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Icon Themes

Icon Themes

Icon themes live in mate-icon-theme and follow the Freedesktop Icon Naming Specification.

Directory layout 

MyIconTheme/
├── index.theme
├── 16x16/
│   ├── actions/
│   ├── apps/
│   ├── devices/
│   ├── mimetypes/
│   ├── places/
│   └── status/
├── 22x22/
├── 24x24/
├── 32x32/
├── 48x48/
└── scalable/      # SVG icons (preferred)

index.theme 

[Icon Theme]
Name=MyIconTheme
Comment=My MATE icon theme
Inherits=menta,hicolor
Directories=scalable/actions,48x48/apps,...

[scalable/actions]
Size=48
MinSize=8
MaxSize=512
Type=Scalable
Context=Actions

Inherits sets the fallback chain — always include hicolor at the end.

File format

  • SVG is preferred for scalable/ — it renders crisply at any size.
  • PNG at the exact pixel size for each fixed-size directory.
  • Name icons according to the Freedesktop naming spec so applications can find them automatically.

Testing 

mkdir -p ~/.icons
cp -r MyIconTheme ~/.icons/

gsettings set org.mate.interface icon-theme 'MyIconTheme'

Refresh the icon cache after installing:

gtk-update-icon-cache ~/.icons/MyIconTheme/

Tools

Last updated on • mbkma
GTK Themes