contrast checks. The repository-wide color follow-up records compound-state fixes and the expanded file/paint review.

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Installation

GTK2 applications require the Murrine theme engine. On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install gtk2-engines-murrine

The compiled GTK3/GTK4 bundles are included, so cloning does not require a build.

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/librerob/Adwaita-AMOLED.git ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED

Then set the theme through your desktop's appearance settings, or via the terminal:

# GTK (XFCE / Cinnamon / GNOME)
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme "Adwaita-AMOLED"

For a Flatpak application, install a matching GTK theme extension if one is available for its runtime. Otherwise, expose the cloned theme and the GTK configuration to that application (replace APP_ID with its application ID):

flatpak override --user \
  --filesystem="$HOME/.themes:ro" \
  --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-3.0:ro \
  --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-4.0:ro \
  APP_ID

The GTK4 overrides below must also be copied if you use libadwaita applications. Flatpak runtimes and desktop theme detection vary; exposing the directories alone does not select a theme or install a missing theme engine in the sandbox.

Firefox users: Open about:config and set widget.gtk.libadwaita-colors.enabled to false.

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GNOME Shell

The included Shell theme targets GNOME Shell 51.x and is based on the upstream 51.1 default. Install the User Themes extension, enable it, and select Adwaita-AMOLED in its settings. Selecting the GTK theme does not activate the Shell theme. See Shell installation and source details for commands and update instructions.

This themes the logged-in Shell session, including the panel, overview, menus, notifications, OSDs and dialogs. Other Shell major versions and the GDM login screen are outside its verified scope. GNOME's selected accent hue is retained; opaque accent fills are darkened by state to keep white labels readable.

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GTK4 & libadwaita

libadwaita apps ignore GTK themes by default. To apply the overrides:

mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-4.0
cp ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/libadwaita/gtk.css ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css
cp ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/libadwaita/gtk-dark.css ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk-dark.css
mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-4.0/assets
cp -r ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/libadwaita/assets/. ~/.config/gtk-4.0/assets/
cp ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/libadwaita/libadwaita-tweaks.css ~/.config/gtk-4.0/libadwaita-tweaks.css

For GTK 4.16 or newer (libadwaita 1.6 or newer), then select the modern entry point:

cp ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/libadwaita/gtk-modern.css ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css

Keep gtk-dark.css and libadwaita-tweaks.css from the first block beside it. The modern entry point imports them and maps libadwaita's standalone text variables to the AMOLED colors. This prevents dark accent, status and destructive text when an application requests light mode over the black surfaces. Repeat both blocks after updating the theme or running build.sh --install. On GTK 4.14 and older, use only the first block; those releases cannot parse CSS variables.

Chromium / Brave: recent builds prefer GTK4 on GNOME under Wayland (elsewhere it is opt-in via --gtk-version=4), so the GTK4 part of the theme matters there too. Choose the GTK option in the browser's Appearance settings. The libadwaita-tweaks.css you copy above is a copy, not a link: after updating the theme, copy it again and fully restart the browser.

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Qt (qt5ct / qt6ct)

# Qt5
mkdir -p ~/.config/qt5ct/colors
cp ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/qt5ct/colors/Adwaita-AMOLED.conf ~/.config/qt5ct/colors/

# Qt6
mkdir -p ~/.config/qt6ct/colors
cp ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/qt6ct/colors/Adwaita-AMOLED.conf ~/.config/qt6ct/colors/

Then open qt5ct / qt6ct, go to Appearance → Color scheme, and select Adwaita-AMOLED.

Install the corresponding qt5ct / qt6ct platform-theme plugin. If your desktop does not already select it, launch an application with the matching Qt version's integration:

QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct your-qt5-application
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt6ct your-qt6-application

Choose the appropriate value for each application; one global value does not select both plugins. KDE and other desktops may already provide their own Qt integration, which you should configure through their appearance settings.

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Extras

Additional themes are included in the extra/ folder:

Extra	Description	How to apply
Alacritty	Terminal color scheme aligned with the palette	Import the provided TOML; see Alacritty setup
Kitty	Terminal color scheme	Include the .conf file in your kitty.conf
bat	Syntax-highlighting theme	See bat setup below
Neovim	Colorscheme and airline theme	See Neovim setup below
Qt5ct / Qt6ct	Full color schemes	See Qt setup above
Rofi	Matching launcher theme	Pass the theme with -theme or set it in your config
Zsh	Prompt, completion and optional plugin colors	See Zsh setup

All extras follow the same AMOLED palette and accent system as the GTK theme.

Alacritty

For recent Alacritty versions (tested with 0.15.1), add this import to your alacritty.toml, merging it into an existing [general] table if necessary:

[general]
import = ["~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/alacritty/alacritty.toml"]

bat

mkdir -p ~/.config/bat/themes
cp ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/bat/themes/adwaita-amoled.tmTheme ~/.config/bat/themes/
bat cache --build

Add --theme="adwaita-amoled" to your existing ~/.config/bat/config. On distributions that name the command batcat, use batcat cache --build.

Zsh

The prompt and completion configuration works without highlighting plugins. For autosuggestions and syntax colors, install zsh-autosuggestions and fast-syntax-highlighting using your distribution or plugin manager, and load them before sourcing this snippet:

# Load your optional plugins above this line.
source ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/zsh/.zshrc

The snippet declares its highlighting array when the plugin is absent and registers a title hook without replacing other precmd hooks. Completion is initialized only in interactive shells, and existing completion setups are preserved.

Neovim

Use Neovim 0.9 or newer and a true-color terminal.

mkdir -p ~/.config/nvim/colors
cp ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/nvim/colors/adwaita-amoled.vim ~/.config/nvim/colors/

Then add to your config:

" init.vim
set termguicolors
colorscheme adwaita-amoled

-- init.lua
vim.opt.termguicolors = true
vim.cmd('colorscheme adwaita-amoled')

If you use vim-airline, copy the airline theme as well:

mkdir -p ~/.config/nvim/autoload/airline/themes
cp ~/.themes/Adwaita-AMOLED/extra/nvim/autoload/airline/themes/adwaita_amoled.vim ~/.config/nvim/autoload/airline/themes/

let g:airline_theme = 'adwaita_amoled'

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Building and testing

Install GLib's resource compiler and rsync before using --install:

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install libglib2.0-dev rsync
# Arch / Artix
sudo pacman -S glib2 rsync

./build.sh
./build.sh --install

--install copies the theme to ~/.local/share/themes/Adwaita-AMOLED and replaces ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css with the source overrides. Back up an existing custom override first. After editing src/, rebuild and commit the updated gtk.gresource bundles together with their source changes. The installer honors XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_CONFIG_HOME when they are set.

The GNOME Shell CSS is also included precompiled. After changing its Sass palette, rebuild it separately with ./gnome-shell/build.sh (requires sassc).

The repository's regression checks and their prerequisites are documented in tests/README.md. GitHub Actions runs them on pull requests.

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Wallpaper

A matching wallpaper is included at extra/wallpaper/blackmount.png.

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Color Palette

Token	Hex	Role
Background	#000000	Window base, AMOLED black
Surface 1	#0f0f0f	Cards, lists
Surface 2	#141414	Popovers, tooltips
Hover	#1a1a1a	Hover state
Control border	#808080	Identifying control outlines
Decorative border	#2a2a2a	Nonessential separators and depth
Text accent	#8ab4f8	Readable accent text, links and focus
Filled GTK accent	#2d6be0	Selected surfaces with white text
Filled hover	#2862cf	Hovered selections/controls with white text
Foreground	#ffffff	Primary text
Dim	#a0a0a0	Readable secondary text

White on the filled GTK accent has approximately 4.89:1 contrast. Extras that use the pale #8ab4f8 as a text background use black text (9.96:1). Success surfaces use black text on #26a269 (approximately 6.45:1).

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Structure

Adwaita-AMOLED/
├── cinnamon/               Cinnamon shell theme
├── gnome-shell/            GNOME Shell 51 theme, assets and Sass source
├── gtk-2.0/                GTK2 theme (murrine engine)
├── gtk-3.0/                GTK3 theme
├── gtk-4.0/                GTK4 theme
├── metacity-1/             Metacity / Muffin window decorations
├── openbox-3/              Openbox window manager theme
├── extra/
│   ├── alacritty/          Alacritty terminal theme
│   ├── kitty/              Kitty terminal theme
│   ├── libadwaita/         gtk.css + gtk-dark.css → copy to ~/.config/gtk-4.0/
│   ├── logo/               Theme logo
│   ├── nvim/               Neovim colorscheme and airline theme
│   ├── qt5ct/              Qt5 color scheme
│   ├── qt6ct/              Qt6 color scheme
│   ├── rofi/               Rofi launcher theme
│   ├── screenshot/         Preview image
│   ├── wallpaper/          Matching wallpaper
│   └── zsh/                Zsh autosuggestions & syntax highlighting config
└── index.theme

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Philosophy

Minimal, readable, and actually usable. No washed-out grays, no invisible states.