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How does one change or customize the system / GUI colors and other properties (fonts, title bars, sliders, borders) for Ubuntu 22.04?

I have rooted around looking for the GUI app that one would presume any GUI would have but sadly, this doesn't seem to exist. Nor does any documentation. Astonishingly, there are suggestions that one must be conversant with CSS and edit config files. The CSS files I've found in ~ have little more than two or three lines.

Prior versions (20.04) had a way to get closer to the subject but sadly, Tweaks under 22.04 lacks the Extensions (and Workspaces) sections that provided this transparency.

I am especially interested in altering the colors in the popup box that appears mid-screen upon pressing Alt-Tab. There is a usually-invisible device that highlights the app icon to which to switch, and I'd like to get away from the default black-on-black to something with a degree of contrast.

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There are multiple aspects in changing system colors in a linux system. That is because in its base, linux is a very heterogeneous ecosystem. Linux distributions try - and manage to do that quite well - to compile a desktop and a selection of software that provided a homogeneous experience.

  • The look and colors of GTK2 apps is changed with GTK2 themes
  • The look and colors of GTK3 apps is changed with GTK3 themes
  • The look and colors of GTK4 apps can almost not be changed, although the API of libadwaita will provide more options in the future
  • The look and colors of QT apps are changed in still different ways
  • The look and colors of Gnome Shell is changed by dedicated Gnome Shell themes...

There has been a movement of software developers to stop theming apps. There is a trend, therefore, to move to even less configuration options in that respect.

Ubuntu 22.04 exposes quite some customization in "Settings - Appearance". You can move between dark and light themes, you can change the accent color, and the Yaru icons will even adapt to these changes, so there is by default actually some flexibility to adapt colors to your mood.

Gnome Shell can still be themed, and you still need to enable the "User themes" official extension to be able to change its theme. Install the official extensions with sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions.

However, the management of Gnome Shell extensions has been moved out of Tweaks, because a dedicated app is available. Install it in Ubuntu with sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-prefs. Another option in Ubuntu to manage extensions is the tool gnome-shell-extension-manager. It moves most of the functionality of the Gnome Shell Extensions website to a separate desktop app. Canonical included it quite fast in the software repositories because the Firefox Snap version cannot work with that website. This tool offers an alternative.

Thus, you can activate "User Themes" as before, and then activate a different Gnome Shell theme, which also controls the look of the Alt+Tab switcher.

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    it sounds as if the answer is, "that can't be done." I installed gnome-shell-extension-manager, which is pretty nifty for what it does, and to the extent it patches one of the many failures of the Firefox snap, mazel tov. It doesn't, however, do the simple task I describe, which is to change GUI element properties including colors. Your explanation is helpful for understanding and illustrates just how immature the technology is. Hopefully, it illustrates the necessity for either the definition of a GUI environment or an app to manage these settings across libraries.
    – ebsf
    Commented Jun 16, 2022 at 14:31

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