Occasional Thoughts

The Embassy KDE Theme experienced an major update. The new version contains a theme for KBFX, a different wallpaper and a slightly modified color scheme.

PREREQUISITES

• Style: QtCurve 0.34 or newer (do not use QtCurve 0.33 - see below)
• Window Decoration: Crystal
• Icons: Vista-Inspirate
• KMenu Replacement: KBFX
• Taskbar: Taskbar V2
• (Optional) Desktop Monitor: Conky

INSTALLATION

Download and extract the archive:

1. Download embassy.tar.bz2
2. tar jxvf embassy.tar.bz2

To install the theme open the theme manager:

1. Run KControl
2. Go to Appearances & Themes -> Theme Manager
3. Click on Install New Theme...
4. Go to the directory, where you have extracted the archive and choose the file Embassy.kth

To install the qtcurve settings:

1. Run KControl
2. Go to Appearances & Themes -> Style
3. Select QtCurve as widget style.
4. Click on Configure...
5. Click on Import... and import the file embassy.qtcurve.

Configure kbfx kicker to use the Embassy background:

1. Configure the KDE Panel
2. Go to Appearance
3. Select Enable background picture image.
4. Choose the file kicker/[size]/embassy_kickerbg.png, where [size] should match the size of your kicker.
5. Add KBFX to your kicker.
6. Go to Appearances & Themes -> kbfx Apple
7. On the page Button Skin, select the pixmaps from the folder kicker/[size]/:
   • embassy_kbfx_normal.png for the Normal Pixmap
   • embassy_kbfx_hover.png for the Hover Pixmap
   • embassy_kbfx_normal.png for the Normal Pixmap
   For the tiny size, the KDE Logo is not shiny, but there also shiny pixmap alternatives available in the folder kicker/tiny/.
8. Lock the kicker, so that KBFX is at the leftmost position.

To install the konsole schema:

1. Go to the directory, where you have extracted the archive.
2. Copy the file Embassy.schema to ~/.kde/share/apps/konsole/
3. Open the konsole and select Settings -> Schema -> Embassy
4. Select Settings -> Save as Default

Configure the crystal window decoration: See the screenshots contained in the archive. There is a screenshot for each configurationpage available. The monitor application you can see on my desktop in the lower right is called Conky. It does not work on the KDE desktop, when you enable the icons. I don't use icons on the desktop, so I don't mind. Here is my conkyrc file. Have fun!

BTW: nacholore posted a very nice matching splash screen on KDE-Look. Thank you very much!

Questions? Comments? Please see the last release announcement for discussions.