Customising Icons And Folder Colours In Elementary OS

elementary OS has a carefully designed visual language: simple symbolic icons, restrained colours, and familiar folder shapes that fit neatly into the Pantheon desktop. That consistency is one of the system’s strengths, although it can feel limiting when you want clearer project markers, a brighter home directory, or icons that match your other Linux machines.

Icon theme customisation gives you control over application icons, file types, status symbols, and folder artwork. Folder colours are a slightly different matter. They may require a file manager extension, a custom icon, or a small amount of manual configuration rather than a single switch in System Settings.

The safest approach is to treat the default elementary theme as a baseline. Install alternatives in your home directory, test them without administrator privileges, and keep a way back to the original appearance. This is particularly useful on a shared family computer, an older laptop, or a work machine where a confusing icon set can slow down everyday tasks.

The instructions below suit current elementary OS installations using Pantheon and Files. Some commands and menu names can vary between releases, so a method that works on a fresh install may need a small adjustment after a major system upgrade.

How Icon Themes Work In Elementary OS

An icon theme is a collection of SVG, PNG, and symbolic artwork arranged in a standard directory structure. Applications ask the desktop for an icon by name, such as folder, text-x-generic, or org.gnome.Calculator. The active theme then supplies the closest matching file. If an icon is missing, the system falls back through related themes before displaying a generic symbol.

elementary OS normally uses its own elementary icon theme, which is designed to match its interface and applications. The theme covers common folders, devices, MIME file types, actions, and status indicators. A third-party theme such as Papirus, Tela, or Numix can replace many of these entries, but it may also introduce inconsistent line weights or icons that feel out of place beside native elementary applications.

There are two useful installation locations. A theme installed for your user account belongs in ~/.local/share/icons/, while a system-wide theme is usually placed in /usr/share/icons/. The first option is preferable for experimentation because it does not affect other users and does not require sudo.

Choosing A Theme That Fits The Desktop

Papirus is a popular choice because it has broad application coverage and many recognisable folder colours. Its design is more colourful and detailed than elementary’s default artwork, which can make a busy Applications menu easier to scan. Tela, Numix, and similar projects offer other approaches, but their support for elementary-specific applications varies.

Before downloading anything, look for a project with a maintained repository and a clear licence. Avoid random archive files from download sites that bundle installation scripts with unrelated software. On an elementary OS computer used for banking, study, or business, a theme should be treated as desktop data, not as a reason to run an unknown script with administrator access.

Australian users often find that the available software is packaged around Ubuntu releases rather than local distribution channels. That is normal: elementary OS follows the Ubuntu ecosystem, while local retailers in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and regional towns mainly sell hardware rather than curated Linux accessories. Download themes from their upstream project, and check that the theme supports your elementary OS base before installing.

Installing An Icon Theme For One User

Download the theme archive from its project page, then extract it into the local icons directory. In Files, press Ctrl + H to show hidden folders, open .local, then share, and create an icons folder if it does not already exist. The final layout should look similar to this:

~/.local/share/icons/Papirus/
~/.local/share/icons/Papirus-Dark/

The folder directly inside icons must contain theme files such as index.theme and directories including actions, apps, devices, or places. A common mistake is creating an extra level after extraction, for example icons/Papirus/Papirus/index.theme. If that happens, move the inner theme folder up one level.

The same task can be completed in Terminal:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons
tar -xf ~/Downloads/Papirus.tar.xz -C ~/.local/share/icons

Use the archive’s actual filename and format. For a ZIP archive, use unzip instead. Do not copy files into /usr/share/icons unless you deliberately want every user on the computer to see the theme.

Activating And Reverting The Theme

Some elementary OS versions expose icon-related choices through System Settings, while others do not provide a complete icon theme selector. If the graphical option is unavailable, the desktop setting can usually be changed with gsettings:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Papirus'

Replace Papirus with the exact directory name of the theme. You can inspect the current value with:

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme

Log out and back in if the Applications menu, Files, or third-party programs do not refresh immediately. Restarting Files may also help. A theme can be installed correctly yet appear incomplete because an application caches its icon until it is closed and reopened.

To restore the elementary artwork, use:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'elementary'

If the command reports that the key is unavailable, the release may be handling appearance settings differently. In that case, use the graphical appearance controls where available, or remove the custom theme and restart the session. Keep the original theme installed; deleting it makes recovery harder and provides no practical benefit.

Giving Folders Useful Colours

Folder colour customisation is less standard than changing a global icon theme. The Files application in elementary OS does not always include a built-in colour picker for individual directories. Some Linux file managers support folder emblems or colour tags, but those features do not automatically carry across to Pantheon Files.

The most reliable approach is to use a theme that provides coloured folder variants, then assign a custom icon to selected folders. A theme may include names such as folder-blue, folder-green, or folder-download. Availability depends on the theme and its naming conventions, so inspect its places directory rather than assuming every colour exists.

For a personal folder icon, create a small local icon theme that inherits from the active theme. For example:

~/.local/share/icons/MyFolders/
├── index.theme
└── places/
    └── folder-projects.svg

A basic index.theme might contain:

[Icon Theme]
Name=MyFolders
Inherits=Papirus,elementary
Directories=places

[places]
Size=48
Type=Scalable
Context=Places

The custom artwork can then be selected through the folder’s Properties window if the installed Files version supports custom icons. If that option is absent, replacing the global folder icon is possible, but it changes every folder and is usually too broad. A per-folder method is preferable because it keeps Documents, Downloads, and system directories recognisable.

Using Folder Colour Tools Carefully

Utilities designed for Nautilus, Nemo, or Caja may not work with elementary Files. A package called folder-color can be useful on a compatible file manager, but installing it does not guarantee that right-click colour choices will appear in Pantheon. Check the package description and current issue reports before adding a third-party repository.

If a tool modifies folder metadata, the colour may be stored as an emblem or extended attribute rather than as a new image. Copying the directory to a USB drive, compressing it into an archive, or syncing it to a service may remove that metadata. A manually assigned folder icon can have similar limitations, especially when moved to a machine that lacks the custom theme.

This matters for people moving between home and work computers over Australia’s NBN, or syncing a project directory between a laptop and a desktop. The files will remain safe, but the visual labels may disappear. For important material, combine colour with descriptive names such as 2025-tax, client-assets, or uni-research; colour should support organisation rather than carry all the meaning.

Keeping The Interface Usable

A bright theme can improve recognition, yet too many different colours create visual noise. Consider reserving blue for active projects, green for completed work, orange for items needing attention, and grey for archives. This simple system works well in a home directory and is easier to remember than assigning a different shade to every folder.

Check the theme in both light and dark styles. Some icon collections provide separate symbolic and full-colour sets, while others rely on contrast that looks fine on a light panel but becomes difficult to read in dark mode. Pay particular attention to mounted drives, network locations, hidden files, and the small icons shown in list view.

Accessibility should guide the final choice. Colour-blind users may not distinguish red from green, and low-contrast icons can be tiring on a dim screen. Shape, naming, and position remain important. On an older refurbished ThinkPad bought through an Australian reseller, a lightweight icon set may also feel quicker than a large collection of high-resolution artwork, especially when the machine is running from a slower SSD or hard disk.

Maintaining Customisations After Updates

Keep a note of the theme name, installation location, and any commands you used. User-installed themes normally survive operating system upgrades, while files copied into system directories may be replaced or become incompatible. A backup of ~/.local/share/icons is enough to preserve most personal icon work.

When an upgrade changes the appearance of Files or the Applications menu, test the default elementary theme first. If the problem disappears, the third-party theme probably lacks icons required by the newer release. You can continue using it, add replacements, or return to elementary while waiting for the theme project to update.

Avoid running broad cleanup commands that delete every cache or icon directory without checking their effect. If icons appear as blank squares, rebuild the desktop cache only after confirming that the theme structure is correct. Often a logout, a restart of Files, or correcting an extra directory level solves the issue.

For a household in Brisbane, Adelaide, or a regional community where support may come from a local Linux group rather than a shop, documenting the setup saves time. Write down the release number, theme version, and the output of gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme. Those details make troubleshooting far easier than simply saying that “the icons went weird”.

The practical setup is straightforward: install a reputable theme in ~/.local/share/icons, activate it with the appearance controls or gsettings, and keep elementary available as a fallback. Use coloured folder variants sparingly, test whether Pantheon Files supports the method you choose, and back up your custom icon directory. A consistent naming scheme alongside a few meaningful colours will give your elementary OS desktop personality without sacrificing clarity.