Hello everyone!

I'm so excited to have discovered Inkscape this past week. Speed, usability and full-visual-interactivity are the main attractions for me - indeed, the curve creation and manipulation tools are also outstanding! --- but the boring windows interface is not



After some tinkering with the "GTK+ Preference Tool"(http://sourceforge.net/userapps/mediawiki/alex-sh/index.php?title=GTK%2B_Preference_Tool) I managed the above.
The professional 'feel' of the interface is far more appropriate to the outstanding features of this wonderful software.

I decided to post this because after 'googleing' for a couple of hours I did not find much help with interface customization for windows users.

Thanks,

Ambimind

Edit: Changed to a smaller image so as to fit within confines set by the forum.
Edit: Updated link, reported bad.

Hi Ambimind,
Welcome to the forums!

OMG, this is the 2nd solution to an age old problem with Inkscape on Windows, in an hour, lol!! (the other: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=469#p29811)

So this GTK + Preference Tool, is it fairly bug-free and ready to use, without any compiling or coding or special skills needed? Hhhhmm....Ok, after reading more about it, I find this note:

"Note: This utility is included in latest GTK+ Themes package."

Here in this topic: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8588, I learned that

There is a system wide GTK Runtime available on Windows (if installed). Many application built upon GTK, does not check for this GTK Runtime. One of the main consequence among others (like useless redundancy) is that it prevent these applications to honor GTK sytem wide preferences.

So now I have a few more questions:

• How hard would it be for Inkscape to include GTK + Themes, thereby giving Inkscape users some other interface themes/skins/whatever?
• What are the steps for installing GTK + Preference Tool? Just download and install, or uninstall previous GTK then install? Should it be installed inside Inkscape(ie - uninstall Inkscape GTK first?), or installed with the native Windows installation (ie - uninstall the Windows one first)?
• Is the native Windows GTK the GTK + Themes? If so, isn't there some way to have Inkscape point to (and use) that GTK, rather than bringing it's own GTK during installation?
• The lack of interface themes/skins has been a complaint about Inkscape for a long time. Can the solution really be so simple?

Thanks

How hard would it be for Inkscape to include GTK + Themes, thereby giving Inkscape users some other interface themes/skins/whatever?

I don't know. Someone with greater understanding of GTK and the structure of Inkscape will be able to answer that question.
But there is over 50 to choose from using the method I detail below:

What are the steps for installing GTK + Preference Tool? Just download and install, or uninstall previous GTK then install? Should it be installed inside Inkscape(ie - uninstall Inkscape GTK first?), or installed with the native Windows installation (ie - uninstall the Windows one first)?

Note quite how I did it. I've made this step-by-step guide to explain the process: http://i.imgur.com/lfDMY.png
Note that I use the "7zip" version of Inkspace(http://downloads.sourceforge.net/inkscape/Inkscape-0.48.0-1-win32.7z).
The download page for all mentioned software is http://gtk-win.sourceforge.net/home/index.php/en/Downloads.

Is the native Windows GTK the GTK + Themes? If so, isn't there some way to have Inkscape point to (and use) that GTK, rather than bringing it's own GTK during installation?

I don't know enough about GTK to answer your question. I've only gone as far as needed to stop my eyes from bleeding

The lack of interface themes/skins has been a complaint about Inkscape for a long time. Can the solution really be so simple?

Its always simple when you know how.

Edit: Made instructions more coherent.

"boogaloo"
Wow, really nice tutorial! Thank you for sharing

Couple of questions on the tutorial. Are there any special considerations for 64-bit (since I notice all the files contain "win32")? I understand that 32 bit things can run on 64, and I know how to install things. But sometimes there might be issues for 64-bit, so just curious.

I can only vaguely understand what's happening in the process outlined in the tut, but it looks like this might change the themes of other programs that rely on GTK. Correct? No? ??? OH!! Or....what it does is make theme changing available for the other programs as well, right?? AAaaah.... Interesting.....but still, playing around with System Properties is certainly not for novice computer users to undertake....maybe not me either.....?? I might do some personal research to learn more about GTK, and what a "runtime environment" is or does.

But seriously, thanks for sharing this with us!

Thanks for the tutorial. I was getting a 404 error from your GTK+ Preference Tool download page link, but I found it here (at the bottom of the page):

http://sourceforge.net/userapps/mediawi ... =Downloads

YYYYYYEEEEEAAAHHHHHH!!!

Thank you Ambimind! I've looking to do this since day one...

Man, it really makes a big difference to have a nice theme.

Oh DARRRRRRRRRNNNNNNN. I formatted the PC and now I can't make it work again! Crp, sht, crp, fck!

My Inksacpe takes the colors of the theme, but not the shapes of the buttons and other elements. So I get a Win98 kind of GUI. Does anybody have an idea what could be the problem?

Never mind, I forgot to replace one of the folders... silly me. Clearlooks with Tango icon set.



Now we're talking!