What is Deep Dark theme by Sebastián Λ?

Updated

Deep Dark is a flat theme with transparent elements for GTK 3 and GNOME Shell, published by Sebastián Λ on 2020-05-17. It is intended for GTK 3-based desktop environments such as GNOME. If you use a GTK 3 desktop and want a flat look with some transparency, it is the relevant project on this site; if you use a non-GTK toolkit or a desktop that does not rely on GTK 3, it is not the right fit.

What Deep Dark provides

Based on the project description on argorar.github.io, Deep Dark has two defining visual traits:

  • Flat design — surfaces are rendered without heavy gradients, bevels, or skeuomorphic depth.
  • Transparent elements — parts of the interface use transparency rather than fully opaque fills.

It is distributed as a theme, meaning it changes the appearance of the desktop rather than adding new functionality. The description does not list icons, fonts, cursors, or other asset packs, so treat it as a visual style layer for the environments named below.

Which environments it supports

Component Support stated in the source
GTK 3 Yes — the theme targets GTK 3
GNOME Shell Yes — a GNOME Shell theme is part of the project
GTK 3-based desktops Yes — described as supporting them, with GNOME given as the example
Non-GTK desktops Not stated

The practical reading: GNOME is the explicitly named environment, and any other desktop that builds its interface on GTK 3 is covered by the same statement. Desktops that do not use GTK 3 are outside what the description claims.

When to choose it

Choose Deep Dark if all of the following apply:

  • Your desktop environment is GTK 3-based, such as GNOME.
  • You want a flat visual style rather than a dimensional or glossy one.
  • You want transparency as part of the look, and you are willing to accept that transparent elements can interact with your wallpaper and with compositor settings.

Look elsewhere if you need a theme for a non-GTK toolkit, or if you want a theme that also supplies icons, cursors, and fonts in one package — the source describes only the GTK 3 and GNOME Shell theme itself.

Practical notes before installing

  • Match the toolkit version. The theme is stated for GTK 3. Applying a GTK 3 theme to a GTK 4 application, or expecting it to restyle apps that draw their own widgets, will not give the intended result.
  • GNOME Shell theming is separate. On GNOME, the shell theme and the GTK theme are applied through different mechanisms, so expect to handle the shell portion independently of the application theme.
  • Transparency depends on your setup. Transparent elements are only visible as intended when the compositor and wallpaper cooperate; on a plain background the effect is much less noticeable.
  • Check the project page for current files and instructions. The source page records the description and the 2020-05-17 publication date, but not installation steps, version compatibility beyond GTK 3, or licensing details.

Where it sits among the other projects

Deep Dark is one of several projects listed on the same personal page, alongside WebM for Lazys (an ffmpeg/AviSynth wrapper for WebM conversion), Northwind Crud (an ASP.NET and Angular CRUD demo), Dowi - Download Image (a browser script for downloading images), Cordic Graph (a CORDIC algorithm project), and Network Watcher (a local network scanner). Of these, Deep Dark is the only one concerned with desktop appearance, which makes it the item to look at if your goal is theming rather than conversion, web development, scripting, or networking.