Give the FBReader eBook Reader An Icon Makeover In Linux

If you enjoy reading ebooks on your computer and are a Linux user, one of the popular choices for a Desktop application is called FBReader. FBReader is a good choice that offers some nice reading and customization options, as well as acts as a bit of an ebook catalog app, in addition to strictly being a reader. Unfortunately, at least in Ubuntu, FBReader doesn't necessarily offer the greatest first impression, due mainly to its icon theme.

There's nothing really wrong with them, per se, but they are so far outside of the standard icon set that they immediately stand out, and not in a good way. In this article, we'll show you how to download and install a fantastic set of icons compiled by vermaden over at DeviantArt.com, which will help make FBReader look a whole lot better.

First, head over to the theme's page, located here.

Now click the Download File link to download the compressed icon archive.

Once downloaded, right-click to extract the archive.

If you double-click the folder, you'll see the different icons that will go into the set.

As you can probably guess, swapping out one of your favorite icons instead of one of the included ones isn't too difficult. Just ensure your icon is the same size and has the same name.

For the rest of the process we'll use the Terminal, so go ahead and open it now.

Using the 'cd' command, change your working directory to the folder you just extracted from the icon archive.

Now, the following command will vary slightly depending on which variety of Linux you're using. There is always a folder called pixmaps, and in Ubuntu it is located by first opening the usr folder, then the share folder. Your distro may vary this slightly (by having the path be usr then local and then share and pixmaps), but it should be something similar. After you have installed FBReader, there will be a folder named FBReader inside the pixmaps folder, where its toolbar icons are kept. We want to move the icons we just downloaded into that folder, replacing the standard set with the new one. Typing sudo mv *.png /usr/share/pixmaps/FBReader/ will do just that.

Once we have done this, go ahead and open up FBReader once more, and if everything went as expected, you'll see the brand new icon set in use.

The nice thing about making a change like this is that all you need is the icons and their location. You don't need to know how to code or compile anything; there are no patches at all. All we're doing is replacing the default resource (the icon set) with one of our own. It's really that simple, and FBReader looks so much the better for it, which is exactly what we wanted in the first place.