Adapt Papirus to KDE Plasma 6

[lhy7889678]

• Distribution (version): Arch Linux
• Desktop environment: KDE
• Installing method: Pacman
• App name (version): KDE Plasma 6.0.1

KDE Plasma 6 seems to have changed the names of some icons used in the system tray / system settings / etc. As a result, these icons will fall back to the default Breeze icon theme, even though Papirus has adequate icons (with different names) for them.

Here is a list of icons that I have noticed so far:

• [x] brightness-high-symbolic, redshift-status-off-symbolic, redshift-status-on-symbolic, redshift-status-day-symbolic: Used in the brightness controller
• [x] klipper-symbolic: Used in the clipboard manager
• [x] notifications-disabled-symbolic, notification-active-symbolic, notification-inactive-symbolic: Used in the notification manager
• [x] kdeconnect-tray-symbolic: Used by KDE Connect

(everything above could also have their counterparts without "-symbolic")

• [x] network-flightmode-on: Used by the network manager
• [ ] input-touchscreen: Used by system settings

Note that this is not an exhaustive list. Maybe we can refer to the new Breeze icon theme repository to find what's not included in Papirus.

[morganist]

the App launcher icon (the start menu button, to be clear): even if I set the icon (which is also the default one) to start-here-plasma-symbolic, the icon start-here-plasma is shown instead (blue square with a K instead of the symbolic Plasma logo)

this needs a new solution as well. Plasma 5 themes used a monochrome KDE logo instead of Plasma (and as we know, KDE is not Plasma and not a DE). i'm leaning towards using basivally the same shape as in Breeze for start-here-kde-symbolic. I'll probably share some mockups here if i come up with something plus génial.

[buufmax]

I use application-menu.svg as a symbolic start icon, really wish this made as default. Also wish those arrow -> to be corrected to only >.

[morganist]

@genkieagle the default start icon in Papirus is start-here-symbolic which looks like GNOME's dash icon. it can be made the default for Plasma as well

[monstorix]

Also wish those arrow -> to be corrected to only >.

@genkieagle The arrows seems like not much an "error": all the panel icons (including arrows) are following the system icon theme now. In Papirus, most arrows have always been with a bar.

In Plasma 5, the panel icons were following the Plasma look-and-feel themes, that would mean the > symbol is from Breeze.

[buufmax]

@morganist that's sounds good, making "start-here-symbolic" default i find allright.

@monstorix Thanks for the clarification, the arrow is a small thing, it's ok as it seems.

Other request about KTorrent above. Do you plan to make one symbolic tray icon? I mean only on tray, in menu/taskbar places it is absolutely fine.

[morganist]

Other request about KTorrent above. Do you plan to make one symbolic tray icon? I mean only on tray, in menu/taskbar places it is absolutely fine.

yeah, it already exists in Plasma 5 themes, i'll just have to port it

[lhy7889678]

Here is the current status of my tray:

It seems that KAlarm, KMail and the Fcitx5 IME selector are still not using the symbolic icons. Furthermore, if there are unread mails in KMail, the icon becomes this:

I remember that a small dot would appear at the corner to indicate unread mails in Plasma 5.

Also, I think some icons look unbalanced (especially the fat wireless network icon and the flat unread KMail icon).

The weather widget shipped with Plasma use symbolic icons indeed, but the color doesn't look right. (In the daytime, the brightness icon is a cute little sun, which looks very similar to the not-that-cute sun icon for a clear weather, but that's another story.)

Not sure how helpful this is, but on my setup the only icon that's still not showing its symbolic version is, I think, input-keyboard used by the Input Method tray icon (that, and the app launcher icon mentioned by andreaemonti):

@aritsune unfortunately i can't reproduce this on my install, the icon and the input method tray component don't seem to be there at all. i know about the keyboard layout tray icon (although it is usually replaced with an indicator of current layout/language) and the virtual keyboard tray icon, so what purpose does the input method applet serve?

It looks like the Fcitx5 IME selector (which is integrated into Plasma settings; compare IBus into GNOME). You may need to install the fcitx5-qt package for it to show up.

[morganist]

Another icon I noticed that looks off is the minimize desktop plasmoid - it's a bit too dark.

@Bingo90 please change your theme to Papirus-Dark. That would make it white, at least. It's a symbolic icon for GNOME, it would be either grey or white on KDE as of this moment. i was not able to make a different one for Plasma because the name is occupied already. this is one of the reasons we may need to create a Plasma-specific Papirus if GNOME don't get themselves together and cooperate on modernising the icon theme spec with other desktop environmets instead of breaking the spec.

[morganist]

@andreaemonti @lucazade same thing – set the Papirus-Dark if some icons appear dark grey. not everything is recolorable, as it seems

[Bingo90]

Another icon I noticed that looks off is the minimize desktop plasmoid - it's a bit too dark.

@Bingo90 please change your theme to Papirus-Dark. That would make it white, at least. It's a symbolic icon for GNOME, it would be either grey or white on KDE as of this moment. i was not able to make a different one for Plasma because the name is occupied already. this is one of the reasons we may need to create a Plasma-specific Papirus if GNOME don't get themselves together and cooperate on modernising the icon theme spec with other desktop environmets instead of breaking the spec.

Neat, that worked! I was wondering why there was a specific dark version

[buufmax]

If we right click on the digital clock, there is a missing symbolic icon for the "Set Time Format..." May you put a symbolic icon?

Thanks for the newest commits, day by day is improving a lot for Plasma 6.

[morganist]

For now the colored Papirus version is used in the tray in place of konversation-symbolic.svg, and the Breeze version of konv_message.svg is used when there are new messages.

@UM-Li I've made the icons, but as of now Konversation itself doesn't use a symbolic tray icon.

[buufmax]

Thank you very much for providing KTorrent tray icon that it look pretty good. You guys are extraordinary. :)

[morganist]

@lucazade @smowtenshi it is not possible to make a separate symbolic version for Plasma 6 as breeze icons provide power&session icons without the -symbolic appendix, and the application launchers declare they want those. So the question is, should we switch Papirus from using colorful power&session icons or do we keep them? I'm quite fond of the current ones. And by the way, symbolic 16px power&session icons (for GNOME) already exist in Papirus (/symbolic/actions) so feel free to hack them into launchers or your fork of Papirus if you want monochrome variants.

[smowtenshi]

So the question is, should we switch Papirus from using colorful power&session icons or do we keep them? I'm quite fond of the current ones.

Sometimes I really can't choose one, but after a while I actually got used to colorful ones.

[Tiagoquix]

Hi there, the "Peek at Desktop" icon looks "gray" when compared to other icons.

See the example:

[buufmax]

@Tiagoquix

Maybe it's your theme/color-schemes that makes it so gray on your eyes. For example, it comes out completely white on mine.

I can see the difference between yours and mine. My question, which Papirus version you are using? "20240501", "master" or something from store.kde. P.S. master is the most up-to-date release.

Anyway, I say take a look at the theme you're using, try different themes and see if it reflects on that icon.

[morganist]

Hi there, the "Peek at Desktop" icon looks "gray" when compared to other icons.

@Tiagoquix this icon is not themeable by KDE software stack, because it was made for GNOME, and these two hasn't agreed on symbolic icons recolouring yet. That's why it would be either muted white or grey depending on which Papirus theme you've chosen.

[buufmax]

@morganist

• KDE Plasma 6 - Tray Networks Papirus - Disconnect uses a globe icon. Breeze - Uses a more appropriate ones.

Papirus on the actions folder already have a similar icon called "network-disconnect-symbolic". I would like that globe to be substituted with network-disconnect-symbolic.svg?

[ironashram]

@lucazade @smowtenshi it is not possible to make a separate symbolic version for Plasma 6 as breeze icons provide power&session icons without the -symbolic appendix, and the application launchers declare they want those. So the question is, should we switch Papirus from using colorful power&session icons or do we keep them? I'm quite fond of the current ones. And by the way, symbolic 16px power&session icons (for GNOME) already exist in Papirus (/symbolic/actions) so feel free to hack them into launchers or your fork of Papirus if you want monochrome variants.

personally i hate the colorful ones as they mess with my overall desktop style, so i guess i'll need to mess with it myself for the foreseeable future

[Tiagoquix]

Plasma Discover:

Different color for "Update All" and "Refresh" icons. Maybe the same issue as https://github.com/PapirusDevelopmentTeam/papirus-icon-theme/issues/3663#issuecomment-2126221906.

[morganist]

@Tiagoquix it wouldn't have been that grey. Did you have updates available when you took the screenshot? If not, this is probably intentional.

[Tiagoquix]

@Tiagoquix it wouldn't have been that grey. Did you have updates available when you took the screenshot? If not, this is probably intentional.

Yes. The "Update All" button only appears when there are updates available. Otherwise, only the "Refresh" button is visible.

[heddxh]

Paprius seems don't have icons for num lock and combined num lock and caps lock. In breeze they are called "input-num-on" and "input-combo-on"

[buufmax]

Please make an symbolic icon for Elisa Player to shown on tray.

[Tiagoquix]

Not sure if this was changed, but the "Device" (USB/Pendrives) icon is smaller now in the taskbar (compared to other icons):

[Covkie]

Weather, Back arrow and Peek desktop icons don't follow system theme

[morganist]

@Covkie actually, they do: you have to use Papirus-Dark for these icons to be white, as they can't be themed on Plasma. It was mentioned earlier.

[Tiagoquix]

https://github.com/PapirusDevelopmentTeam/papirus-icon-theme/issues/3663#issuecomment-2155580366

Additional issue: the same happens in the top-left corner of Plasma Discover when there are no updates or when fetching updates. (Using Plasma-Dark icon theme.)

(The icon doesn't change if the entry is highlighted by user selection.)

[buufmax]

Plasma 6.1.0 - System Settings - Accessibility

Bell & Shake Cursor - Needs to be replaced by Papirus.

[ariasyqolani]

I think the Places icon in Kickoff should be changed to better align with the other icons in the row

[Covkie]

@morganist is there no solution for KDE users regarding https://github.com/PapirusDevelopmentTeam/papirus-icon-theme/issues/3663#issuecomment-2143341740? The peek at desktop and certain weather states being slightly off is quite annoying. Could duplicate icons for KDE be added as a temporary solution?

[morganist]

@morganist is there no solution for KDE users regarding https://github.com/PapirusDevelopmentTeam/papirus-icon-theme/issues/3663#issuecomment-2143341740? The peek at desktop and certain weather states being slightly off is quite annoying. Could duplicate icons for KDE be added as a temporary solution?

@Covkie honestly, I think the only way is to get KDE and GNOME to agree on symbolic icons so that all of them work the same way in all DEs and apps. We can't add duplicate icons without deleting the existing ones or splitting the icon theme in two. If we make separate themes for KDE and GNOME, users will get good experience using apps and programs made for their DE and not the other. Libadwaita apps only use these symbolic icons that look out of place next to the others and will probably look bad with standard icons. With that said, if GNOME folks are still considering making icons in libadwaita apps unthemeable... Maybe it would be better to actually remove them. For now, I don't have the time to follow the ongoing efforts to improve the FreeDesktop icon theme specification, so I would be glad if anyone pointed out to GNOME and KDE devs that theming icons in both environments at the same time is impossible. Really, the most simple solution would be if GNOME didn't use the standard name for the icons if they still intend to interpret the spec in their own non-standard way. This issue goes way too deep.

[morganist]

@Tiagoquix turns out this is intentional, Papirus uses a semi-transparent icon for no available updates:

Breeze uses an icon with the same name, but it's not transparent. Do you suggest that we make this icon opaque as well? I guess it makes sense when we already use dots to give this icon a different meaning.

[morganist]

@ariasyqolani when usind the Papirus git master, the applications icon is already changed to use a symbolic icon. Places icon is named "compass" and it's not possible to make it coloured because it is an actions icon, which are all symbolic. I hope that is clear.

[morganist]

@niri-san cursor icon is already Papirus. it cannot be changed to be coloured because KDE devs or visual design group decided to only use symbolic icons in accessibility KCM sidebar, not fullcolor icons like everywhere else, and the cursor icon is from actions category, which are all symbolic. it's strange, we probably should ask them about this inconsistency.

[ariasyqolani]

@morganist Thanks for the information! Actually i much prefer the symbolic one

[buufmax]

I apologize for not checking with Breeze firstly, I just checked now, breeze has another variant like the pic you show. In the meantime, thank you for clarifying the cursor status.

[Tiagoquix]

@Tiagoquix turns out this is intentional, Papirus uses a semi-transparent icon for no available updates:

Breeze uses an icon with the same name, but it's not transparent. Do you suggest that we make this icon opaque as well? I guess it makes sense when we already use dots to give this icon a different meaning.

@morganist Yes, it would make sense to make this opaque too, especially due to the fact that we already have the dots to express different things. Thank you for your explanation.

[Tiagoquix]

When installing an app through Discover there's a very brief time window post-install but after being able to click "Launch" to launch the app that it shows a black download/loading icon.

[KweezyCode]

when will colored folders be available in Kde 6? at the moment they are only blue

[buufmax]

when will colored folders be available in Kde 6? at the moment they are only blue

It's allready here https://github.com/PapirusDevelopmentTeam/papirus-folders

Just follow the procedure below. I use black for my folders.

[morganist]

@buufmax

Papirus on the actions folder already have a similar icon called "network-disconnect-symbolic". I would like that globe to be substituted with network-disconnect-symbolic.svg?

Sorry, but Papirus doesn't appear to have such icon. What are you referring to?

[buufmax]

Sorry, but Papirus doesn't appear to have such icon. What are you referring to?

Indeed, Papirus doesn't have such icon.

I was misunderstood by KDE "Select icon", this tool reads missing icons/symbolic from Breeze within icons folder on user location. I thought it was part of Papirus, but only currently i searched "network-disconnect-symbolic" within Papirus folder, found there is no such thing.

My mistake, or some bug with that KDE Icon tool.