Difficult in seeing Toolbar items in KDE applications in dark mode (programming.dev)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by cactus_head@programming.dev to c/kde@lemmy.kde.social

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Its really hard to use KDE applications(kolourpaint, okular) because i have to squint at the screen to make out the toolbar items. And this is for someone who doesn't have any accessibility needs(like people with color-blindness for example)

How is everyone else not constantly having Eye strain from this.

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[-] Kory@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago

What icon theme is set? Breeze dark for example shows white icons on dark background in all apps for me.

[-] mmmm@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 day ago

This. The issue is 100% an icon theme issue.

[-] cactus_head@programming.dev -1 points 1 day ago

Do you mean for The OS itself(Linux mint cinnamon)? Its Mint-Y-aqua.

[-] Kory@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

You were posting in the KDE community, so I was assuming you are using KDE. Can't answer a Linux Mint question, sorry.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Are you using it on GNOME or Xfce or something? This is what it looks like with KDE's icon set (Breeze Dark):

[-] cactus_head@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

That looks levels better. I am using Linux mint cinnamon desktop

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

From what I'm reading online, you want to install qt5ct (via sudo apt install qt5ct presumably) and then run that to set a proper theme for the KDE applications.

You're on the programming.dev instance, so here's the technical details, in case you're interested:
KDE apps use the Qt GUI toolkit, whereas Cinnamon, GNOME, Xfce use the GTK GUI toolkit. These toolkits have different ways of theming them, including different configurations formats for that. The KDE Plasma desktop actually supports theming GTK applications by adapting the Qt theme configuration format into the GTK theme configuration format, but Cinnamon/GNOME/Xfce don't support that in reverse.
So, what you're seeing is the KDE application not having any theming information and just trying its best to display something, including the use of the icon set that's available on the host system. By using qt5ct, you can set this Qt theming configuration manually, so that it doesn't have to guess anymore and can use a more fitting icon set.

this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026

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