Published on: 2020-09-18

Quick toggle your GTK theme between light and dark

Want to use both, dark and light theme, but need a simple way to toggle between them? Search no more.

I like dark themes - but I also like light themes. It all depends on the situation. Don't tell me it is enjoyable to code with a dark IDE while the sun is shining right at your display!

Therefore I was searching for a quick toggle between two themes. And it is actually pretty simple. Add this to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc for Linux Mint (with Cinnamon) or Ubuntu (with Gnome Shell / Unity):

function dark {
    if lsb_release -i | grep -q 'Linuxmint'; then
        gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.wm.preferences theme 'Mint-Y-Dark'
        gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Mint-Y-Dark'
        gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Mint-Y-Dark'
        gsettings set org.cinnamon.theme name 'Mint-Y-Dark'
    fi
    if lsb_release -i | grep -q 'Ubuntu'; then
        gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Yaru-dark'
    fi
}

function light {
    if lsb_release -i | grep -q 'Linuxmint'; then
        gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.wm.preferences theme 'Mint-Y'
        gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Mint-Y'
        gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Mint-Y'
        gsettings set org.cinnamon.theme name 'Mint-Y'
    fi
    if lsb_release -i | grep -q 'Ubuntu'; then
        gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Yaru'
    fi
}

Now open a new terminal and just type light or dark!

I've got the idea from the Linux Mint welcome screen. It has a neat toggle for dark and light, but I didn't find any taskbar widget or something like that, so I took a quick look in the source code of the welcome screen. It was embarrassingly easy, just changing some GTK options with gsettings should have come to my mind earlier. But here are the options for you to simply copy and paste them, allowing you to change the theme easily with a single command.

Enjoy!