How to Change Application Icons
Have you ever wanted to change an icon without changing the entire icon theme? If so, then I have the steps below that will allow you to change an icon in Ubuntu MATE.
There are multiple methods that will allow you to change an icon on your Ubuntu or Ubuntu derivatives system. I will demostrate some of the easiest ways.
I have pinned an icon for the Terminal, Caja File Manager, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Thunderbird Mail to my panel. I will change the icon for the Caja File Manager in my examples, but you can use these same steps for other applications.
I have pinned an icon for the Terminal, Caja File Manager, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Thunderbird Mail to my panel. I will change the icon for the Caja File Manager in my examples, but you can use these same steps for other applications.
Method 1
Right-click on the icon that's pinned to your panel and click on Properties.
Right-click on the icon that's pinned to your panel and click on Properties.
Click on the application's icon on the left within the Launcher Propeties dialog box.
A Choose an icon dialog box will appear to allow you to change your icon. It might be a good idea to keep a record of the location of the default icon in case you ever decide to change back to the original icon. You can see that I'm using the "system-file-manager.svg" icon located in the usr/share/icons/Ambiant-MATE/apps/48 path.
Now navigate to the folder that contains your new icon. I created an Icons folder in my Home folder and I added a variety of icons that I like or prefer to use over the normal or default icons. Double-click the folder to open it.
Locate the new icon and then click on it to select it and then click on the Open button to apply the new icon.
You will notice the icon change in the Launcher Propeties dialog box. Click the Close button to keep this new icon.
You will notice your Caja File Manager icon will change from the default icon to your new icon.
Method 2
Icons within your menu cannot access Properties by right-clicking them like you do with icons pinned to your panel. However, you can still change an icon in your menu. I will change the default Caja File Manager icon that you see in System Tools.
Icons within your menu cannot access Properties by right-clicking them like you do with icons pinned to your panel. However, you can still change an icon in your menu. I will change the default Caja File Manager icon that you see in System Tools.
If you use the Traditional menu then click on the System menu, highlight Preferences, then Look and Feel, and click on the Main Menu option.
You can also access the Main Menu option by opening your Control Center. Then scroll down until you see the Look and Feel group and locate and click-on the Main Menu icon.
When the Main Menu dialog-box appears, click on the location your icon is located. In my case, I clicked on the System Tools under the Menus section and I could see the Caja icon under the Items section. Now double-click the Caja icon to bring up the Launcher Properties dialog-box.
You should now see your current icon on the left of the Launcher Properties dialog-box. Now click on the application icon to bring up the Choose an icon dialog-box. (The steps now are the same as the steps in Method 1.)
A Choose an icon dialog box will appear to allow you to change your icon. It might be a good idea to keep a record of the location of the default icon in case you ever decide to change back to the original icon. You can see that I'm using the "system-file-manager.svg" icon located in the usr/share/icons/Ambiant-MATE/apps/48 path.
Now navigate to the folder that contains your new icon. I created an Icons folder in my Home folder and I added a variety of icons that I like or prefer to use over the normal or default icons. Double-click the folder to open it.
Locate the new icon and then click on it to select it and then click on the Open button to apply the new icon.
You will notice the icon change in the Launcher Propeties dialog box. Click the Close button to keep this new icon.
You will notice your Caja File Manager icon in your menu change from the default icon to your new icon.
Method 3
You can change an icon associated to an application. To do this you must first go into the /usr/share/applications folder and locate the application you want to change the icon.
You can change an icon associated to an application. To do this you must first go into the /usr/share/applications folder and locate the application you want to change the icon.
If you see a lock in the upper right corner of an icon you want to change, that means it is locked and can only be changed as a superuser. You must go back into /usr/share folder and right-click on the applcations folder and select Open as Administrator.
Enter your Password in the Authenticate dialog box and then click on the Authenticate button.
You will now be able to change the icon for any application in the applications folder. If you look in the upper left corner you will notice applications (as superuser). Now locate the application you want to change the icon for. I will demonstrate changing the icon for the Caja File Manager so I located the icon or icons for Caja.
Right-click the Caja application and select the Properties option at the bottom of the pop-up menu.
A Caja Properties dialog box will appear. Make sure the Basic tab across the top is the active tab. Click the icon on the left side to allow you to select a new icon.
A Select Custom Icon dialog box will appear to allow you to navigate to the location of your new icon. Since I am logged in as a superuser I need to locate and double-click on my home folder.
Then I need to click on my folder name.
Then I need to find the folder that contains my new icon. I created an Icons folder and placed a lot of icons that I prefer to use over the default icons. Once you locate the folder you'll need to double-click on it to open it.
Now locate and click on the icon you want to use as your new icon and then click the Open button.
You will now see a new icon in the upper left corner of the Caja Properties dialog box. Click the Close button to apply the new icon to the application.
You will now see a new icon for the first Caja application icon. If not, click on the View menu and then click the Reload option. I recommend that you change the other grey icons for the following applications: Caja, CD/DVD Creator, and File Management.
After you make all the icon changes you may have to reboot your system in order to notice a change in your new application icons.
Method 4
You can change an icon or groups of icons within your active icon theme or a particular icon theme. I recently demonstrated how to install a modified Cupertino-Catalina icon set on your linux system. If you install the original Cupertino-Catalina icon set you will notice a lot of large icons and missing icons. I also changed the file manager icon from the Finder Mac icon to my favorite icon that demonstrated in the first three methods. Notice the caja.png, Caja.png, and caja-actions.png files below. Each of these use the Finder Mac icon and I prefer to use an icon identified with linux instead. You will also need to replace the dde-file-manager.png, dolphin.png, Dolphin.png, filemanager.png, file-manager.png, Filemanager.png, org.gnome.Nautilus, redhat-filemanager.png, stock_file-manager.png, system_file_manager.png, system-file-manager.png, system-file-manager2.png, system-file-manager-panel.png, thunar.png, Thunar.png, thunar-filemanager.png, and thunar-settings.png.
You can download the icons that I have collected and placed in my Icons folder: DropBox or MediaFire. Each image file mention above are inside the compressed icons.tar.gz file.
You can change an icon or groups of icons within your active icon theme or a particular icon theme. I recently demonstrated how to install a modified Cupertino-Catalina icon set on your linux system. If you install the original Cupertino-Catalina icon set you will notice a lot of large icons and missing icons. I also changed the file manager icon from the Finder Mac icon to my favorite icon that demonstrated in the first three methods. Notice the caja.png, Caja.png, and caja-actions.png files below. Each of these use the Finder Mac icon and I prefer to use an icon identified with linux instead. You will also need to replace the dde-file-manager.png, dolphin.png, Dolphin.png, filemanager.png, file-manager.png, Filemanager.png, org.gnome.Nautilus, redhat-filemanager.png, stock_file-manager.png, system_file_manager.png, system-file-manager.png, system-file-manager2.png, system-file-manager-panel.png, thunar.png, Thunar.png, thunar-filemanager.png, and thunar-settings.png.
You can download the icons that I have collected and placed in my Icons folder: DropBox or MediaFire. Each image file mention above are inside the compressed icons.tar.gz file.
I split my screen into two sections to allow me to copy my new Caja images into my Cupertino-Catalina theme folder. On the right I had my folder that contained my new icons and on the left I had the /.local/share/icons/Cupertino-Catalina/apps/128 folder. I then selected the icons on the right and drug them into the folder on the left. I was prompted to overwrite each picture.
I checked the box "Apply this action to all files and Folders" to prevent clicking the Replace button for each image.
When it finished I had all new icons for my file manager. You may have to reboot if you change to the theme and the new icons do not appear.
After you apply your new theme you should now see the Caja File Manager icon change throughout your entire system. My parent's machine now has a new icon theme.
You now have several graphical methods for changing an icon or multiple icons on your Ubuntu MATE system.
Jun 24, 2020