How to install the Layan GTK theme on Linux

The Layan GTK theme is a futuristic, flat take on Linux desktop themes. The color that Layan uses is purple-ish blue and black. However, it also uses white in the color scheme with its “light” variant (similar to Arc or Adapta).

Layan is an excellent, funky looking GTK theme for Linux, that’s sure to make your desktop feel new and cool! In this guide, we’ll go over how to get the Layan GTK theme working. Let’s get started!

Download the Layan GTK theme

The Layan GTK theme is available to users for download via the Gnome-look theme website. On the Layan Gnome-look page, there are several different options to download. Specifically, Layan light, Layan dark, Layan, as well as Layan solid, and Layan dark solid.

To download one of the versions of the Layan theme to your Linux PC, head over to the official Layan Gnome-look page. Then, once on the page, click the “Files” button to reveal the download options.

Inside of the download options, click on the blue down arrow next to the version of the theme you want. Then, click the “Download” button in the pop-up window that appears.

After you’ve downloaded the Layan theme to your Linux PC, it is time to extract the contents of the theme.

Extract the Layan GTK theme

To extract the Layan GTK theme on your Linux PC, you will need to use the terminal. The reason? Extracting TarXZ files through the command-line is much faster and more efficient. Using the commands below, extract the Layan GTK themes.

Open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, use the CD command to move the terminal session into your “Downloads” directory.

cd ~/Downloads

Once inside of the “Downloads” directory, follow the command-line instructions below that match the Layan theme you’ve downloaded.

Layan light

tar xvf Layan-light.tar.xz

Layan dark

tar xvf Layan-dark.tar.xz

Layan

tar xvf Layan.tar.xz

Layan light solid

tar xvf Layan-light-solid.tar.xz

Layan solid

tar xvf Layan-solid.tar.xz

Layan dark solid

tar xvf Layan-dark-solid.tar.xz

Did you download multiple Layan GTK themes to your Linux PC? If you do not want to extract all of the files individually, extract all of them at the same time with the expression below.

for file in `ls *.tar.xz`; do tar -xvf $file; done

With the files extracted, remove the TarXZ files from the “Downloads” directory by running the rm command below.

rm *.tar.xz

Install the Layan GTK theme

Setting up the Layan GTK theme on your Linux PC involves moving the extracted theme files into the operating system’s “themes” directory. To install the theme, follow the installation instructions outlined below.

Single-user

If you only plan to have one user access and use the Layan GTK theme, the Single User installation method is the way to go. To start the installation process, open up a terminal window and use the mkdir command to make the “.themes” directory.

mkdir -p ~/.themes

After creating the “.themes” directory, move to the “Downloads” folder using the CD command.

cd ~/Downloads

Inside of the “Downloads” directory, use the mv command to install the Layan GTK theme on the system.

mv Layan* ~/.themes

Once the theme files are in place, confirm they’re there by running the ls command.

ls ~/.themes | grep Layan

System-wide

Setting up the Layan GTK theme system-wide is a great idea if you have multiple users on your Linux PC, and want everyone to have access to the theme. To install Layan system-wide, start by moving the terminal window to the “Downloads” directory with CD.

cd ~/Downloads

Once in the “Downloads” directory, elevate the terminal window to Root access with the sudo -s command.

sudo -s

With Root access, install the Layan GTK theme to the system-wide theme directory on your Linux PC.

mv Layan* /usr/share/themes/

When the command above is complete, confirm that the Layan theme is in the system-wide directory with the ls command.

ls /usr/share/themes/ | grep Layan

Activate Layan GTK theme on Linux

Now that the Layan GTK theme is installed on your Linux PC, you must activate it before you can use it as the default theme for the desktop environment that you use. To activate the theme, open up “System Settings” and look for “Appearance” or “Themes.”

Once inside of the “Appearance” or “Themes” settings on the Linux desktop, switch the current GTK theme that is in use to Layan, or Layan Dark, or any of the other Layan themes to use it as the default look for your desktop.

Having issues getting the Layan GTK theme working on your Linux PC? If so, click one of the links below. Each of the links below will walk you through, step-by-step, how to customize and switch Linux desktop themes.

Note: Layan will not work with LXQt or KDE Plasma 5, as they are not GTK based.