The icon themes are the simplest way to customize and beautify the Desktop Environment. These icons change the desktop environment completely. The icon themes can be selected according to the user’s needs, as some prefer dark, circular, or light-color icons. This guide will provide basic knowledge about the best icons for Ubuntu.

Best Icon Themes for Ubuntu

Let’s discuss the top 25 icon themes that are available in Ubuntu that provide a stunning look to our Desktop Environment.

• Papirus Icon Theme

It is a popular and modern icon theme with a compact design that is developed from the Paper icon theme. This icon theme provides vibrant and modern themes. It is a multi-platform theme that can work with Ubuntu’s default GNOME, Cinnamon, and several other desktop environments.

The Papirus icon theme is also available in the default Ubuntu and PPA repositories. To install it, run these commands:

$ sudo apt install papirus-icon-theme -y #From apt repository
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:papirus/papirus -y #Using PPA repository

• Pop Icon Theme

The Pop icon theme provides a semi-flat design with vibrant colors, which comes in the GNOME toolkit. The icons are developed by System76, which provides a great user experience with stunning colors and modern design.

To install Pop Icon in Ubuntu, use these commands:

$ sudo apt install pop-icon-theme -y #From apt repository
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:system76/pop #From PPA repository

• White Sur

WhiteSur provides every type of theme for Ubuntu users, including icons, cursors, and wallpaper. It comes with the GNOME toolkit and is easily supported by GNOME-based desktops.

To download White Sur icon themes, navigate to the Official Website.

• Paper Icon Theme

The paper icon is a simple and beautiful icon with contrasting colors inspired by Google’s design. This theme resembles the android theme icons with a compact design and greatly suits desktop users.

To install the paper icon theme in Ubuntu, use these commands:

$ sudo apt install paper-icon-theme #From apt repository
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:snwh/pulp #From PPA repository

• Flat Remix

The Flat Remix icons are flat with colorful features, shadows, and color gradients that give the icons a unique look. It provides the private folder icon as well, which is rarely provided by other theme icons.

To install Flat Remix in Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install flat-remix-gnome -y #From apt repository
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:daniruiz/flat-remix #From PPA repository

• Moka

The Moka icon themes are free and popular for clean & polished themes with a modern touch. It provides a desktop icon set which is simple and easy to use. The icons are developed and optimized to get a pixel-perfect shape of the icons.

To install the Moka icon theme in Ubuntu, run these commands:

$ sudo apt install moka-icon-theme -y #From apt repository
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:moka/daily #From PPA repository

• Uniform Icon Theme

This icon theme contains unique icons for Ubuntu users, which was the main idea for developing this theme. This theme looks different from other themes with bright style color icons.

To install this theme in Ubuntu, use these commands:

$ sudo apt install uniform-icons -y
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/icons2

• Faenza Icon Theme

This icon theme is a collection of classic and elegant themes. It provides the icons for the bright and dark look of the computer desktop. This theme is available in Ubuntu’s default GNOME Tweaks.

To install Faenza in Ubuntu, run these commands:

$ sudo apt install faenza-icon-theme -y

• Numix Circle

The Numix circle icon theme provides smooth and stylish icons, which are circular shaped. It has thousands of applications icons in circular shapes by default and provides updated icon themes regularly.

To install the Numix icon theme in Ubuntu, you can use the below-stated commands:

$ sudo apt install numix-icon-theme-circle
$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:numix/ppa

• Dalisha Icon Theme

This icon theme provides 30000+ icons that are available in all sizes and shapes for the Ubuntu desktop. The Dalisha icons are of vibrant colors which attract the user’s attention.

To install the Dalisha icon theme in Ubuntu, execute this command:

$ sudo apt-get install dalisha-icons -y

• Marwaita Icon Theme

It provides unique icons with a small set of icons that provides variety for a single icon theme. The Maewaita icon themes are supported by several desktop versions, including GNOME, KDE, and others.

To download Marwaita icon themes, navigate to Official Marwaita Icons Website.

• Xenlism Wildfire Icon Theme

The Xenlism Wildfire icon theme was developed to provide better end-user desktop icons to the users. It is inspired by Nokia’s MeeGo icons and provides colorful icons.

To install this icon theme in Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install xenlism-wildfire-icon-theme -y

• Breeze Icon Theme

It is a modern icon theme with refined icons influenced by KDE plasma design’s latest version. It is the default icon theme for KDE framework 5.

To install Breeze in Ubuntu, use this command:

$ sudo apt install breeze-icon-theme -y

• La Capitane

The La Capitane provides icons with a clean mixture of flat and gradient colors. Its main feature is that the icons come in vector form, where their quality is not reduced in any size. MacOS design guidelines inspire these icons.

You can download the La Capitane icon theme from its Official Github Repository.

• Reversal icon theme

The reversal icon theme provides users with colorful icons with rectangular designs in Ubuntu. These icons are used for personal use and are widely used commercially.

You can download the reversal icon theme from its Official Github Repository.

• Compass

The Compass icon theme provides a set of icons designed to give a uniform appearance to graphical user interfaces, such as those in desktop environments like Gnome, KDE, or XFCE. These icons look attractive and consistent.

To download Compass icon themes, navigate to the Official Compass Icons Website.

• Evolvere icon theme

It is designed to have a clean & modern look with the main objective of simplicity. The icons feature light-color icons and a flat design.

To download Evolvere icon themes, navigate to Official Evolvere Icons Website.

• Obsidian icon theme

The Obsidian icon theme comes with a modern design and sharp corners icons. It is developed to be easy on the eyes in low-light conditions. It features a highly stylized design with mostly black icons with gray shades

To install the Obsidian icon theme in Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install obsidian-1-icons -y
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/icons

• Tela Icon Theme

The Tela icon theme provides updated icons to Ubuntu users with customizable themes which can easily modify the computer’s desktop. This set of icons is inspired by PAPIRUS.

To download Tella icon themes, navigate to Official Tela Icons Website.

• Arc Theme

The Arc theme icon is a famous GNOME Toolkit theme that is widely used by Ubuntu users. The white color dominates the Arc theme icons with a touch of blue shade. Arc has several other versions that include Arc-Darker and Arc-Dark.

To install the Arc theme in Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install arc-theme -y
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/themes

• Vibrancy Colors Icon Theme

As the name suggests, these are icons developed to look vibrant and appealing to the eyes, It uses a bold and vibrant design with various icon styles and themes. It supports GNOME, KDE, and several other desktop versions.

For installing the Vibrancy Colors in Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install vibrancy-colors -y
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ravefinity-project/ppa

• Oranchelo Icon Theme

The Oranchelo Icon Theme is created to have a stylish look that emphasizes simplicity and consistency. The main feature of this icon theme is that it is highly customizable, which allows the users to customize the appearance accordingly.

For installing the Oranchelo icon in Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install oranchelo-icon-theme -y #From apt repository.

• Vimix

Vimix comes within the default GNOME toolkit on Ubuntu. This icon theme is a bit on the darker side for the icons, which increases visibility. It is available in Vimix-Dark and Vimix-Darker versions.

To download Vimix icon themes, navigate to the Official Vimix Website.

• Newaita

These are new icons in Ubuntu that are catching the user’s attention that provides consistent icon looks. It provides a border around the icons to provide a different look. These are created superbly by the developers to keep the user’s demands.

To download Newaita icon themes, navigate to the Official Newaita Icons Website.

• Simple Circles Icons

As the name suggests, the icons in this theme are based on simple circular shapes, giving the theme a modern and clean appearance. These icons are created to be easy to identify and use.

To download Simple Circles icon themes, navigate to the Official Simple Circles Icons Website.

These are the best icon themes in Ubuntu that can be utilized.

Conclusion

This article has provided key features and basic information about the best icon themes in Ubuntu that provide a great user experience and increase the Desktop Environment’s beauty. After reading this easy guide, you choose your desired icon theme according to your requirement.