(and also Windows cursors if you need them)
This collection of files enables you to create a Linux cursor theme out of an SVG file. I used it to build my cursor theme (included in this package).
For a prebuilt theme, see the releases.
Clone or download the files of this repository to your local machine. To render the PNGs the program rsvg-convert is used. For combining the PNGs to X11 cursor files you’ll need the command line tool xcursorgen.
For example the generate the theme use:
$ ./make.py -s svgs/theme.svg
The following options are available:
- -s or --shadow Enable Shadow (without this flag the drop shadow filter will be removed)
- -a or --anicur generate cursor files suitable for use with Windows
- --fps FPS change the FPS for the animated cursors (default is 16.6)
- --sizes SIZES generate cursors for the following sizes, defaults to: 24,32,48,64,96
- -n NAME or --name NAME change the cursor theme name, defaults to
contents of SVG
<title>tag - -o NAME or --out NAME change the cursor theme output directory, defaults to cursor them name
If you just want to generate a theme out of the provided SVG you can skip this step and proceed with generating the PNGs. Otherwise start by editing the file theme.svg in the folder svgs with Inkscape.
The theme.svg contains several layers. On the layer cursors there’s a group of the different cursors. A second layer slices contains rectangles with the names of the individual cursors, each rectanble corresponds to the cursors bounding box. The third layer hotspots marks each cursor's hotspot with a small circle.
hotspots and slices are turned invisible prior to rendering the SVG.
The Python file make.py combs through theme.svg and searches for rectangles on the slices layer. It exports the vectors in these areas to PNGs named after the rectangle’s ID/inkscape label. To start rendering use the command
./make.py -t svgs/theme.svg
The -t flag prohibits the deletion of the created PNG files in the folder pngs/ You may need to pass the --force parameter since the script prohibits running if a theme already exists in the output directoy.
X11 cursors have many aliases make.py uses a small database in names.txt to genrate symlinks for each aliased cursor file.
To analyse which cursor is displayed I recommend using the theme Dummy X11 Cursors. It can be found at https://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=128170
To install the theme for a single user copy the theme folder into the hidden folder .icons in your home directory – if neccessary create this folder. You can do this with the terminal, too. Replace the [theme-folder] with the name of the generated folder from step 2.
cp -r [theme-folder] ~/.local/share/icons/[theme-folder]
To install the cursor theme system-wide, copy your folder to /usr/share/icons. You’ll need to run the command as the system administrator, so you’ll be prompted for your system password:
sudo cp -r [theme-folder] usr/share/icons/[theme-folder]
Now you have to set your cursor theme as the prefered one. Depending on your Linux distribution use the Gnome Tweak Tool or Unity Tweak Tool (there: Theme Settings).
On KDE Plasma go to Computer > System Settings > Workspace Appearence > Cursor Theme (or similar).
For GNOME use gnome-tweaks: Appearance > Cursor
If you have questions please open a github issue, I'm always happy about improvements.
I want to thank Gerhard Großmann (@charakterziffer) for cursor-toolbox and for giving me this idea. I didn't fork https://github.com/charakterziffer/cursor-toolbox/ as this is almost a complete rewrite.