Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow GNOME Clearlooks: Stack menu, toolbar, work area and status bar shallowly, without ornamental regions
- Type
- Set in GNOME Clearlooks's manner (Use a small system sans and create hierarchy through label weight rather than added decoration), and let KDE Oxygen's lettering (Keep sans labels small and clear, letting distinct icon silhouettes lead recognition) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in GNOME Clearlooks's material (Use one blue selection color over pale gray, a slight top highlight and one fine dark outer edge); bring in exactly one thing from KDE Oxygen (Build from pale gray and blue, applying one-pixel edges, a common light source and a soft lower shadow to every icon).
- Colour
- Build on #F2F1EF, #729FCF, #2E3436 and admit one accent from #EEF3F5, #3DAEE9, #273238.
Where they fight
- GNOME Clearlooks and KDE Oxygen both belong to Platform Screen Languages, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- GNOME Clearlooks Old GTK widgets alone are not Clearlooks. State and hierarchy must be unified as a simple, friendly default surface.
- KDE Oxygen Glossy blue icons alone do not make Oxygen. Synchronize lighting, edge treatment and shadow height across the entire set.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from GNOME Clearlooks (style, 2005–2011) and their accent from KDE Oxygen (style, 2006–2014). ## What to make Make the kind of thing GNOME Clearlooks exists for: aligning document, file and settings applications into one calm GTK environment, or recreating a 2000s Linux desktop without loud brand color. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from GNOME Clearlooks - Pale-gray surfaces with blue selection bars - A quiet highlight only along button tops - Tabs and fields with restrained rounding - Small GNOME icons and a concise two-level hierarchy Composition: Stack menu, toolbar, work area and status bar shallowly, without ornamental regions. Type and lettering: Use a small system sans and create hierarchy through label weight rather than added decoration. ## Accent comes from KDE Oxygen, used sparingly - Pale-gray chrome with blue selection and restrained gloss - Dimensional icons with one-pixel edges and a lower shelf shadow - One upper-diagonal light source across materials - Toolbars and docks grouped by fine separators Let one material quality come from it: Build from pale gray and blue, applying one-pixel edges, a common light source and a soft lower shadow to every icon. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #F2F1EF, carry the structure in #729FCF and #2E3436, and let a single accent come from #3DAEE9. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: intimacy, trust, calm, technique, futurity. ## Where they fight - GNOME Clearlooks and KDE Oxygen both belong to Platform Screen Languages, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - GNOME Clearlooks: Old GTK widgets alone are not Clearlooks. State and hierarchy must be unified as a simple, friendly default surface. - KDE Oxygen: Glossy blue icons alone do not make Oxygen. Synchronize lighting, edge treatment and shadow height across the entire set. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- GNOME Clearlooks 2005–2011 / Style / Platform Screen Languages
GNOME 2.12's standard theme made GTK applications friendly and simple through pale-gray windows, blue selection, restrained gloss and firm boundaries.
- KDE Oxygen 2006–2014 / Style / Platform Screen Languages
Oxygen unified KDE 4 applications, workspace and icons through clear blue, soft gray, fine outlines and icons that seem to rest on a shared shelf, bringing lightness to an information-dense desktop.
Share this composition:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=gnome-clearlooks+kde-oxygen