Icon Theming

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DankMaterialShell will use the QT6 icon theme system as primary source for application icons. Depending on which platform theme you're using, icons are configured in different locations.

How Icon Theming Works​

Qt6 applications, including DankMaterialShell, look for icon themes based on your QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME setting. Each platform theme reads icon configuration from a different location:

• gtk3: Reads from GTK settings (~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini)
• qt6ct: Reads from qt6ct configuration (~/.config/qt6ct/qt6ct.conf)
• kde: Reads from KDE Plasma settings (~/.config/kdeglobals)

DMS respects these platform-specific configurations and doesn't override your icon theme choices.

Environment Variable Override​

You can also set the icon theme directly using the QS_ICON_THEME environment variable:

export QS_ICON_THEME=Papirus-Dark

This takes precedence over platform theme settings and is useful for testing or when you want DMS to use a different icon theme than your other Qt applications.

GTK Platform Theme (gtk3)​

If you're using the GTK passthrough method for Qt theming, icon themes are controlled via GTK settings.

Configuration​

Edit ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini:

[Settings]
gtk-icon-theme-name=Papirus-Dark

Common icon themes:

• Papirus / Papirus-Dark
• Adwaita
• breeze / breeze-dark
• Tela
• Nordzy

Installing Icon Themes​

# Arch - Papirus
sudo pacman -S papirus-icon-theme

# Arch - Adwaita (usually pre-installed)
sudo pacman -S adwaita-icon-theme

# Flatpak icon themes (available to all apps)
flatpak install flathub org.kde.PaplirusIconTheme

Qt6ct Platform Theme​

When using qt6ct for dedicated Qt control, icon themes are managed through the qt6ct interface or configuration file.

Configuration via GUI​

1. Launch qt6ct from your application launcher
2. Navigate to the Icon Theme tab
3. Select your preferred icon theme from the list
4. Click Apply

Configuration via File​

Edit ~/.config/qt6ct/qt6ct.conf:

[Appearance]
icon_theme=Papirus-Dark

KDE Platform Theme​

If you're using KDE Plasma or the KDE platform theme, icon themes are managed through KDE's configuration system.

Configuration via File​

Edit ~/.config/kdeglobals:

[Icons]
Theme=Papirus-Dark

Installing Icon Themes​

Icon themes can be installed system-wide or per-user.

System-wide Installation​

# Arch
sudo pacman -S papirus-icon-theme
sudo pacman -S breeze-icons
sudo pacman -S adwaita-icon-theme

# Fedora
sudo dnf install papirus-icon-theme
sudo dnf install breeze-icon-theme
sudo dnf install adwaita-icon-theme

Per-user Installation​

Download icon themes and extract to ~/.local/share/icons/:

# Example: Installing from a downloaded archive
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons
cd ~/.local/share/icons
tar xf ~/Downloads/Papirus-Dark.tar.gz

Flatpak Icon Themes​

Flatpak applications use icon themes from the Flatpak runtime:

# List available icon theme extensions
flatpak search icon

# Install Papirus for Flatpak apps
flatpak install flathub org.kde.PaplirusIconTheme

Verifying Your Configuration​

Check which platform theme you're currently using:

echo $QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME

:::tip DankInstall Users

dankinstall sets QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk3 in ~/.config/environment.d/90-dms.conf. Check this file to see your current setting.

:::

Check icon theme for each configuration:

# GTK configuration
cat ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini | grep icon-theme

# qt6ct configuration
cat ~/.config/qt6ct/qt6ct.conf | grep icon_theme

# KDE configuration
cat ~/.config/kdeglobals | grep -A 1 "\[Icons\]"

Common Icon Theme Recommendations​

Material Design Style​

• Papirus / Papirus-Dark: Most popular, excellent coverage
• Tela: Modern, colorful icons with good app coverage

Gnome or KDE Style​

• Adwaita: GNOME's default, clean and simple
• breeze: KDE's default, professional appearance

Troubleshooting​

Icons not changing​

Make sure you've restarted applications after changing icon themes. Qt applications cache icon information and need to be relaunched.

# Restart DMS to apply icon theme changes
dms restart

Missing icons​

Some applications might show missing icons if the theme doesn't include all required icons. Install a fallback theme:

# Arch
sudo pacman -S adwaita-icon-theme hicolor-icon-theme

# Fedora
sudo dnf install adwaita-icon-theme hicolor-icon-theme

Wrong theme being used​

Verify that your platform theme environment variable matches your configuration:

# Check current setting
echo $QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME

If you change QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME, you must restart your compositor session for the change to take effect.

qt6ct shows no themes​

If qt6ct shows an empty icon theme list, check that icon themes are installed in the correct location:

# Check system icon themes
ls /usr/share/icons/

# Check user icon themes
ls ~/.local/share/icons/

Flatpak apps using different icons​

Flatpak applications run in a sandboxed environment and may not see your system icon themes. Install icon themes via Flatpak:

flatpak install flathub org.kde.PaplirusIconTheme

Platform Theme Comparison​

Related Documentation​

• Application Theming: Configure color themes for GTK and Qt apps
• Custom Themes: Create custom DMS themes