Create Ubuntu theme with pure HTML/JS/CSS

I'm wondering if someone can point me in the right direction for creating an Ubuntu theme using pure HTML/CSS/JS. I'm hoping there is some existing back-end to GNOME3 or Unity I can simply install and create my theme as easily as I'd create a website.

P.S.: If there is no such way to create a theme or add to the default theme, then alternatively if you can, please give me some details about what systems/libraries I'd have to hook into or extend. I'm a C++ developer so I suppose if I really have to, I can make this possible. Hoping though that something already exists.

Thanks for your help!

Solution 1:

You cannot do this. Most of the applications in Ubuntu are not HTML web apps embedded running on a common API, like say they would be on WebOS or the new FirefoxOS. However, GTK+ 3.x and Qt 4 and 5 do use a specialized CSS syntax for creating themes.

There is some documentation available in the GtkCssProvider API documentation. There is also some documentation for Qt in the Qt Style Scheets documentation.

However, even if you create some themes, it will not apply to all applications, and any application can still force its own style, if the author of it so chooses.

Solution 2:

Most Ubuntu applications in Ubuntu are GTK based and QT based. GTK themes are mostly some sort of CSS files. If you have a glance at /usr/share/themes/Radiance you will have more information of basic structure of themes in Ubuntu. I can say that most elements are used within default Ubuntu themes, so you can find almost any element name there. In order to have a full documentation: [developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkCssProvider.html][1].

[1]: http://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkCssProvider.html . Edit: corrected the link.