Package: gdm3
Version: 48.0-1
Severity: wishlist
X-Debbugs-Cc: debian-desktop@lists.debian.org
Tags: trixie sid

While reporting a separate bug about the Debian logo shown at the gdm
login prompt having poor contrast, I noticed that the accent colour (org/gnome/desktop/interface/accent-color in dconf-editor, Appearance ->
Accent Colour in gnome-control-center) is one feature of the gdm login
prompt that we can easily tweak if we want to. Should we?

It's chosen from a limited palette of presets rather than being
arbitrarily configurable, but the "teal" and "slate" choices look
vaguely similar to the Ceratopsian theme. For example we could set up
the default /etc/gdm3/greeter.dconf-defaults to include these
uncommented lines:

[org/gnome/desktop/interface]
accent-color='teal'

This affects the highlights in the System and Accessibility menus (top
right corner), the highlight on today's date in the calendar, the focus rectangle around the selected user, and the focus rectangle around other
active widgets like the password entry box, replacing the default
sky blue:

https://people.debian.org/~smcv/temp/2025/trixie-branding/teal-accent.png

smcv

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On Sat, May 10, 2025 at 10:21 AM Simon McVittie <smcv@debian.org> wrote:

It's chosen from a limited palette of presets rather than being
arbitrarily configurable, but the "teal" and "slate" choices look
vaguely similar to the Ceratopsian theme. For example we could set up
the default /etc/gdm3/greeter.dconf-defaults to include these
uncommented lines:

[org/gnome/desktop/interface]
accent-color='teal'

This affects the highlights in the System and Accessibility menus (top
right corner), the highlight on today's date in the calendar, the focus rectangle around the selected user, and the focus rectangle around other active widgets like the password entry box, replacing the default
sky blue:

https://people.debian.org/~smcv/temp/2025/trixie-branding/teal-accent.png

smcv

For consistency, what about changing it in the user session instead?
If done in gsettings-desktop-schemas, it should automatically apply to
the login screen too.

https://salsa.debian.org/gnome-team/gsettings-desktop-schemas/-/blob/debian/latest/debian/gsettings-desktop-schemas.gsettings-override

Thank you,
Jeremy Bícha

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Sat, May 10, 2025 at 2:12 PM Simon McVittie <smcv@debian.org> wrote:

In the user session, it affects a lot more bits of UI - not just the
Shell but also leaf applications. I had assumed we would want to keep
the default sky-blue in the user session, because that way we get
consistency between GTK 3 apps (which always have blue accents as far as
I can see) and GTK 4 apps (which use GNOME's configurable accent colour).

Ok, that makes sense. Ubuntu has various tweaks that mean that GTK3 is
a lot more consistent with GTK4 than in standard GNOME so I forgot
that Debian doesn't have that.

Thank you,
Jeremy Bícha

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 10 May 2025 at 10:55:58 -0400, Jeremy Bícha wrote:

On Sat, May 10, 2025 at 10:21 AM Simon McVittie <smcv@debian.org> wrote:

[The accent colour is]
chosen from a limited palette of presets rather than being
arbitrarily configurable, but the "teal" and "slate" choices look
vaguely similar to the Ceratopsian theme. For example we could set up
the default /etc/gdm3/greeter.dconf-defaults to include these
uncommented lines:

[org/gnome/desktop/interface]
accent-color='teal'

This affects the highlights in the System and Accessibility menus (top
right corner), the highlight on today's date in the calendar, the focus
rectangle around the selected user, and the focus rectangle around other
active widgets like the password entry box, replacing the default
sky blue:

https://people.debian.org/~smcv/temp/2025/trixie-branding/teal-accent.png

For consistency, what about changing it in the user session instead?

Is that something we want?

In the user session, it affects a lot more bits of UI - not just the
Shell but also leaf applications. I had assumed we would want to keep
the default sky-blue in the user session, because that way we get
consistency between GTK 3 apps (which always have blue accents as far as
I can see) and GTK 4 apps (which use GNOME's configurable accent colour).

smcv

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)