EDIT [7/8]: I don’t recommend doing it this way anymore, try this method instead.

A little background of all this before I begin this tutorial.

I have been having this pressing problem with GIMP failing to reflect the theme I select using GTK+ for Windows. You see, Pidgin happily followed what theme I chose using the theme selector applet that came with it. That was fine obviously since Pidgin came with it.

But GIMP 2.2, and then 2.4, wasn’t following it at all. Therefore that inconsistency started to bug me really hard. A few months back I was trying to get GIMP and Pidgin to cooperate, but it was all in vain. Neither was my Google-fu efficient enough to help me find the new Clearlooks theme for GIMP’s GTK+ engine for Windows.

Preface & prerequisites

First and foremost, if you use GNOME you might be thinking, why would I care to do this on Windows when I can just use my GNOME OS? This tutorial is for the pitiful souls who only have Windows to depend on and work with. I run Ubuntu myself, but this could indeed help some people out, so why not write it?

Second, I know GTK+ stands for the GIMP Toolkit.

I am not sure if this will do fine on Windows Vista since I don’t care for it at all, as this is for Windows XP only. You could try it and see if it works though. Just remember that you’re doing that entirely at your own risk, I can’t do anything if your computer borks!

Obviously, you’ll need to already have GIMP for Windows and Pidgin, otherwise what meaning would this tutorial have for you, right?

You will also need to install Gimp Themes (version 1.0 as of this post). This is what convinces GIMP to follow the rest of the system. There is also another thing to do but you’ll see what it is deeper into this post.

1. Install Pidgin and GIMP

If you haven’t already installed Pidgin and GIMP, do so now. I just installed them in their default folders, see the following screenshots:

Pidgin 2.4.2 setup window
Pidgin setup

GIMP 2.4.6 setup window
GIMP setup

2. Choose your theme

Here’s Pidgin when it is first installed. It uses the MS-Windows theme by default, quite appropriately might I add since it’s on Windows:

Pidgin using the MS-Windows theme
Pidgin using the MS-Windows theme

In your Start menu, go to Programs > Gtk+ > Theme Selector. Now pick a theme you’d like to use. I chose Clearlooks. Now Pidgin on my PC looks like this:

Pidgin using the Clearlooks theme
Pidgin using the Clearlooks theme

But what happens when you launch GIMP?

GIMP not following Pidgin\'s theme
GIMP not following Pidgin’s theme

Uh oh. GIMP isn’t listening. According to somebody on the GIMP’s IRC channel (I forget who), GIMP uses a different GTK+ runtime environment because of certain differences between that and whatever other runtime environment is installed on the system. Well I didn’t really get that.

On to the next page for the solution, using Gimp Themes!

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