There are a lot of reasons to use Dark themes. Dark theme design makes most surfaces dark reducing the emission of light from the screen. For some less light emission reduces eye strain helping them use their devices for longer periods of time comfortably.
You might also like the dark look and feel, depending on your personal taste, some people prefer black aesthetically. For those who use their PC at more at night Dark themes provide better comfort of use at night in a dark environment.
No matter whatever reason you have, you will find plenty of great Dark themes for Linux and Ubuntu.
Arc Dark
Arc theme is one of the most popular themes with Linux users right now – and once you use it you will know why. Its dark variant is also extremely popular.
It flattens as much of a UI as possible. This feature of Arc gives apps, menus, and windows a minimal as well as modern look. Transparent touches in windows elements(and in the dock) help the theme look light and modern.
Although you just can’t download the Arc Dark separately, for that you will have to download the whole Arc theme pack. And then if you want you can also autohide the Ubuntu dock so that you get a more clean desktop.
Install Arc-Dark theme in Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install arc-theme
To change the theme open Gnome tweak tools and select Arc-Dark theme in it.
Flat Remix Gnome
This is my favorite dark Ubuntu theme on this list although, in terms of support, this theme only supports the Gnome desktop environment. This theme is modern, beautiful and simple and has a lot of transparency giving it a modern and futuristic look.
Flat Remix Gnome even has its own icon pack which is also quite nice and beautiful. This theme combined with its icon pack really changes the completely look and feel. For those who are interested in this theme will have to install Flat Remix pack which also includes other variants of the theme.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:daniruiz/flat-remix $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install flat-remix-gnome
Dark Side
Dark Side is a GTK theme for the Gnome shell desktop environment, along with the other Linux desktops that support GTK3. The creator of this theme describes this theme as a ‘True’ dark theme, as it only uses different shades of black.
Although created using shades of a single color it looks great and futuristic. It has certain great features like dark side is ‘flat’ and even has more design features. If you really want only a dark theme you can try this out.
Download or Git clone Dark Side theme from this GitHub Link.
After downloading this theme Extract it and put it into the themes directory i.e. ~/.themes/ or /usr/share/themes/ (create it if necessary). Then apply the theme via distribution specific tool like Gnome tweak tool or Unity tweak tool.
Equilux
Equilux is really a eye candy, this theme is created with the goal of looking beautiful. This theme turns your regular desktop environment into a modern and beautiful experience.
This theme is designed to reduce your strain while providing a great experience. So if you are looking for a dark theme with modern design then this can suit your needs look no further.
So if you want to try this theme then just go to this GitHub link and download the file or clone it. Then Extract it(if downloaded) and put it into the themes directory i.e. ~/.themes/ or /usr/share/themes/ (create it if necessary). Then apply the theme via distribution specific tool like Gnome tweak tool or Unity tweak tool.
Elementary X
Elementary OS is famous for its awesome looks, and those same types of looks can now also be installed and other Linux OS as well. And icing on the cake is this theme Elementary X is available in dark mode. This theme has almost same design choices as of Elementary OS.
Its looks quite nice and you will find a lot of similarities with Mac OS X also. If you like the look of Mac OS then you might also like Elementary X, as it certainly inspired from Mac OS. This is also a great theme when looking for a dark ubuntu theme with Mac OS feel.
To download and install Elementary X, execute the command below.
git clone https://github.com/surajmandalcell/elementary-x.git ~/.themes/elementary-x
Then apply the theme via Gnome tweak tool.
Conclusion:
According to me, at present these are the best dark theme currently available for Linux or Ubuntu. If you think any other theme deserves to be on this list do mention in comments. And next time we update this post it might land on this list.