# KDE Oxygen (KDE Oxygen)

> 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.

- IndexStyle No.581 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/kde-oxygen
- Kind: Style · Family: Platform Screen Languages · Era: 2006–2014
- Mood: Technique, Intimacy, Futurity
- What this family collects: Design languages written down for a platform and published, from the vendors that shipped an operating system to the governments that had no reason to hide rules paid for with public money, every one of them recognisable at a glance.

## Defining characteristics

- 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

## Best used for

- Giving many desktop applications one icon and chrome language
- Recreating the material character of late-2000s open-source desktops

## Composition recipe

- Typography & lettering: Keep sans labels small and clear, letting distinct icon silhouettes lead recognition.
- Layout & structure: Stack menu, toolbar, work surface and status areas with fine boundaries; color only priority actions blue.
- Material & texture: Build from pale gray and blue, applying one-pixel edges, a common light source and a soft lower shadow to every icon.

## Colour

Read off the reference works below, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.

- Ground: #EEF3F5
- The colour it is remembered by: #3DAEE9
- Text and outlines: #273238

## What to avoid

Glossy blue icons alone do not make Oxygen. Synchronize lighting, edge treatment and shadow height across the entire set.

## Application checklist

Work through this before calling a piece an application of this style.

- [ ] Visible in the piece: Pale-gray chrome with blue selection and restrained gloss
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Dimensional icons with one-pixel edges and a lower shelf shadow
- [ ] Visible in the piece: One upper-diagonal light source across materials
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Toolbars and docks grouped by fine separators
- [ ] The layout follows: Stack menu, toolbar, work surface and status areas with fine boundaries; color only priority actions blue.
- [ ] The lettering follows: Keep sans labels small and clear, letting distinct icon silhouettes lead recognition.
- [ ] The material and surface follow: Build from pale gray and blue, applying one-pixel edges, a common light source and a soft lower shadow to every icon.
- [ ] The colour relation holds: #EEF3F5 as ground, #3DAEE9 carrying the style, #273238 for text and outlines
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Breeze (ブリーズ)** — The default visual style KDE introduced with Plasma 5, described in its own announcement as a high contrast, flat theme for the workspace. Graphics assets are simpler and more monochromatic, and layouts lean on typography rather than ornament so elements stay recognisable. Light and dark variants shipped as a matched pair from the beginning. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/breeze
- **Aero (エアロ)** — The translucent glass UI of Vista and 7: frosted window frames, live thumbnails and GPU-composited depth making 'through glass' the OS's standard vocabulary. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/aero

## Compose it with something else

The dictionary can put this entry in a structural role and another in an accent role, and report where the two fight: https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=kde-oxygen+breeze

## Further study

- KDE Oxygen artwork
- Oxygen icon lighting
- KDE 4 workspace theme

## Reference works

- KDE TechBase — Oxygen Style — https://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Oxygen/Style

## AI interpretation

An AI-generated interpretation image exists for browsing convenience only — it is not a reference work: https://indexstyle.org/ai/kde-oxygen.jpg

## Source of record

- KDE TechBase — Oxygen Style — https://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Oxygen/Style

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/kde-oxygen
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/kde-oxygen/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compare_styles, compose_styles, find_related_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)