Tools & Resources

A variety of tools and resources are available for GNOME UX design. There is no requirement to use any of these, and designers and developers should use the tools with which they are most comfortable. However, in many cases these resources will help you to get up and running as quickly and easily as possible.

Most of these tools and resources are referenced elsewhere in the HIG, where they are most relevant.

General Resources

• Color palette: Inkscape/GIMP format, reference table

• Cantarell font: pre-installed in GNOME-based distributions and available to download.

Apps

The following apps are all available to install:

• Icon Library: for finding icons to use in GNOME UI

• Typography: for selecting text styles and commonly used characters

• App Icon Preview: app icon creation assistant

• Symbolic Preview: symbolic icon creation assistant

• Color Palette: reference for the GNOME color palette

Demo Apps & Toolkit

When using the various design patterns and UI elements in the HIG, it is recommended to look at existing examples to see how they look and work in practice. This can currently be done with the following apps and tools:

• GTK 4 demo: this includes demos for most of the widgets in GTK 4 (not all of these are recommended for use). To run it, install the GTK 4 development library and run gtk4-demo.

• GTK inspector: can be used to inspect any GTK app, including the demo apps.

SVG Templates & Examples

The following templates can be used as a starting point for mockups and icons.

• App mockup template (SVG)

• App icon template (SVG)

GNOME design operates in the open, and all its work is therefore publicly visible, and can be freely reused. However, be aware that not all of this work is up to date or follows the latest recommendations.