Theme your Linux desktop one piece at a time.
Mix icons, cursors, themes and wallpapers from GNOME-Look, KDE-Look and Xfce-Look. Save your favorite combinations, then bring your desktop to life with videos, animations and colorful audio visualizers. One click to install, one click to apply.
Mix and match, the way theming should work
Most theme tools only hand you whole theme packages. drape gives every part of your desktop its own catalog, so you can pair Papirus icons with Bibata cursors and a mountain wallpaper without touching a terminal.
Bring your wallpaper to life
Play local videos, installed XScreenSaver animations or audio visualizations behind your windows and desktop icons on Cinnamon, GNOME and MATE/X11. Changes apply while playback is running. Close the window and keep the wallpaper playing; reopen Drape for controls. Explore live wallpapers.
Know what each theme changes
Browse GTK applications, GNOME/libadwaita, Qt/Kvantum applications, desktop styles, window decorations and shared assets in separate groups. Native GNOME setup applies a theme's GTK 4 stylesheet after validation and confirmation, with a backup and Restore action. Each catalog explains its scope.
Checks the themes you’re viewing
Cards appear immediately. After scrolling stops, one isolated worker slowly checks visible themes and caches the evidence across launches. Checks cancel when a card leaves view, and rate limits pause the queue. Scanner status and card spinners show ongoing checks, while saved-theme indexing has a progress bar. Automatic checks can be disabled in the menu.
Your whole look, in one view
The In use tab previews every active part of your desktop, from controls to boot splash, and where each came from. It works for themes drape didn't install too.
Save your own combinations
Collections → My configurations remembers your selected theme components as a named personal theme pack. Mix GTK, native GNOME, Kvantum, desktop and window themes with icons, cursors and wallpaper. Review each change before reapplying; missing files and unsupported components are flagged. Configurations use themes already installed on your machine.
Puts it in the right place
Icons, cursors, themes and wallpapers each land where your desktop looks for them. On Cinnamon, wallpapers also show up in Backgrounds settings.
Applies in one click
Uses the matching settings for Cinnamon, MATE, GNOME, Xfce or KDE Plasma. Theme formats are checked against your desktop and running window manager.
Qt apps get themes too
Browse and apply Kvantum themes for Qt widget applications on any desktop, including Qt components in theme packs. Qt appearance detects Qt 5/6 engines and offers repository installation. Session status makes the required first logout/login clear, and Restore previous Qt appearance restores saved settings without rewriting menu entries.
See each variant before you pick
Packs with Dark, Light or Compact variants get a picker with a live preview drawn from the variant itself: its real icons, cursors, or a sample window in that theme.
Windows cursors just work
Plenty of cursor uploads are Windows .cur/.ani packs. drape converts them to Linux cursors, animations included.
Your themes, at a glance
Installed themes sit in the same tabs and picture grid you browse, marked when in use, with Update and Remove on each.
Delete several at once
Select installed wallpaper or theme-pack cards across categories, or select all in a category, then delete them together. One confirmation lists the affected items and flags anything currently in use. Failed deletions stay selected for retry.
Style your Xfce panel
An Xfce-only sidebar page offers size, length, hiding and GTK theme backgrounds. Choose a top bar, bottom taskbar, bottom dock or left bar preset while keeping your widgets, with Undo for the last panel change.
Three catalogs, one app
Browse GNOME-Look, KDE-Look and Xfce-Look through their shared Pling catalog. Website Install links open in drape.
Handles name clashes
If a new theme shares a name with one you have, drape explains and offers Replace, even for the boot splash or login theme in use.
Fast on slow connections
Tabs open instantly from cached results, previews load in small batches with infinite scroll, and animated previews keep an eye on their CPU cost.
Careful with your files
Downloads are checked against available checksums, archives can't write outside their folder, and drape asks before replacing a theme it didn't install.
Themes for the desktop you use
The compatibility filter follows your desktop and window manager. Mixed packs keep their usable components, and switching window managers updates the catalog and sidebar. Unsupported sections stay hidden in browsing and Installed even when the compatibility filter is off.
| Desktop | Supported appearance settings |
|---|---|
| Cinnamon | GTK controls (including window borders on Cinnamon 5.4+), icons, cursors, desktop/panel themes and wallpapers; live wallpapers on X11 |
| MATE | GTK controls, icons, cursors, Marco borders and wallpapers; live wallpapers on X11 |
| GNOME | GTK application themes, optional native GTK 4/libadwaita setup, icons, cursors and wallpapers; live wallpapers on X11 |
| Xfce | GTK controls, icons, cursors, wallpapers and Xfwm border previews; panel appearance and layout presets with Undo |
| KDE Plasma | Plasma styles, global themes, colors, Aurorae borders, icons, cursors and wallpapers |
| Qt apps on any desktop | Kvantum widget themes, with separate Qt 5 and Qt 6 engine detection |
For Cinnamon's taskbar, choose a Desktop theme. For KDE's panel, choose a Plasma style. Global themes apply without requesting a panel layout reset. KDE categories follow your Plasma version, and KWin detection supports X11 and Wayland.
Qt theme setup requires logging out and back in once; later theme changes require restarting Qt apps. Custom application stylesheets can override the Qt theme, and sandboxed apps may need their own engine. Read the Qt setup guide.
Xfce panel presets keep existing widgets and affect only the selected panel. Xfce wallpapers apply to configured monitors and workspaces, discovering active displays on X11 even before their wallpaper settings exist, and stop wallpaper cycling. Xfwm previews show the theme's own artwork. Compiz decorators, GNOME Shell themes and arbitrary compiled Qt/KWin plugins are not supported yet. Unknown downloads stay visible until their contents can be checked. Read the compatibility guide.
Temporary catalog and download server errors are retried twice. Persistent failures identify the download host so you can try later or use an archive from the author.
A desktop that moves with you
Open Shared assets → Live wallpapers on Cinnamon, GNOME or MATE/X11. Choose a source and press Play once; switching wallpapers, styles and controls updates playback automatically.
Local videos, on every monitor
Choose an MP4, WebM or another supported local video. Playback loops silently, with Fill or Fit for each screen. Your videos stay in their original location, and removing a library entry never deletes the file.
XScreenSaver animations
Choose from installed animations, refresh the list after adding packages, and adjust a frame-rate target where supported. Each animation has its own settings dialog with saved choices, Apply, Cancel and Restore defaults. Drape runs the animation without replacing your screen locker.
Nine ways to see your audio
Try bars, curves, rings, blocks, mirrored spectrum, a circular wave, layered ribbons, orbiting lights or a spiral. Enable Desktop audio, Microphone or both. The microphone starts off; analysis stays local and Drape never saves audio.
Your colors, still in motion
Pick a single color, make a custom two-color gradient, or choose Rainbow, Aurora, Sunset, Fire & gold or Ocean. Preview the palette and turn on smooth color cycling at Slow, Normal or Fast speed. Your style and color choices are remembered.
Keep playing when you close the window
Drape stays available in the tray where supported. GNOME needs no tray extension: close the window and reopen Drape whenever you want controls. Pause freezes playback, Stop reveals your static wallpaper, and Quit Drape stops playback and exits.
Part of your desktop
Playback sits behind ordinary windows and desktop icons across your monitors. It pauses on screen lock and preserves a manual pause when you unlock. Selecting a still wallpaper in Drape stops live playback; your underlying static wallpaper stays intact.
Live wallpapers currently support Cinnamon, GNOME and MATE on X11, verified on GNOME 48.7 and MATE 1.26 with Compiz. GNOME/Wayland and other desktop hosts are not supported yet. Start playback manually after login.
Videos need mpv; animations use installed XScreenSaver packages; audio needs cava and pactl with PulseAudio or PipeWire's PulseAudio service. Optional animation and audio support can be installed from the page after you review and confirm the package command. Read the live-wallpaper guide.
Window borders, explained. Compiz, built in.
Window border themes only reach apps whose title bar the window manager draws, so drape tells you which apps they affect instead of leaving you wondering why nothing changed.
See the difference
Show a sample window opens a window with a classic title bar in your new borders. Check my open windows sorts your open apps into ones that will change and ones that draw their own title bar. It asks first and keeps nothing.
Compiz, when you want more
The Window manager page installs Compiz and its settings manager with one password prompt and a real progress bar. On Cinnamon it adds a separate Compiz login session and leaves Cinnamon untouched; on MATE and Xfce it switches live.
Settings without another app
CompizConfig Settings Manager runs inside drape, so you can set up effects before you even log into the Compiz session.
Removes what it added
Uninstalling Compiz takes out exactly the packages drape installed. Anything you installed yourself, or that other software needs, stays.
Desktop themes made for Cinnamon before 5.4 leave password and logout dialogs see-through; drape flags them and asks before applying one.
From boot to login to lock
Your look doesn't have to stop at the desktop. Changes outside your home folder ask for your password once, and drape never replaces or removes system themes it didn't install.
Boot splash
Browse Plymouth themes and apply one in a click. drape installs it and rebuilds the boot image for you.
Login screen
SDDM and LightDM web greeter themes, or your own wallpaper, Controls theme, icons and cursor on the LightDM login screen. Use my current desktop look does it all at once.
Missing a login screen?
Theme meant for one you don't have? drape offers to install it and switch to it. Or keep Hide incompatible themes for this desktop on and never see them.
Lock screen
Set Cinnamon's lock screen clock, date format, fonts and message, and see whether your Controls theme styles it. On GNOME, give it its own wallpaper.
Before and after
What it takes to install one cursor theme from GNOME-Look, KDE-Look and Xfce-Look.
| Step | By hand | With drape |
|---|---|---|
| Find it | Browse the site, pick among several downloads | Open Cursors, pick one |
| Install it | Download, extract, figure out which folder is the theme, copy it to ~/.icons | Click Install & apply |
| Use it | Open settings, find the right dropdown | Already done |
| Remove it | Remember where you put it, delete the right folder | Click Remove |
Screenshots
drape uses your own GTK theme, so it always matches the look you've picked.
Install
Needs Python 3.12+, GTK 3 with PyGObject, Pillow and Requests. Drape offers to install missing dependencies on Arch/CachyOS and Debian/Ubuntu: a y/n prompt in a terminal, or a dialog when launched from the menu. KDE also needs its native Plasma apply tools; Xfce uses xfconf-query. Installing drape needs no root; dependency installation, boot splash and login screen changes ask for administrator authentication.
Get it
git clone https://github.com/anolis/drape
cd drape
./install.sh
# adds drape to your menu and handles
# theme catalog Install buttonsUninstall with ./install.sh --uninstall. Themes you installed stay put.
Update an existing install
Drape checks shortly after launch and hourly while open. A persistent Update available button appears in the header when an update is found. Review the changes and choose Update and restart. You can also select Check for Drape updates in the ☰ menu. Automatic updating requires the official Git clone on the main branch with no local changes.
For older installs that do not have the updater yet, close Drape and run these commands from the folder you cloned:
cd /path/to/drape
git pull --ff-only
./install.sh
./bin/drapeReplace /path/to/drape with your checkout location. Installed themes and preferences are kept. If Git reports local changes, save or commit them before updating.
On CachyOS or Arch, a No module named 'PIL' error means Pillow is missing. Install the runtime dependencies below, then launch Drape again. This command refreshes package databases and upgrades the system as well, so it works when a fresh live session has no repository databases. Drape's dependency prompt explains the full upgrade before asking for permission when those databases are missing.
sudo pacman -Syu --needed python-pillow python-gobject gtk3 python-requestsOr use the command line
drape search icons papirus
drape install 1166289 --apply
drape search colors arc
drape search lookandfeel
drape list
drape remove 1166289
drape updatesFollow Drape's progress
See what's new, what's fixed and how Drape has grown since its first commit. The changelog includes daily highlights and links to the complete commit history.
Read the changelog